Mediasurface Share Discussion Threads

[rupert_bear] 31/7/2008 10:08

Thanks for the response. Puzzled!

[donaferentes] 31/7/2008 09:49

You should have had them for a week or more. Check with your broker or nominee account.

[rupert_bear] 30/7/2008 14:38

So, when do we get our shares?

[moosetication] 01/7/2008 12:22

Sorry for late reply. I chose to offload my holding at the end of last week.

[bloodhound] 24/6/2008 14:35

Thanks for that moosetication.

What are you going for out of interest?

[moosetication] 24/6/2008 12:57

I don't think so. Base offer is (9p plus 0.0375 of an ALN share) per MSR share that you hold. On top of that is a mix-and-match capability which says you can opt for more ALN shares or more cash pro rata, provided there is no overall change in the cash/share offer (which basically suggests there's little point in asking for more cash, because it would need to be balanced by enough people asking for more ALN shares).

Importantly, the value of consideration share offer is essentially variable since it's a fixed proportion of a share and so must vary with ALN's market position. At the time of the offer, ALN's share price was 160p which valued each MSR share at 9p+(0.0375*160p) = 15p. However, at current price (in the middle) that comes down to 13.8p.

[bloodhound] 24/6/2008 09:48

Am I reading the offer document right - I can get 18p a share for my Mediasurface shares (all of them?).

[moosetication] 04/6/2008 09:09

ALN down 10p this morning. Bid now worth a shade north of 13.6p.

[kanar] 29/5/2008 08:35

Indeed ;-)

[get rich quick] 27/5/2008 19:04

so Kanar...you're the last post on this thread before we all leave, see you all on ALN

[kanar] 22/5/2008 15:31

Good suggestion by Warren B. Especially in the opaque software industry where little is what it looks like.....

[kanar] 22/5/2008 13:20

>Back end irrelevant where decent APIs are available

The back end is very relevant in this case. If you have to maintain the back-end yourself like Alterian does. Then you obviously need to have full insight and control of the source-code. They just cannot afford to treat the content management system as a black-box.

see also:

[donaferentes] 22/5/2008 12:21

Kanar/moosetication - thanks for your comments, but I'm pretty lost amongst all this technical stuff - what was it Warren Buffet said about only investing in companies you understand? I'll probably take the money and run.

[moosetication] 22/5/2008 12:01

> MSR-Morello ... has a rather outdated back-end
> and a windows GUI as a primary client, making
> it almost impossible to integrate it decently
> into Alterians system.

Back end irrelevant where decent APIs are available, as they are in Java, web services and .NET for Morello. The Windows smart client is not the only client - the web client is a modern AJAX-based system.

[kanar] 22/5/2008 11:24

There is a general trend towards 'point' solutions (web 2.0); solutions that are open, offered as web services and perform one task really well.

In Alterians market (marketing resource management) these solutions are often offered as SAAS (software as a service), even to blue chip companies.

Only Pepperio currently is SAAS and MSR has failed to be successful in exploiting this model. MSR-Pepperio does not have the level of sophistication necessary to integrate into Alterians software.
MSR-Morello does, but has a rather outdated back-end and a windows GUI as a primary client, making it almost impossible to integrate it decently into Alterians system.

Furthermore content management is not the only discipline that Marketing resource management systems have to interact with. They are also fed by (and feed) CRM systems (e.g. Salesforce.com), Statistics services (e.g. Omniture) and even ERP systems like SAP. Eloqua, one of the fast movers in this space even started as an add on to Salesforce.com!

This acquisition of Mediasurface clearly is a move against the trend of 'disaggregation' and has a serious risk of alienating and slowing down Alterian in their fast moving market segment.

WCM (web content management) is a saturated market where the last phase of the shakeout and consolidation is taking place. That will make it very hard for Alterian to penetrate into this market in the first place.

Considering that MSR management is will be sent home two weeks after the acquisition this could become a huge distraction for Alterian.

So no, I am not particularly hopeful with regard to this acquisition on the long run.

[donaferentes] 21/5/2008 19:25

kanar - intersted to hear your views, you celarly know ther product/market better than me. I know nothing except the 2 year chart of ALN and EPS/PEG history does not get to look that way without a managemetn that knows a little of what they are doing. However, every king has their nemesis - maybe MSR is ALN's.

[kanar] 21/5/2008 15:32

It could also well go down.

Altarian probably does not need three but only one CMS to leverage the content management capabilities of their marketing software. So they might well divest at least one and maybe even two of MSRs' tools. Best candidates for divestment are Morello and Pepperio.

Also this one-stop-shop thinking, might cause Altarian to loose prospects and even existing accounts, because they could be seen as competitors instead of partners of other WCM vendors.

Altarian would be smarter if they would integrate their software into the leading WCM systems via well defined API's and to focus on the core instead of trying to replace them. Content Management is so much different from Marketing Resource Management.

Integrating MSR is risky undertaking for Alterian from my POV.

[get rich quick] 21/5/2008 13:22

not bad advice donaferentes. more investigating to do I think. They could be an atractive target themselves if we intergrate well. as I would be in profit with the cash I will be having a free carry with ALN so nothing to lose.

[donaferentes] 21/5/2008 10:14

grq - share your dilemma. maybe 14.5p was the best price we could have got on the day of the announcement. today we are worth 14.1 if the bid goes through v. 13.0p bid in the market. so not too highly geared to ALN's weakening share price

on balance I think ALN's strength will serve us well to hold on for the bid's conclusion, although still not sure I am interested in holding ALN long-term - just seems a bit boring, which is probably the very reason why I should hold ALN - 20% pa compound growth with no excitement is where we should all be!

Maybe using the cash element to buy more ALN at a price temporarily depressed by the bid for MSR is the clever play here? then hold for ALN to recover to 160p as it digests MSR over the next 6 months - 16.4% over 6 months from 137 to 159.5, less dealing costs, say 15% net profit would be pretty good. And by then you'd have got to know ALN better so could make a better decision about the long-term.

No advice intended.

[get rich quick] 21/5/2008 09:54

looking at ALN share price movement this year they have risen by about 40% since feb, which is when I presume the talk behind taking over Mediasurface started.This was obviously a good deal for ALN by the look of it ( which makes me think that it wasn't such a good deal for MSR ) As the exchange price was set at £1.60 and they have since dropped to £1.37 our future holding is already at a loss so It seems that we are losing on both fronts. This begs the question...should I just sell now and buy ALN at a later date, assuming that I want to that is. Time will tell I suppose. Does anyone else have a view on this deal

[get rich quick] 20/5/2008 20:57

and....march 2007

[get rich quick] 17/5/2008 21:25

got it...thanks