To Lions Gate and Carl Icahn: Show Me the Money [View article]
What's also very concerning about LGF mgmt is the amount of money wasted on the Icahn affair, which the board could have preemptively put in a trust, as they'd eventually been shown the door anyway.
To Lions Gate and Carl Icahn: Show Me the Money [View article]
That's basically right as a quick review of the latest relevant Def 14-A shows that mgmt was already set to receive varying amounts of severance in the event of change of control/termination; but a quick back-of-the-envelope calculation shows the cash proceeds wouldn't have reached anywhere near $16M. My opinion at this point is that $16M is unfortunately a cost worth paying given the big financial losses over the past two years and the lack of direction towards profitability or meaningful cash flow generation. Interestingly, you'd think that mgmt would be motivated to generate real profits and cash, based on their outstanding options, but then again, at present, since they have exercise prices at/above $10/share, there is a long way to go to get to $10 and the upside would be limited until meaningfully exceed the exercise price.
The big question I have is what the non-insider board of directors are doing/thinking, as well as the hedge funds that have had large stakes in the co.
To Lions Gate and Carl Icahn: Show Me the Money [View article]
ERIC/S and Gadz,
Thanks for your comments. LGF released the following PR earlier today, "Lionsgate Announces That Preliminary Results for Fiscal Year 2010 Show Adjusted EBITDA in Excess of $115 Million." As you can see from what I wrote, and as the market reacted (basically it didn't, perhaps because it was expected and in any event, it's not really worth getting excited about), shareholders are stuck. Same management, same results. While I don't really see Icahn and co. selling off assets at any price -- since they for one recognize the pressure on libraries, and thus are averse to further such acquisitions -- I do share your concern if they tried to run the place themselves. No doubt they have people in mind that they'd like to tap.
DVD Format Battle Development: Toshiba to License HD-DVD Technology to China (HPQ, MC, SNE, DELL, DIS, NWS, LGF, NIPNY, SANYY, MSFT, INTC) [View article]
Update: Warner Bros. is the second major studio to announce its support of both next -generation DVD formats. It made the announcement yesterday following Paramount Pictures' decision earlier this month to release films in both HD-DVD and Blu-ray disc format. That means NBC Universal is the only studio that will release films solely on HD-DVD format. Warner Bros. is said to have made the decision to support both formats because it doesn't see an end to the format war. (Source: AP) * Warner Bros. is owned by Time Warner Inc. (ticker: TWX), Paramount Pictures is owned by Viacom (ticker: VIA-B), and NBC Universal is owned by GE (ticker: GE).
To Lions Gate and Carl Icahn: Show Me the Money [View article]
To Lions Gate and Carl Icahn: Show Me the Money [View article]
The big question I have is what the non-insider board of directors are doing/thinking, as well as the hedge funds that have had large stakes in the co.
To Lions Gate and Carl Icahn: Show Me the Money [View article]
Thanks for your comments. LGF released the following PR earlier today, "Lionsgate Announces That Preliminary Results for Fiscal Year 2010 Show Adjusted EBITDA in Excess of $115 Million." As you can see from what I wrote, and as the market reacted (basically it didn't, perhaps because it was expected and in any event, it's not really worth getting excited about), shareholders are stuck. Same management, same results. While I don't really see Icahn and co. selling off assets at any price -- since they for one recognize the pressure on libraries, and thus are averse to further such acquisitions -- I do share your concern if they tried to run the place themselves. No doubt they have people in mind that they'd like to tap.
DVD Format Battle Development: Toshiba to License HD-DVD Technology to China (HPQ, MC, SNE, DELL, DIS, NWS, LGF, NIPNY, SANYY, MSFT, INTC) [View article]