Bright Things Share Discussion Threads

[iantc] 04/9/2009 15:21

no they have not ,allways pick them up in placings
good to see you back carl hope you had a nibble at mwa still a long way to go there

[the analyst] 04/9/2009 14:53

"have we ever seen an RNS with them buying from the open market??"

I don't know, I was just about to ask that exact same question to those of you here that have an in-depth knowledge of the history of BGT

Has there been an instance in the past when Dom has built a stake of 25%+ in the company?

What I'm trying to get at, is whether Dom's buying could be considered to be a very very good sign, on past performance. Has he ever thrown his money away on buying shares (open market or placings)? - i.e. built up a stake then seen the value in that stake destroyed

[the analyst] 04/9/2009 14:51

Cheers, Carl, I couldn't find that page

Plenty of small broker to broker trades then, which means it's likely that at least some the placing has gone directly to a broker

[carl79] 04/9/2009 14:36

have we ever seen an RNS with them buying from the open market??

[carl79] 04/9/2009 14:35

negotiated broker to broker trade?

[the analyst] 04/9/2009 14:33

Now would be a very good time for the Directors to purchase a few shares on the open market

Doesn't have to be that many - maybe just a couple of million from Dom and 200k each from the others, but it would help investors' morale

[the analyst] 04/9/2009 14:16

That's one thing we are all agreed on, it does look like management were lining their pockets with cheap shares. Right now, we can line our pockets at 1.45p, so we pay a 20% premium to the price they paid in the placing. Not that bad.

By the way, most the shares are being traded through the Plus market these days. Does anyone know what the trade type 'NB' is on Plus?

04/09/2009 11:52:32 1.45 200,000 NB 2,900.00
04/09/2009 11:16:42 1.25 27,359 NB 341.99
04/09/2009 10:03:56 1.40 40,000 O 560.00
03/09/2009 11:05:28 1.45 25,000 NB 362.50
03/09/2009 10:10:59 1.25 32,500 NB 406.25
02/09/2009 16:02:39 1.45 25,000 NB 362.50

[carl79] 04/9/2009 14:11

I have now had a cup of tea and a shower and feel a bit better than i did a few minutes ago...i had not long got home and the weather is quite different to that of Rome where I have just spent the past few days sipping Italian beer and eating pizza and pasta!

So, Dom has put a lot of his own cash into this most recent placing. This is a positive in my view - would you rather he invest 400k and take a large % or 400k and take a lower % with other investors (with perhaps shorter term views) taking up the shortfall?

Still does not mean that I think it proper that investors still have no idea on how well SocialGO is doing - appreciate that there is a time and a place for information releases but we are dealing with a new product / service and in light of this, I would personally like more in the way of trading statements

[carl79] 04/9/2009 13:37

Guys, you are right, i am a bit put out by the level of the placing...not at all that there was one - we all expected as much. However, I expect there to be 1,000s of premium paying networks but BGT have chose to not make this public knowledge - perhaps the market would not care but I am starting to think the mgrs lined their pockets with cheap shares...cheap because I think that if the market were made aware of the growth of the socialgo network base and further more the % paying to use the product, it would have made a difference to the share price and it would not have meant as much dilution to current shareholders...

I could be way off on the numbers of networks by the way - but i am fairly confident that they have a good chunk of premium sites under their belts...

I will remain patient here but will need results very quickly from this last round of funding because Ian is quite right, they have placed millions of pounds and to date have not achieved much for the company and even less for loyal shareholders...

On the positive side, they have funds now so the risk of it all crumbling tomorrow are wiped away

[the analyst] 03/9/2009 22:51

I'm sure you're right, Ian - I think Carl will be a little miffed too

The difference between me and many other investors, is that I invested at between 1p and 1.5p specifically for socialgo when ning started to mess up. Also, when I did my due diligence, I fully expected placings. In fact, I expected that they may get them away at prices as low as 1p

So, up until now it's all been going pretty much as I expected. I will, though, be miffed if they take the shares in issue up to 500m+ and are still making a big loss into 2011

My only worry, is whether Dom is concerned with creating value for ALL holders. Jury is out on that one so far, but for the moment, I'm (perhaps foolishly?) giving him the benefit of the doubt

Now is the time for Dom to take the product, the marketing and the revenues to a different level. The next three months are going to be crucial in demonstrating what Dom is all about. Does he care about the business and does he care about the people that have put their hard-earned money into the company? Time will tell...

[iantc] 03/9/2009 21:28

I think I can see the problem - Your friend invested in the bubble / asic

nothing to do with him being invested ,he is a little closer than that .

i have nothing against dom or bgt as a year or so back i made over £100k profit trading bgt and sold out before the 4p placing ,that i did warn the guys here about ,a little miffed that if they had handled things a little better in the early days when there were only 10/15m shares in issue and they had around £6m cash with bubble on the shelf and the asic chip they managed to screw it up otherwise i would have been sat on 10 x that profit.alot of placings later and change in directions ,there still diluting you long term holders and you look on the bright side ?as for commonworld buy it was a good way of getting another placing away under the radar as they were due to go bust .
good luck ta ,carl will be back soon (a little miffed i would have thought re rns)

[the analyst] 03/9/2009 20:08

By the way Ian, I'm not having a go, or meaning to be critical of your postings

It's just that your posts often seem very cryptic and confused and so I'm just trying to understand...

Any extra information I can get about the company really helps me, as long as it is solid.

[the analyst] 03/9/2009 19:11

"gowit/wl do all the work ,and when they sell socialgo dom picks up 25% of the sale"

Isn't that the normal plan of action? Staff do the work, managers do the managing and owners hope to take profit upon exit?

In this case, though, gowit and wl both have a huge interest in shares and so would also benefit from any sale of the company

[the analyst] 03/9/2009 19:06

"you mentioned that wl was a company off 2 with a lol when i said wl/gowit would imho take socialgo forward well bgt had one staff in a shed when they bought commonworld"

Yes, BGT was a shell at that stage, they needed to create a new business, or go into administration. They bought commonworld and developed socialGO

The way I read it, what you actually said about WL, was not that they would 'take socialgo forward" (which I agree with, if that means helping them), but that WL were going to takeover BGT.

That's when I mentioned to you that they were in fact two people that make widgets

I don't see WL taking over BGT. If they wanted to, they would need to raise a lot of cash and I don't think they have that, or the contacts to get it. If I'm wrong and they offer Dom 20p per share, fair play!

I could, though, see BGT acquiring WL at some stage. That could make sense

[the analyst] 03/9/2009 18:52

OK, cheers Ian

I think I can see the problem - Your friend invested in the bubble / asic

I did occasionally look at BGT and their products back in those days, but decided that the products would fail - I didn't see any opportunity to invest long-term (3-5 years) in those ventures and make money

I was also negative when BGT first acquired Commonworld. I thought ning had the market cornered, but then as things progressed, socialgo developed and amazingly, ning began to mess up. When that happened I started to change my mind and have been investing between 1.0p and 1.5p.

A met up with the team and talked to Alex and Dom - they told me the story of how the socialGO product came about. According to Alex, it was Dom's idea. Dom approached Alex and asked if he would be able to develop a social individual social network maker. Alex's reaction was that it was not possible, but after a few hours of research he then changed his mind and started developing the product for Bright Things.

Of course, this involved buying commonworld. The SocialGO product being developed is 100% owned by BGT as far as I'm concerned. GOwit are simply being employed as independent consultants to develop the product, which is favorable for BGT (as you will know). Now, to encourage the staff at Gowit to have an interest, they are given options, warrants, shares etc - that is essential. I will ask again about company structure next time I see them, as you have implied that things are in fact very different from what they told me. I hope I have it right.

I actually think that BGT should change their name to Socialgo plc

Maybe even list in the US, rather than AIM and move the staff over there...

[the analyst] 03/9/2009 17:31

Cheers Ian,

Can you say any more about your "contact" and what he knows? Was he an ex-employee, or a shareholder? If so, when did he purchase shares and when did he turn from positive to negative about Dom

You made a few hints in a previous post that Dominic does no work, but when I asked you, you didn;t reply saying you were busy watching other boards

Can you tell us why your contact thinks things are going badly?

[iantc] 03/9/2009 16:27

i admire your patience in them ta ,my contact has only negative things to say about dom and the way things are going and a long time back he use to be quite positive ,he is convinced gowit/wl will carry social go forward not bgt ,you mentioned that wl was a company off 2 with a lol when i said wl/gowit would imho take socialgo forward well bgt had one staff in a shed when they bought commonworld ,oh and bgt have managed to blow well over £20m over the last few years and are still making a loss ,not a bad job dom has is it .no trades on results day ?

[the analyst] 03/9/2009 16:06

"ta,carl you can not be impressed by these results and placing news ?"

Hi Ian,

It's not really a case of being impressed or not, more to do with expectations - I fully expected a big loss and a placing. It would have been nice to have had the placing at a slightly higher price, that is true, but that 1.25p price was the level I had expected. I am very pleased to see it though, it has taken a huge risk out of owning the shares. They now have funding in place for at least the next six months, possibly longer. One more placing after this one perhaps? Or perhaps they can raise cash again from the options and warrants at 1.25-5p?

Personally, I've always had a conservative approach to the valuation - I've always valued the company based on between 300m and 400m shares, including any options and dividends that might be exercised.

The big difference between this placing and so many others you see on AIM, is that here, the Directors and staff are buying. If you see a tiny company where the CEO is buying £400k worth of shares and staff are also snapping them up at the same time, then that could be a telling sign of things to come

What is frustrating, is the lack of reference to current trading figures. No KPIs at all. I have my thoughts as to why that was the case (as I mentioned earlier) - in fact I have repeatedly said that they might leave announcing such things until the last possible minute and play it down as much as they can. That is proving to be the case. So again, no real surprise, just a bit of frustration at being in the dark - not knowing how many premium customers they have right now....

IF they can make go on to make big money in the social media space (it's a big IF...) having only made raised a few million along the way, then that would be stunning

Roll on Christmas 2010!

[the analyst] 03/9/2009 11:03

Yes Bobby, £9k in the first two months after launch - remember back in March that 250 people had 'applied' for premium services, also, that the first 30 days of using the product was free.

So a very low figure was expected and there is little we can read into the turnover figures yet. The figures to be released in December will be a little more interesting (but not much)

The really interesting turnover figures, imo, will come in December 2010 (for the period from March-Sept 2010). Right now they are still developing the product for monetisation and have not even launched the shopping, or gaming products yet, which should see them get them close to where they need to be.

They also haven't started to market the product - this is a huge factor

So, I think that come March 2010 they will be set up as a real money-making product in full-effect and with full marketing in effect too - imo, it's the period from March-Sept 2010 that will be the one where we start to see the investments being made now really paying off

It's a long, long-term business model and the attempt to make big profits from social media technology is a high-risk one, but one that could pay enormous dividends one day. You only have to look at other companies in this space to see that - it's not like the online casino boom, where they made profits almost instantly, these are products and brands that take a long time to develop and need to be carefully monetized

[iantc] 03/9/2009 07:40

so a £1.6m loss and only £84k left so guess what lets do another placing .story does not change here ,you long term holders get diluted again ,dom still picks up a nice wage ,gowit/wl do all the work ,and when they sell socialgo dom picks up 25% of the sale .ta,carl you can not be impressed by these results and placing news ?

[bobbyn23] 03/9/2009 07:12

Analyst is im correct from Launch date last year as we only see accounts up to mar the frist Live month of Social go from Feb to March yieded 9k in revenue on the product? So if continous growth from there gives you a bottom line figure right?

[the analyst] 02/9/2009 23:15

"Month on month revenues have grown since then as we build our subscription income from Premium customers. We expect to have further news on progress in the coming months."

So, we have to wait a few months for news on the number of premium sites they have. The data uncovered here indicated that the company had "thousands" of premium customers, so it's going to be a long wait to see if that was true, or whether we were being spun a yarn by the socialgo team

Interesting to note that there was not a single mention of zocku, either...

[the analyst] 02/9/2009 22:25

"I spent five years living in Silicon Valley building my video games company in the Nineties. I intend to spend more time there promoting SocialGO in the coming months. We have a small office ready to form a bridgehead to the American market which is not only our largest market (already in traffic terms) but also the most mature in the adoption of the idea of micro networking. We need to be among our Web 2.0 (or indeed 3.0) peers and we need access to those people who can help market the product as well as those companies that can help partner with us to spread its reach."


So, it really does look more and more as if Dominic has simply gorged himself on cheap shares prior to starting on the PR and marketing campaign. You could read both good and bad into that. Obviously, for investors that bought into the SocialGO story at 4p, they would rather have seen the success story sold (and a share price rise) prior to a fundraising at a much higher price.

For investors looking to buy in now, though, the situation is different - they can buy in now at a low price, with a reduced risk and a business model that is progressing well. They can also see that the CEO has enough confidence in the company to be buying a huge number of shares. All good signs for new investors or anyone that has bought around the 1-2p level, imo.

So, when will they reveal how many premium networks they have? When will they reveal what the average price being paid by those networks? It seems to me that they are not at all keen to reveal the numbers right now. Why? Is it to keep the competition from seeing them? Or, is it simply so they could issue themselves cheap shares and get away with it more easily? Or both? Who knows, but at some stage they will have to let investors know the KPIs...

[the analyst] 02/9/2009 18:13

"The Board has prepared the financial statements on a going concern basis having given consideration to forecast sales and the marketability of SocialGO, together with the above fundraising activity, for the period to 30 September 2010. Given the level of paid subscription taken up since commercial launch, the Board believe it's most recent sales forecasts, which incorporate continued growth in paid subscriptions to SocialGO, to be achievable"

But what are those forecasts?

Hopefully we will get a new broker note this month, which should be in-line with management expectations