Trading INET stock

Interesting stuff.. I just looked at the insider trading info for INET (IB) (link: INET: Insider Transactions for Internet Brands, Inc. - Yahoo! Finance )

Since August, there has been MILLIONS of dollars of shares sold off when floor prices have been reached. With even directors selling off stock, think there's something else going on?

Interesting stuff IMHO....

 

A lot of it looks like regular pre-planned sales meant to diversify ones portfolio.

 

Wow. Did I just see CEO Bob Briso sold almost half a million dollars of stock just two weeks before the record setting presale was announced?

 

Yes, but.. They haven't said that it wasn't off-selling because they knew the company was going to go bankrupt! There's NO WHERE that IB has said that selling off millions of dollars of stock was due to pending bankruptcy. There's NO WHERE that IB has denied bankruptcy. In fact, IB hasn't mentioned bankruptcy EVER! I just think it's odd that IB wouldn't confirm or deny bankruptcy if in fact they ever considered going bankrupt at all.

Now, I'm not SAYING that they are going bankrupt.. Not at all. I'm just saying that it seems strange that they aren't denying the allegation that the sell offs just MIGHT be because of pending bankruptcy. Now, there's NO PROOF whatsoever that IB is going bankrupt, but, why wouldn't they at least deny it? Or even talk about it at ALL!?! Just.. Seems.. Odd..

 

Timing to some may not look the best but look at this.

Insider Trades - BRISCO ROBERT N - Yahoo! Finance

You'll see last year about the same time a block was sold too. He's still sitting on over 6mil shares.

The one to look at is Penske, why is Roger selling off almost all his holding, certainly not to help finance the now defunct Saturn deal. His position has gone from over 1mil shares to just over 3500.

 

Hmmmm....I just noticed Penske is no longer on the BOD. Sure would like to ask him why he's no longer a member.

 

Wow.. Insider Trades - PENSKE ROGER S - Yahoo! Finance Sold off 1.5million shares at $5.10. That's pretty low considering it's now trading at $2 more per share. I guess he knew something was up and wanted to make sure he got out?

 

Last I read their finanical statements, Internet Brands had a pretty strong balance sheet and were making money.

Something to keep in mind, is that in some cases, executives have periods of time where they can't sell stocks, or can't buy stocks that are called lock up periods.

In some cases they also have stock options etc. which can effect their buying and selling decisions.

 

So, why won't they confirm or deny the completely unfounded rumor that they're going Bankrupt and being investigated by the FTC? I mean.. There's NO PROOF to any of this. I'm pretty sure it's completely made up. But, why not deny it?

 

One just needs to look at the 3rd qtr report to see there is a healthy balance sheet. vB Solutions is just a very small part of the entire holdings. To us it is the division we focus on but it is just a small part of the overall picture.

 

vB makes up an extremely small part of IB (income wise) overall if how it was explained to me is correct by someone on the inside.

 

Where did you read this rumour?

The stock is currently trading at over 7 bucks a share and went up today.

It doesn't appear that the market is judging this stock as being on the verge of bankruptcy.

If they did, I would think it would be trading as a penny stock and they would most likely be filing for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection first so that they could reorganize.

 

Yeah...what he said.

Just did some quick searches of Internet Brands + Banckrupt and Internet Brands + FTC. There is nothing out there that even hints at such actions.

 

Here's a link to a recent market report.

Internet Brands, Inc. Reports Third Quarter 2009 Financial Results

They made 3 million last quarter, have very little debt and 63 million of cash on hand.

Can't see them going anywhere soon.

 

Exactly.......

 

That's what I said.. There's NOTHING that hints at any of it!

All I'm saying is that it would be nice for them to at least deny it.

Kinda like Glenn Beck..... And the accusations of his raping and murdering a young girl.... It's similar.. no?

 

Anyone familiar with Racing knows who Roger Penske is. Whether its Sr. or Jr.

 

Yeah, Penske's a pretty big name, even outside of racing, but he does draw a rather decent racing following. I'm curious as to why he sold 1.5m shares in March, as well. Maybe the stock wasn't doing as well as he thought. Of course, it has gone up $2/share since that time, so who knows.

What I find rather unsurprising is their Quarterly Report. Take a look at these figures, they speak rather largely for themselves, as well as these statements:

This basically reinforces my thoughts that the current licensing holdup is nothing more than a massive attempt at a quick cash grab. Company < $5m revenue in 9 months? Can we say ouch??? I don't care who you are, that hurts. Of course, that's brought on by themselves largely.

Make no mistake: Internet Brands is clearly losing cash. Their own stock reports show it, and their major shareholders are selling like mad. that's got to say something right there.

 

Do you really think that the alleged slow-down of vBulletin sales in the period is the cause of that loss in profits?

I believe Wayne mentioned somewhere that vBulletin's revenue is only a very small portion of IB's entire revenue stream. I don't remember the percentage he mentioned.

I highly doubt the "cash-grab" would be much help in getting out of that hole, either.


Although I know nada about stocks, so feel free to totally ignore my post.

 

Revenues are down because they are currently heavily invested in the Automotive Space. IB took a big hit from the Chrysler and GM bankruptcies to the tune of almost 2mil on Chrysler alone.

Couple that with the fact advertising revenues on their auto base forms are flat or down and you can see where the downturn is from. One of my site is a direct competitor to one of theirs. I know some advertisers that were on their site have jumped ship as the costs are much lower.

I've seen the rates they charge and its not pretty. It's very hard for a small niche business to justify their rates. And I thank them for that with new advertiser I sign up.

Before jumping to conclusions IB is diversifying their online presence having moved into new niches with the purchase of their latest sites. I don't look at the vB presale as a money grab. Even if they sold 10K licenses it will only net them 1.3mil.

It will be interesting to see how and if they move their own sites to 4.0 and if some of their competitors that also have large numbers of vB based sites also migrate to 4.0, stay where they are or look to IPB.