Gloria's Pledge
posted on
Aug 18, 2010 09:09PM
Would you expect your Patriot directors to keep their word?
Let me tell you what happened on a frigid Chicago day at our last shareholder meeting.
During the meeting, I had Cliff Flowers and the BoD admit to each failed investment with the associated write offs; approximately $20 million worth. The remaining entities were PDSG and Holocom, and we know what has since happened to Holocom. As of 1/28/10, Flowers had agreed that about $16 million had been plunked into PDSG(almost 7 months ago).
I wanted clarity on PDSG's future so I approached Gloria Felcyn. I expressed that it was not good business to "throw good money after bad" and we should strongly consider selling PDSG. I knew that the BoD had been suckered into paying millions more than it was worth. Remember the prediction of $3 million to $6 million of annual revenues?
Well, Gloria looked me in the eyes and said(the following is paraphrased):
In 120 days, and probably less, we will announce one of two things regarding PDSG:
1. We will have found a buyer for PDSG.
OR
2. We will announce a major partner that will include us as a preferred vendor for bids that relate to our specific market segments. This, with the high probability of PDSG profitability, in the next quarter; maximum two quarters. She said they would not go longer than that.
If you add the promised 120 days to 1/28/10, you get 5/28/10, close to the end of the fiscal year which represents the information in the recent 10K. Today is 8/18/10, so, add about another 80 days to the 120 day deadline(200 days).
I have not heard the announcement of A or B, but 8/31/10 is the end of the "first" quarter and 11/30/10 will be the end of the "second" quarter. Since they won't tell us about any contracts, we'll have to wait for the 10Q's. What's a shareholder to think?
Based on the BoD history of investment decisions, could this be another reason to get a real business person on the BoD-FAST?
Stan