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07/22/14 10:56 AM

#238032 RE: barge #238030

barge - from a marketing standpoint, what are your thoughts on Wave's VSC 2.0 overview video pitch? have you watched it?
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waveduke

07/22/14 10:58 AM

#238033 RE: barge #238030

That sounds fair to me Barge. If you are not moving the company forward through sales growth, what direction is it going? You know the answer! :)

I will support the individual who is focused on delivering results today without compromising tomorrow...call it what you will: cautious, fair weather, cold hearted, calculating, measured, you name it, etc...
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dig space

07/22/14 11:02 AM

#238034 RE: barge #238030

I think the current CEO has all of the above in different ratios of the previous CEO. There are certainly detractors, or those who at least seem to be drooling for the opportunity to detract (see last funding e.g. or last Q report), there are those who seem to have simply changed flavours of kool-aid, those who are perhaps best described as fair-weather supporters (the previous CEO had plenty of those too) and cautious supporters of which the previous CEO had none well before his dismissal as cautious supporters had done what cautious people do and withdrawn support upon the considerable evidence of buffoonery.

I expect cautious supporters to do the same if/when amply evidence of buffoonery, ineptitude, or lack of execution presents itself.

I expect fair weather supporters to be much more fickle about the weather, with the cautious supporters measuring more climate and less weather.
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Bluefang

07/22/14 11:20 AM

#238035 RE: barge #238030

Barge: Re: "...you won't see me stabbing him in the back..."

IMO, we have to realize Bill Solms inherited a horribly managed company trying unsuccessfully for years to peddle security products. He has four major tasks:

1. To rid the corporate superstructure of the voracious parasites infesting it. [mission accomplished here.]

2. Hire real sales people who are not paid unless they sell (accountability--missing before)*.

3. Evaluate the product line and see what works and what doesn't.

4. Re-establish Wave's badly tarnished credibility damaged by the continuous lies of the previous CEO.


I suspect the evaluation part may be the most critical. I think he seized on VSC because that may have been the best product, closest to being market-ready.

The other Wave products may require some drastic re-engineering before they are ready for market. That is total speculation on my part--based on long time observation of all things Wave.

*Sales people and their products--even great salesmen have difficulty trying to sell a deficient product. Maybe the VSC 2.0 launched today is helping hold the tent up until the other products can be re-jiggered to be more acceptable in the market place. Again, just speculation.

As for stabbing Solms in the front or the back--not necessary. He has had a Herculean task and since he was brought aboard before becoming CEO, he knew what he was getting into--and obviously thought he had a good chance of pulling it off.

I am willing to give him a little time to execute his vision of what Wave should be. We must not lose perspective on how onerous and difficult the job is to right Wave after so many bad years that sucked the very life out of the company through mismanagement, plunder, waste and horrible decisions ineptly executed.

Wave may yet be a good investment, but the road back to respectability and to a first profitable quarter is not going to be a short one, nor will the voyage be a quick one.

On the other hand, if sales do not start to happen fairly soon, many [including myself] will be tempted to write Wave off as hopeless.

For now, IMO, the wisest course of action is no action at all.

Blue
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waveytrain

07/22/14 11:37 AM

#238036 RE: barge #238030

"Fair Weather Supporters"

Wave is not a sports team. Fair weather is what markets reward, and the opposite is punished.
You can feel you are 'right' and watch your money go away all you want, but you are not the market.

Wavey Train
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waveduke

07/22/14 11:39 AM

#238037 RE: barge #238030

Barge,

one more thing. Have you looked in a mirror lately? There is something protruding from your back. It may explain that lower back pain. :)

I believe it was last June that there was talk about a $50+ pipeline. I have a $50 mm yacht that goes by the same name as that pipeline. It is called BS (not Bill Solms).

Perhaps the following will seem in bitter contrast with my posts lately, but I truly wish Steven and his family nothing but the best. I am sure they did their best from their perspective. From what I could see, Steven did a good job promoting trusted computing.

Related to Wave, Steven's best was not enough. Change was needed.
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aleajactaest

07/22/14 12:05 PM

#238038 RE: barge #238030

hi barge,

that was a longish 13 year season we passed through with ss. always winter and never christmas, as someone once wrote.

but you have a very different idea of an investor's relationship with management than i do. it isn't the job of investors to be loyal. it is their role to make judgements about the performance of the company and to express those views via their votes and interactions with the board.

13 years without a profit expresses considerable patience. in the end, he was given every possible opportunity to deliver. he did not.

far as i could see, those of us who gradually changed our view from support to opposition did so in plain sight and with a fair amount of notice of our gripes. he chose to continue to operate as before. with an unsafe harbour, empty pipelines, tangential escapades, supply side theories of market engagement, doughnut holes, dilutions, electric sports car sponsorships etc.

i gave him the benefit of the doubt for years. i will do the same with solms. but if he also fails to deliver a return, then of course i will change my attitude, exactly as i did with ss. i certainly am a fair weather friend. as i should be with a person who is paid to perform.

my concern is wave. not its manager. it is early to presume that the winter of our discontent is made glorious summer. but at least the crocuses are coming up.