Internet Business Share Discussion Threads

[ideal420] 23/1/2008 23:48

My mattress is taunting me, "I told you stash the cash with me, but ooooh no, you didn't listen did you".

[muffinhead] 23/1/2008 15:54

Post merger with TMN, what parts of IBG will be dropped?


Is Maz going to stay on?

[coffeelito] 23/1/2008 11:22

Yes, long gone are the days when we naive ibg backers would get excited by general market stats ... the only thing that matters now is whether we had / have / will have a viable business.

[bonio10000] 23/1/2008 10:59

If it rose by 45%, then Maz underperformed the market with his growth.

Not even keeping step with the market is poor.

[baheid101] 23/1/2008 10:31

Econsultancy have done a review of Affiliate Marketing in 2007 and reckoned it rose 45% to £3bn of transactions. Commissions generated (for networks and affiliates) were estimated at £186m, meaning that Affiliate Future has approx an 7.5% market share (based on £14.3m full year AF turnover recently reported). That isn't bad given that there are now over 50 affiliate networks and the UK is extremely competitive. The article also goes on to say that teh growth continues to come from the big three of retail, travel and financial services.

[the analyst] 22/1/2008 17:41

He pointed towards the fact that he was actually having to refuse taking on quite a few merchants because the margins were not there to begin with. Im particular, big financial merchants.

It may have been at the investors meeting, come to think of it.

[baheid101] 22/1/2008 17:10

'Maz also pointed out that margins were under pressure at the AGM too. Another bad sign.'

Did he? Affiliate Future margins actually increased by 100bp to 22% at the most recent results

[coffeelito] 22/1/2008 13:51

Good points. My main error was in thinking that Maz was a clever businessman. He wasn't.

[the analyst] 22/1/2008 13:40

Coffeelito, I've been looking at this in a bit more detail and I think there may well have been plenty of info out there to justify selling prior to the share collapse.

It was obvious at the AGM that Maz was confused and did not know what direction to take the company. That was probably a good enough reason to sell on its own. I saw this, but stupidly, kept holding my shares (buried my head in the sand). At least in seeing how he was presenting the case at the AGM I was able to kill any thoughts to accumulate in a big way, which has saved me money.

On top of the AGM, investors could have followed the affiliate bulletin boards and noticed that the numbers of merchants was not rising spectacularly, especially in the US. In addition, although the quality of merchants was improving, it was not improving in the way that investors had been hoping for - a real lack of super-merchants signing-up. Again, thorough research could have highlighted this in advance allowing investors to sell out before the profit warning. Unfortunately, I didn't do that research at the time, concentrating on other stocks - my loss.

Maz also pointed out that margins were under pressure at the AGM too. Another bad sign.

So, in my opinion, there was plenty of information there, but I suspect, many investors were like me and refused to believe it.

Don't get me wrong, I think progress is going well at IBG, just not as well as investors had hoped for. They are still growing at a remarkable rate, but under-performance in comparison to expectations of brokers and PIs does not go down too well with any company, especially a microcap.

Live and learn...

[coffeelito] 22/1/2008 13:20

But he was supposed to be in the driving seat, we are just the passengers, and as it turns out we were wearing a blindfold too!

[the analyst] 22/1/2008 13:16

"He should have sold it when the price was over 3 x what it is now"

So should have private investors - the old cliche about hindsight being a wonderful thing springs to mind.

I still hold - my hindsight definitely hasn't been working recently...

[coffeelito] 22/1/2008 13:03

Yeah but no but yeah but no ... He should have sold it when the price was over 3 x what it is now. Simple. He failed, and on a grand scale.

[coffeelito] 22/1/2008 12:56

I really can't congratulate Maz enough on his spectacular business acumen. Really great job Maz. Thanks so much for destroying our wealth. (I don't care what you do to your own)

[omlaysause] 22/1/2008 12:00

Can you guys believe this. I thought 48p was a bloody disgrace now we're sitting at 34p!!!!!!!!!

[baheid101] 21/1/2008 14:38

Interesting thread on the forum about an affiliate launching a travel site. The guy ended up using AF's syndicated search boxes for holidays, hotels and car hire and his site www.travel-spy.co.uk is now getting on the first page of some relevent organic search results. I guess this is a small example of the increased syndication of their improved search services.

[baheid101] 21/1/2008 14:18

On the technical side I would argue that there is evidence of progress

(1) improved hotel search on Henoo - live and working as far as I can see.
(2) improved flight search on Henoo - live and working
(3) new Affiliate Future platform roll out progressing. Recent example I have seen on the forums is the launch of resource centres for merchants where affiliates can find links, search boxes, merchant videos and other marketing aids to help them promote the merchants.

[coffeelito] 18/1/2008 14:50

Yes, well done Maz. What a genius you turned out to be.

[bonio10000] 18/1/2008 12:47

Booked a £1,500 flight today.

Went to Henoo but it wasn't working so went elsewhere.

So that's about £10k p.a. in business flights they have lost from me.

Good to Maz is concentrating on the technical side.

[omlaysause] 18/1/2008 11:51

So glad to see IBG doing so well on the back of TMN ...... well done again Maz!

[outsider] 18/1/2008 08:57

i think its just going down in kilter with the terms of the deal, like tmn price.

[kenatbabken] 18/1/2008 08:50

Its like watching IBG,s shareprice of 3 years ago only its going in the wrong
direction Maz,s theory that the company is better off with TMN is quite clearly
not being accepted by PI,s.We could very well see single figures before we,re
put out of our misery

[valustar1] 18/1/2008 07:10

I expect Jan and travel will be more important

[the analyst] 18/1/2008 00:09

I wonder how IBG did?

[bonio10000] 12/1/2008 18:17

I just use Quidco.com

No point on clicking on anyother banner on a website to buy anything.