Berkeley Technology Share Discussion Threads

[hugepants] 27/10/2008 15:57

That purchase of 1,000 shares (£20 worth) looks to have cleared the overhang.

[baner] 27/10/2008 09:16

this is just another demonstration of the total lack of respect for other shareholders from the BT board. whitehead should have been at £100k max with a 6 months notice period - in a company run for all shareholders best interest.

on the brighter side, almost all BT assets are in $ so we should still be at 15p NAV or better even after this deeply immoral gift to mr whitehead.

[hugepants] 08/10/2008 21:59

Yup and I think this Whitehead character was awarded lots of stock options fairly recently as well.

[adam] 08/10/2008 16:38

> London Pacific days

You mean where they nearly lost the company by holding on through the dot com bust until the state took control of their main subsidiary LPLA?

Reward for failure springs to mind.

[hugepants] 08/10/2008 15:32

Ouch. I guess that salary is a legacy from the London Pacific days.

[adam] 08/10/2008 12:51

Whitehead to leave with a $1m pay-off
Nice work if you can get it

gis a job.




Item 5. OTHER INFORMATION

On August 12, 2008, the Company gave notice to Mr. Ian K. Whitehead,
Chief Financial Officer, that his employment agreement would end on June 30,
2009. Reference is made to Exhibit 10.3.1 to the Company's Form 10-K for the
year ended December 31, 2000 for a copy of Mr. Whitehead's employment agreement
and to the Company's Proxy Statement dated April 29, 2008 for a description of
his salary waiver of May 2003. In connection with the notice to end his
employment agreement referenced above, Mr. Whitehead gave notice to the Company
that he has rescinded his salary waiver. The Company's operating expenses will
increase by approximately $0.7 million during the 12 months ending June 30,
2009.




POTENTIAL PAYMENTS UPON TERMINATION OR change in CONTROL

The Company entered into an employment letter agreement with Mr. Whitehead
in 1990. The agreement does not provide for a fixed term. If Mr. Whitehead's
employment is terminated by the Company other than for cause, he will be
entitled to receive one year's written notice and to be paid at his full annual
salary of (pound)500,000 (approximately $995,000 at an exchange rate of (pound)1
= $1.99). In addition, the Company will be obligated to make monthly
contributions to the defined contribution pension plan set up for Mr. Whitehead
for the one year notice period in the annual amount of (pound)36,000
(approximately $72,000). If Mr. Whitehead's employment is terminated because of
disability, he will be entitled to receive a payment equal to his full annual
salary of (pound)500,000 (approximately $995,000) in lieu of one year's notice.
The Company cannot terminate Mr. Whitehead's employment due to disability for a
period of six months, during which time the Company must continue to pay Mr.
Whitehead his monthly salary, currently (pound)150,000 on an annual basis
(approximately $298,500) after his (pound)350,000 salary waiver as discussed on
page 8.

Mr. Trueger does not have a contract of service with the Company.

Under a December 31, 2007 termination scenario, all vested and unvested
share options held by Mr. Trueger and Mr. Whitehead were out-of-the-money on
that date, and thus no share options would have been exercised and no value
would have been received by them.

[hugepants] 08/10/2008 12:18

Maybe Treguer deserves a bit of credit. Sitting on cash and doing squat may end up proving very succesful. BEK currenly has net cash of 13p per share and 2p per share of investments in private equity (Alacritech and Xtera). There must be opportunities galore just now. The key now is to invest wisely.

[hugepants] 30/9/2008 16:04

This dog is holding up well.

[hugepants] 12/9/2008 11:44

Nice 16.7% rise. 10p coming soon.

[malkie] 05/9/2008 12:00

bit of fun....

[arthur_lame_stocks] 04/9/2008 17:23

Very big discount now to NAV, especially with the dollar strengthening, but will shareholders ever see any of it or will the board steal it all. How does a company that does virtually nothing spend $4m dollars a year?

[doniv] 28/8/2008 20:14

adam, could you please explain your take on this. thanks.

[adam] 24/8/2008 11:24

The RNSs on Friday relate to an upward repricing of options to 30c. Significant in that this came after insistence from major shareholders.

[ben value] 15/7/2008 09:05

Hi littlemadam - there were a couple of small trades on the PLUS market

[littlemadam] 14/7/2008 20:44

why on earth would this be up on no trades???

yours truly, mystified

[rabiddog] 27/6/2008 23:12

Thx...Still holding for sentimental reasons only ...road it from 3.20 upto 21.00 back in the LPG days....hmmm My holding was actually worth 250k at one point. Thats life !!!!!

[hugepants] 27/6/2008 11:06

Heres the new accounts.



Some bits of interest:

There was a new $1M investment in private company xtera. See

Also possible payout from the Enron debacle:

"In February 2008, LPAL submitted a claim in the Enron Securities class
action settlement, based on certain Enron bonds previously held by LPAL which LPAL believes constitute "Category 1" securities eligible for the Enron settlement proceeds. We do not expect any payment based on LPAL's claim until 2009 at the earliest. The amount of the recovery of LPAL's realized investment losses recorded in 2002 is currently unknown."

[eldermon] 30/4/2008 15:53

Bid Price showing as 1p on ADVFN quote, Offer Price still at 6p ??

Anyone know whats going on with the pricing system

Eldermon

[baner] 31/3/2008 12:53

management has done a good job cleaning this mess up. NAV now 15p or better - basically all in cash! so why the low share price:

1. board/management give them selves options on treasury stock at completely bombed out share prices - highly "unusual" and certainly not in best interest of all shareholders

2. significant admin costs with very little income will drain the shareholders funds year in and year out

best would be for management to take company private at say 12p. good for them, good for all other shareholders.

[arthur_lame_stocks] 30/3/2008 19:22

No comments on the results?

Look cheap don't they, but is all the money going to be spent on investing in start-ups?

[hugepants] 29/3/2008 10:39

Woo hoo indeed sir. The results good and Q4 performance was very strong.
Q4 consulancy income was well up again to $700K which was exactly matched by reduced operating expenses. So Q4 profit was equivalent to interest of $170K.

Mentions consultancy income expected to be volatile but also seeking to reduce costs further by removing US listing. It looks like the days of any significant cash burn should be over.

Shares are pretty much untradeable. With 14p cash and NAV 16p wish theyd just offer say 12p and take it private.

And the LPAL insurance caper isnt dead yet.

We will continue to evaluate new product opportunities for LPAL. Any future gains on LPAL's investment portfolio would give us more flexibility to rebuild our insurance operations.

And the investment strategy.

We believe that our long history of successfully investing in
Silicon Valley technology companies positions us well to create value by
acquiring equity positions in promising private companies. We back
entrepreneurs directly with our own capital, or by coinvesting with clients, or
in certain cases we may benefit from investments made by clients if their
investments are successful.

Cant see much happening in the near term unless they actually make an effort to increase the share price ie. Share buyback. Whats the point in making risky equity invesments when they can buy cash at half price or less.

[eldermon] 28/3/2008 08:59

Woo Hooo a Profit

Consultancy seems to be doing well and expenses reducing, also confirmation of further money from the WorldCom Episode.

[stewjames] 18/3/2008 16:43

Well, I was going to buy some but got fed up with the hassle of trying to open an account (you wouldn't believe how hard it is when you're not UK resident). The good news? Last time I did that was with LOQ, which subsequently qunitupled. May my bad luck strike for you all again. :)

Aren't results imminent?