Bright Things Share Discussion Threads

[carl79] 26/3/2010 08:27

Hi Pink/e, do you have any particular reason why you think BGT would recruit a numpty to the post of FD?

Lets be honest, if he were an absolute high flier with a string of blue chip senior appointments under his belt, there is a good chance he would not work for a company worth about the same as his potential annual salary...

That does not mean he does not know his stuff or that he is not a sound appointment. BGT list the following skills which I would say are fairly in tune with what we need, ergo he is here to do the same kind of job:

Mergers
Acquisitions
Debt finance
Monitor performance
Strategic Development / Execution

I would also say that getting an MBA is no easy task - there are greater odds that you don't have one than you do. Whilst I agree that having an MBA does not instantly qualify someone as business Guru, it does attest to their intelligence, business acumen and drive.

Of course, ultimately, the proof of the pudding is in the eating and we will need to wait and see what this chaps impact is going to be.

Probably also worth noting that this appointment was made not too long after Vikrant's involvement. He may know of this chap and could have vouched for him??

Long one short, I think the odds of him working 10 years as a cashier and then being elevated to FD are infinitesimally remote. I don't really care if the old FD jumped ship - people look for new jobs all the time for a whole host of reasons...He was not exactly integral to strategy, the corporate vision or BGT's success in general imo. He also never took a large amount of shares as far as I remember so i dont expect a large share dump now he's gone. Finally, I think this new FD has been recruited on merit as opposed to being the only applicant / potential candidate and we should wait and see if he delivers results before slagging him off...

[pink/e] 25/3/2010 18:00

what is so good about this new fd's cv, norbus?

ten years working in an unknown bank (cashier?), then decided to get an mba (well done) and then found a job for a couple of years in another unknown place doing some debt work. hardly stella

are you sure the old fd hasn't simply jumped ship?

i'm guessing that is not the case and that he has extra skills that bgt require, but that's just a hunch but I don't see anything in the announcement (or google) to back up my hunch

[norbus] 25/3/2010 09:25

I am hoping Brett Morris brings the guys up to speed in terms of share price and its being equated by market generally as a function of progress . The way the share price has drifted is saying there is a disconnect between the company,what it is doing and the market. Perhaps explained by the big blocks held by a few Not really clever.

[the analyst] 24/3/2010 19:53

Hi Carl,

Yes I did speak to Dom about the relationship with WL at the AGM.

To be honest though, I don't hold much weight to the answers you tend to get from Directors on such subjects, they are very restricted on what they can say.

In fact, that goes for just about most things Directors will tell you, imo

The main point of talking to them, imo, is to get an idea whether they really are experts in the industry they work in, whether they are really fired up, passionate about the product etc. Knowledge and commitment every time over big talk and bull for me. Of course, to be able to judge a Director on that, you yourself need to be a bit of an expert or enthusiast in the subject area (or you could be sold any old story and believe it).

What I'm getting at, is I think Dom and the rest of the Board have all the skills and dedication to make this work. The guys at WL are not necessary

Anyway, I digress....your question.... Yes, I agree with you - I think working with WL was going to be just too much trouble, irrespective of how good at coding and marketing they are.

So, it has worked out well, imo.

Just the fact that WL keep mentioning SocialGO is a good thing. Anything that raises awareness is good...

[carl79] 24/3/2010 18:46

Hi TA, have you spoken to Dom about the WL relationship? I am sure that the way it played out was in our interest...

WL censoring posts is laughable given the amount of grief they gave Ning for doing the same thing...

[the analyst] 24/3/2010 15:54

lol, I posted a comment on that labsecrets video page as I was confused by some of his seemingly inconsistent comments. Not an offensive comment, just asking questions.

The result? They wouldn't even allow the post to be shown - they censor all the posts!

This is really not in tune with today's web 2.0 vision and the social media world, so I think I have just found out something about Spence and the way he conducts business...

[carl79] 24/3/2010 10:55

400k traded at 1.45 these past few days...looks like buys...someone looks to be acquiring a little stake - (or adding to one i guess)...its not me ;-)

[carl79] 23/3/2010 19:39

hmm - not as against SG as the updates citing the various things you can port from SG networks might suggest...perhaps i got the wrong end of the stick...maybe socialgo were too small / did not grow as quick as WL had hoped. They are all about monetisation and maybe the pool of potential customers were too small to keep them interested so they asked for more money (subsidisation??) from BGT directly?? We could theorise forever...Is buddypress something a lot of people are into? Anyone got a clue how many members / networks they have??

[the analyst] 23/3/2010 18:57

Spence talking about their stance on SocialGO, amongst other things

[lobo] 23/3/2010 16:39

Brett Plunkett Morris ....you couldn't make it up!

;)

[carl79] 23/3/2010 15:54

Hi Norbus,

I think you said you got the WL story so i won't bother talking about them now...

Ref the new FD - I saw you make note of the debt comment TA...me too. I said a while back that i'd like to see them finance through debt as opposed to more dilution...it would keep us more concentrated in our holdings but also would indicate that they see enough earnings moving forward to repay that debt - i saw that as a positive and a new era for us where we don't always fear dilution and the next cash call...

So, if this: "Having spent the first 10 years of his career in banking specialising in mergers and acquisitions and debt financing for companies" is indeed pertinent maybe we are targeting an acquisition, maybe we are the target for an acquisition, maybe we are moving away from shareholder financing to more traditional debt or perhaps this chap just has a good CV ;-)

TA, if there are visible revenue streams that are trending up, then if you had a powerful enough investor, (perhaps Bentworth??), they may lobby against more placings and push for debt. Bentworth need to keep their holding above 4% if they want to retain privileges like appointment of non execs - they have something to gain (or rather save) by not being forced to buy more shares...just a thought....

One sign that i would like to see from BGT is directors buying from the open market...if that happens, it could indeed mean the end of placings and investor confidence as a result...still think the odds are placement as opposed to debt just now though

[the analyst] 23/3/2010 13:34

Cheers for the update norbus!

[norbus] 23/3/2010 13:16

He comes with an excellent background experience.

[wywcu1] 23/3/2010 12:49

Let's hope that he is a bright young Turk and moves us forward.

[the analyst] 23/3/2010 12:27

Yes, it is very unusual for a new Directors' name not to come up in google.

[norbus] 23/3/2010 12:22

I think they are slowly upping their game. This FD will provide much needed general management whilst the company specialists venture into technical and marketing. Good glue at the centre is always useful. I googled him and found nothing: bit strange. Intend to talk to Astaire the brokers to ask if there will be a preclose statement.


PS : I spoke to the brokers. Very pleasanrt man. no immediate plans for update, they are working on a research document which will come out when triggered by something substansive to report, hopefully soon. ;)(;

[the analyst] 23/3/2010 12:15

One possibility we haven't really touched on is the thought of the company could take on debt rather than simply placing more shares to raise funds

Very difficult, in this economy, but if the revenues are increasing and there is visibility then it could be possible

[the analyst] 23/3/2010 11:41

Very interesting, plenty of experience in that CV in terms of business development, debt financing etc. I wonder who he has worked for?

[norbus] 23/3/2010 11:02

This is good news ; the new FD seems to have better than a vanilla type bean counter experience, and yet another building brick to establish building the new plan structure

[ljsquash] 23/3/2010 10:53

New FD announced.

[norbus] 23/3/2010 09:51

Carl79
being relatively new to BGT I know nothing of the WL thing; can you tell me very briefly,the WL story please?

PS
I got it now; WL had a contract for a time, they did the time, then moved on.

[carl79] 23/3/2010 07:46

have WL publicly stated that all of the previous negative statements they made about ning are no longer true...if not they do seem to be lacking in a certain degree of integrity...

[the analyst] 22/3/2010 19:03

I doubt they make much money, but the funny thing is I think this sort of thing actually helps SocialGO

Widgets allowing network owners to export away from SocialGO gives them peace of mind that if things went wrong, there would be alternatives out there and the data could be transferred out quite easily if necessary

The fact that SocialGO do not block these widgets (like ning does) can only be good publicity and help potential users feel secure that they are not being trapped (as they would be with ning)

[the analyst] 22/3/2010 17:30

More from Labsecrets - a tool to export your photos from SocialGO to ning