fmilt .. RE:"However, they do not tell us enough to make a reasonable judgement. I have trouble assuming that everything is peachy."
It seems to me that what we have on this board a majority of the time is a failure to communicate. People on both sides of any given issue keep putting words in the opposing sides' mouths.
If someone states, as I have with regard to IDCC, that on balance they believe that management at this point in time has a plan, the managerial capabilities and the integrity that in combination will build shareholder value at a rate considerably in excess of the average of all public companies that does not mean that they assume "everything is peachy." Nor does it mean that they are blind to some of the shortcomings of management. Nor does it mean that they will have the same view of management six months from now. Nor does it mean that they aren't uneasy that their judgement of management has been based on a rather meager supply of information from that management.
Much is made on this board about whether we can "trust" management along the lines of the point you made about trusting your kids. You can ask all the questions you want of IDCC management and your kids and at the end of the day whether you can trust either of them or not will still be a judgement call .. and, most importantly, it will be your judgement call. None of us will ever have "enough" information to feel totally confident about our judgement calls on IDCC management and even if by some miracle we did it would likely be outdated shortly after we received it. I would agree with you that IDCC management supplies significantly less information than they could and should provide to their shareholders, but I'm convinced that there is very little, if anything, we can do about it. We are just going to have to accept that it makes our judgement calls harder than they need to be. On the other hand, that may turn out to be a good thing because it may have allowed us to buy low before the institutions gained sufficient confidence in their judgement of IDCC to so the same.
The issue it seems to me is whether you can trust your judgement of IDCC management enough to take appropriate action. I don't agree with AMS's conclusions about IDCC's management but I very much respect that he has enough confidence in his judgement to sell all of his holdings if he hears the "same BS" in the CC on Tuesday. Others have expressed similar views about IDCC management as vocally if not more so than AMS but get offended when it is suggested that they should trust their judgement and sell. Those that are hanging their hats on IDCC management getting religion if #2 is voted down, and/or management is flooded with critical e-mails, and/or strong anti-management views are expressed at the ASM, and/or etc. are kidding themselves IMO.
Regards,
Danny
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