“All the frustrations that come with buying small cap Canadian tech stocks are neatly illustratd in the plan to go private announced recently by Guest-tek Interactive Entertainment.
This hotel broadband network supplier went public back in 2004 by selling shares at $10.25 each, on the back of a story that featured 200 per cent-plus annual revenue growth and 100 per cent-plus profit growth. BMO Nesbitt Burns led the Guest-Tek (GTK-T0.48-0.01-2.04%) initial public offering, and the stock’s best day was its first day on the TSX.
Guest-Tek failed to sustain strong growth, and the $44.6-million IPO never attracted much os a following. A dreary but familiar trend developed: There was little buying and selling, and the stock price price started to slide. The cheaper Guest-Tek got, the less it appealed to institutions, which need to establish a meaningful stake in a company to make it worth following. This became a classic orphan stock, neglected and unloved.”
Arnon Levy, Guest-Tek co-founder, President and CEO, is trying to take the company private for a share price of $0.50 per share, quite a way from the original IPO price of $10.25. As the current CEO, the deal is likely a good one for Mr. Levy, while I am not sure how will people who invested at the original IPO price and stayed on feel.
Have a listen to what Warren Buffett said on CNBC live about his decision to buy the remaining shares of Burlington Northern Santa Fe. Here is a good quote (emphasis added),
“[Burlington Northern Santa Fe] do it in a cost-effective way and extraordinarily environmentally friendly way. BNSF last year moved on average, it moved a ton of goods 470 miles on one gallon of diesel. It releases far fewer pollutants into the atmosphere. It saves enormously on energy consumption and, you know, it diminishes highway congestion. Rails last year moved 40 percent, more than 40 percent, over the country. They moved more than all those trucks, just the four big railroads. It’s a very effective way of moving goods. I basically believe this country will prosper and you’ll have more people moving more goods 10 and 20 and 30 years from now, and the rails should benefit. It’s a bet on the country, basically.”
“Our country’s future prosperity depends on its having an efficient and well-maintained rail system,” said Warren E. Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway chairman and chief executive officer. “Conversely, America must grow and prosper for railroads to do well. Berkshire’s $34 billion investment in BNSF is a huge bet on that company, CEO Matt Rose and his team, and the railroad industry.
“Most important of all, however, it’s an all-in wager on the economic future of the United States,” said Mr. Buffett. “I love these bets.”
“Warren had a little single oval HO-gauge train set and coveted a more elaborate version, the kind he saw at the Brandeis deaprtment store downtown, which had multiple engines twisting and turning past flashing lights and signals, rising over snow-covered hills and dropping into tunnels, racing past tiny villages and disappearing into pine forests. But the closest he came to owning it was buying the catalog that depicted it.
‘If you were a little kid with one little oval track, looking at this thing, it was completely unbelievable. You’d gladly pay a dime for the model-train catalog and just sit there and fantasize.‘ [Warren Buffett said]” – The Snowball – by Alice Schroeder
Note: Baby Berkshire shares (i.e. class B) will be easier to buy now once the 50-for-1 stock split is approved (a formality).
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Nov 4 Update: Have a listen of Warren on CNN talking about the deal and other things. And Warren on Fox News (transcript and video). And Alice Schroeder’s (Warren’s biographer) opinions on the deal.
I’m sitting on a stool watching an info-video at the Dairy Management booth at the Worldwide Food Expo in Chicago. The stool, designed by Bruce Mau Design, is a bright red box. It is lightweight, yet sturdy. It also is made from cow manure. So, too, is the exhibit’s video-display case, kiosks of stacked milk cartons, and work tables.
And no, the material doesn’t look or smell like cow poop. And no again, you can’t buy it in stores—at least not yet.
The booth is a public showcase of a dairy industry initiative to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 25% by 2020. For a new product, it came together fast.
[...] While researching dairy farming, Tom Keogh, Bruce Mau Design’s project director, says the Toronto-based team came across experiments by a scientist in Madison, Wis. The scientist, John Hunt, a general engineer with the USDA’s Forest Service, had been testing alternatives to wood pulp in making paper and particle board. Among them: fiber-rich cow manure.
“There’s a moment during the creative process,” adds Paddy Harrington, a Bruce Mau Design creative director, “when someone says, the whole thing could be made of cow manure.” And so it would be.
Viewers who spend time to criticize are the ones who still care enough and hoping things may change for the better. People who don’t care at all have already left, sometimes forever.
Posted by kempton 
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