The market has spoken, page-80

I don't agree. We were conditioned last year to expect constant good news. If people got one thing out of last December results and the difference between the Petra report and the first Moelis report it should have been that the bulk of those announcements were most probably pumping. Yet the share price really didn't perform that well despite that. So I'd question whether announcements really do convert into higher share price even if they make you feel better.

In fact I'd guess (but will check) that over time the power of announcements reduced because there was increasingly a gap in what was announced and what showed up in reality. So it seems to me that at the heart of the problem is one of trust.

In my view the business is just fine and I'm expecting that we will be seeing a much cleaner ship - and I'm expecting a review of pretty much everything - for the better. Just because Dirk isn't pumping out news doesn't mean he isn't working his butt off or that the sales team isn't selling things, or Bob isn't cooking up a storm.

It just seems to me that the despair we are seeing is pretty much the precise condition that feeds a venture capitalist mindset and the type of comms we saw last year. Wanting more announcements seems to me to be like an addiction though. You know - short term high followed by disappointment as reality returns.

Short term isn't what we need. Let's look at licences. Unless it is the right licence with the right company for the right reason you may gain a short term revenue jump but risk your longer term growth. A bid might make us feel good in the short term but in our eagerness to get a return now - just a couple of years after commercialisation - we are letting emotion interfere. Give him a break I reckon.

The last thing we need is a return to old habits. The last thing we need is to encourage Gavin to interfere in the management of the business and the communications.

Yet every gripe and groan is less likely to give us the stability we need right now.

I know a good few people have sold out - they've had enough. The sentiment is pretty overt. And that is ideal conditions for anyone who has the power to stoke emotion. It's easy to forget that every share sold is bought by someone.

I just wish it hadn't hit at the very time when we had a change of guard. I don't want it to get in the way of the new leadership. I don't want us to be nostalgic for something that was not all it appeared. I don't want Dirk to have to battle with the board over the share price when it is not actually the result of his leadership.

In fact just in case someone from the Board is reading I'm going to refer to Gavin's diatribe at the AGM in which he advises shareholders that management don't have control over share prices - which he says simply reflect market demand at a particular point in time not the growth or sustainability of the business.

Now while I might disagree with him on some points and on the implications, it's his words and so I hope he takes his own advice and leaves Dirk to get on with building the business, creating stability and cleaning up whatever needs to be cleaned up.

And I'm going to okay in the garden rather than spend my time peering at the price. When the spring comes and my vegetables grow well might just be when Alexium gets going as well.

Parsifal.