littlefish, you seem to have convinced yourself there are too many negatives here based on events in another company about 12 years ago. by all means, don't buy the stock. :)
Just want to make sure everyone gets ALL of the information offered...............It was also stated that part of their loss included a loss on the discontinuance of its Azerbaijan operations of $3,504,000, or 55 cents per share, and recognition of income of $1,140,000, or 18 cents per share, due to a cumulative effect of a change in accounting principle for its inventory of parts. Revenues during the fourth quarter of 1996 were $4,776,000 for a 202% increase over revenues in the same quarter in 1995 of $1,580,000.
We may never know the all reasons why the company went BK....as with any team/group effort not just one person or division makes or breaks the company or causes the team to win or not.
It's the same Butler and the company did make a lot of acquisitions and it did go bankrupt. Fast forward 9 years and all acquisitions are not created equal nor are they all dillutive...the new dpdw can easily afford 1/2 million in debt per qtr especially since their cash flow will be level from Mako and FT revenue streams. The prospects for growth and synergies outweigh the risks of burgeoning debt levels and BK down the road when you consider the business environment for deepwater services is on fire.