I dont know that I agree. I would be happy if she just admitted...

I dont know that I agree. I would be happy if she just admitted to some of the issues:

1. Buying Diversa was a wrong move - Most of it has now been sold...
2. That growth by acquisition in this space is going to be followed by staff rationalisation as the customer promise is technology and a lower cost or a fee per transaction. That means a high staff turnover and probably not a stable staff until the acquisitions are over. Plus we seem to have a period of much higher costs as we keep bringing on new customers. We (as shareholders) have been given no insight into this process.
3. The sale of the trustee business was, in my opinion, a shambles and as such may have highlighted a weakness in the business.
4. Your point CharlesPuyol - The rhetoric is so corny as to have become an irritation. The 20-mile journey is taking us to a place unknown and cannot even be the same place we thought we were going to as Diversa was part of that journey. Besides which I think we are or have walked at least twice what we expected to be walking. I just get the impression that neither of the 2 representatives actually want to admit that there have been mistakes and I think (my view) that that is incorrect. Making mistakes - especially in the early stages of a changing marketplace, you will make mistakes. If CM is a good leader we should be able to expect a review that includes an insight as to what the endpoint of this journey is and what we can measure each year.
5. I don't mind the acquisitions - nor do I mind using the $40 million for more acquisitions but we probably need some allied business that also has transactional earnings to balance the years when our transactions are flat. An overhead contributor if you wish...

I didn't think the results were bad just very very average.