Twitter will be acquired. Wall Street loves a good story, but it hates losses. With half a billion in losses in 2014, and the company on track to lose more this year than last, somebody is going to pull the plug. Parenthetical prediction: Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey will not survive the year and focus on […]
My client was a unicorn way back in 2008, before the present day meaning of the word was repurposed to mean private companies valued at more than $1 billion. Last time I checked, the company was worth about $10 million, a stunning loss of 99% of the company’s value. Here’s how the company’s 12 step ascent and descent went:
Just a few weeks before Christmas, I was a volunteer at a holiday party for underprivileged children. Underprivileged isn’t my word. To get to the party they had to be identified as ‘at risk’ by their teachers. I was helping my friend Carol who had been a volunteer at the event for several years and
With his high profile arrest and perp walk this morning, Martin Shkreli has a massive public relations problem on his hands. As the photo demonstrates, the full force of the law is lined up against him. Mr. Shkreli is the hedge fund manager turned pharmaceutical entrepreneur who provoked outrage when his Turing Pharmaceuticals increased the
Sadly, most investors don’t read business plans. However, writing one is the only way you will be able to answer the following 50 questions you will be asked before investors show up to the closing table. 1. What is the price of your product or service and why? 2. How much capital is required to execute
In March of this year, Apple Inc. was added to the elite, 30-member Dow Jones Industrial Index, and AT&T was unceremoniously removed. In their press release, S&P Dow Jones Indices, said “The timing of Apple’s addition to the DJIA hinged on two stock splits: Apple’s 7:1 last June and Visa’s 4:1 on March 19th this
Inversion sure is the right word for the Allergan/Pfizer deal. Because what got the colonists lathered up enough to fight a war against the one global super power at the time was taxation without representation. Somehow that idea got turned on its head, and now one of the largest drug companies in America wants the
Among investors, there’s a premium placed on the selling and presentation skills of the founder or CEO. Investors in private companies know their payday will only occur if the CEO or founder can sell the company or take it public. Investors in public companies want to know the CEO can continuously attract new investors that will offer
Where The Rubber Hits The Road: Investor Presentations Read More »
Like a lot of people in my business, I have Bloomberg TV and CNBC on all day in my office. I like the ads almost as much as I like the stories. The ads interest me because I can see, or think I can see, the marketing strategy behind it. At the moment, American Funds,
The words investor and public relations roll off the tongue with such ease that it seems yet another confirmation the disciplines share a cozy symbiosis. They don’t. The notion that increased media exposure leads to increased investment rings false for issuers primarily focused on gaining institutional investors. The reason for this is simple. For equities,
Investor Relations and Public Relations: Uneasy Bedfellows Read More »