Trading INET stock

Nick,
I'm no professional trader myself, either, but I think the results speak for themselves.

I'm not saying that the great vBulletin debacle is the only cause for this, by any means, but look @ a couple things here:

Firstly, prices went up by a reasonable amount last year. When prices go up, logically, income goes up, right? One would think so, anyways.

Secondly, while income is supposed to go down during a recession, this should have been covered not only by the increase in prices last year, but the push for renewals should have done some pretty decent cushioning there.

You're right, we'll never get the true story as to how much IB relies on vBulletin, but one thing is clear, and that is that their handling of this debacle most definitely caused at least a small chunk of that $5m loss.

 

Impossible...

The timing is all wrong. You are basing this off of the results reported in the 3rd qtr that closed at the end of September. The brewhaha did not start until October 13 when the pre-sale was announced.

That loss was on the books before any of this really got started.

 

Damn straight they are. I was reading their financial records this morning over breakfast, they've grossed over 3.5 million just this last quarter. They're not a big corporation, but they're big and make money.

 

Not even close
The "brewhaha" started in May, when this was leaked and Internet Brands went on permament vacation from their own forums, refusing to answer questions. You don't answer questions, you don't get money.

Let me explain more as to the why here:
Firstly, they cut off an entire group of customers, left them dangling in the wind. No more leased licenses? Not really a surprise, we knew about that in May.

Secondly, they cut off additional revenues. No more blog pucrhases, no more PT purchases. Why would we? They're going to be useless.

Thirdly, they massively slowed down purchase of new products. Why would you purchase a product in May when there was a very, very strong indication that they'd charge you again ?

Now, again, we're never going to get the straight answer. IB and it's employees will never tell the truth about sales, they'll only put on a happy face and say what they want us to hear. However, given those three key points, and, of course, IB's refusal to address the situation in a quick and timely fashion, this started the problem. Maybe it did escalate in October, once everyone found out how ripped off they were going to be, but this started with some information back in May. This wasn't just limited to discussion on .com, it was in almost every forum that I went to for webmasters, hosts, etc. I don't recall a lot of discussion on it when I started showing up here, but I'm sure there was at least a little bit.

 

I really don't know anything about trading a company with public options. What i do know though is they have taken money from customers whom had a belief in the company. Only to turn around and change the rules after the money had been received. I really hope IB the best on being a money making company, it just angers me the way they are going about making this money via vbulletin.com software.

 

I have no clue how to read any of that stuff, so it'll either have to be explained line by line, or I just won't understand it :lol:

 

And my thoughts...

What happened back in May with the leaked information did make it to many sources and I'm sure cost a few sales. However, look at how many have also posted they were blindsided. They don't follow the .com or .org and visit sites such as this even less. They paid their $40 bucks as late as Oct 12 for another year or even bought new, and boy I'd be pissed if that was me. Blogs and Project Tools were also bought up Oct 13 as well.

The .com site also did a heck of job keeping dissent from the presale area where most people new to vB and looking to buy for the first time would gravitate to.

And as small as vB Solutions is to the overall bottom line I'd venture to say it cost them way less then a million in lost revenue.

We can speculate all we want but we'll never see the real results. Even when the annual report comes out and is analyzed quarter by quarter they will probably blend it will all licensing revenues making the vB Solutions bit impossible to pull out and analyze as it's own entity.

 

You're assuming that vBulletin makes up the majority of Internet Brand's income when actually advertising on their various sites brings in many times more income as vBulletin does. Even their Autodata licensing dwarfs the vBulletin income. vBulletin is just a baby in the books so far. A baby they want to make grow and be a significant force though.

It explains exactly where the loss came from in the report linked to. Any loss due to vBulletin can really be summarized in this quote:

This time last year, the British Pound went from 1.8 on the dollar to 1.3 on the dollar. Or in other words a 50 cent per Pound loss. vBulletin is the only licensing they had in the UK at the time. This wild fluctuation would counteract any price increases. I can pretty much guarantee it is what prompted the switch from a UK company to a US company as well. It is all great when you take a single line out of context but when you look at the entire document then you get a real picture.

 

Where would someone find that information, is it available online?



Regarding the topic at hand, the insiders have huge amounts of 'hoops' to go through with the SEC so personally I am not to concerned with it. I've had to work through those things before even as a non-insider.

Considering the economy they seem to be doing great financially at this time, although as pointed out the are not making as much as in the past.

 

The information is not publicly available.

When I was a paid admin one of my duties was to forward sales leads that come to us via Contact Us to the sales folks. On more than one occasion the sales person did not pay attention and replied back to me instead of contacting the lead. The rates were enclosed in those emails.

Also as I am in an automotive niche thats dominated by small players that pretty much only support MINIs I've met many of my advertisers and various MINI events around the country. When I give them my rates I am often told about the rates for other sites and media.

 

Thanks gnatster.

 

lmao, me too........ :rofl: