"Let good sound sense prevail at the EGM on November 19th."Good...

"Let good sound sense prevail at the EGM on November 19th."

Good sense will prevail at the EGM. The concern is whether or not this time 'round the disaffected minority will accept the shareholders' verdict. I predict not, which is why I keep making the point in advance. Those who review this exchange afterwards will be completely clear that all the talk about "democracy" and "performance" is just that - talk. Would that good sense could prevail AFTER the EGM.

If the share price were higher, the argument would be that the company is too big, too valuable, to permit Simon to run. The cloth is cut to the measure required.

We used to hear that what EFTel really needed was to obtain the services of some genius such as Phil Green (Babcock), David Coe (Allco), Twiggy Forrest (FMG), Eddie Groves (ABC), Allan Moss (Macquarie), or any number of other stock-promoter types whose businesses today lie in ruins or teeter on the edge of anhilation. It is stunning to be sitting here in the aftermath of the bubble deflating so dramatically and read that we are incompetent because we lack "imagination."

Imagination is what Eddie Groves had (and reportedly still has), and of course, poor Don Quixote, self-appointed knight-errant, on his mission to save unknown maidens in distress from a lack of, er, imagination. A too-active imagination is perfectly capable of turning a windmill into a charging bad chap in black armour.

Imagination was behind the contract which left EFTel with a tiny 35% margin on Pocketsurfers, for which it was required to finance the manufacture of the units in advance via letters of credit, distribute the product nationally, provide refunds or replacements for defective units, advertise and promote the product nationally, etc. From a consumer's point of view at the time it was released, the product was usable and useful, and even cheap ($400 retail). As a commercial proposition, it was a dog with fleas and showing signs of rabies. We did very well to close off the deal without significant loss, selling all of the committed units.

Screwpulls, if you had succeeded in one of your previous attempts to get rid of Simon and replace him with imaginative types like some of those mentioned above, you'd not have a share price to complain about - you'd have no company at all.