A number of questions are raised here for why the price is going...

A number of questions are raised here for why the price is going backwards.

The principal one though is "was the price that PPL paid for Cohort too high ?".

Market sentiment would seem to think so.

The price required significant borrowings, plus dilution now, and continuing significant dilution right through to May 2018 - so anyone investing here has to look beyond May 2018, probably at least 1 year past that date, you may need a 3 year investment horizon.

Because up to May 2018, PPL will be attempting to pay off debt, and also there will be possibly 2 significant share tranches to be paid out to Cohort owners, an 8% dilution in May 2017, followed by a final 30% dilution in May 2018.

Analysts would have run over these figures, and maybe come to the conclusion that it is going to take PPL a while after May 2018 to recover from this debt and dilution process, hence they are avoiding the stock, and it is being slowly sold down. I'm not sure where the bottom will be, but it may be a slow process toward May 2018, where at some point it may approach the 20c to 25c mark on low volumes.

You will need the patience of a saint perhaps, to stay long-term in this stock.

And if they attempt further acquisitions, this could be depressed for many years to come.

Now all of that is out of the way - what about the upside.

The good news is that revenue seems to be rapidly increasing, and should pass $60 million (across the combined group) this financial year, perhaps even with a small NPAT of about $1 million if things go well.

The business space they are in is growing globally, quite significantly, so their timing is very good. This is evidenced by the fact that Google has recently moved into the space because of the global opportunities and potential profits.

PPL have a good relationship with NewsCorp here in Australia, and I expect are trying very hard to lock in NewsCorp in the USA and Europe for PPL services, if successful, this could come as a left field announcement and be quite important for the stock.

Either way, PPL/Cohort are expanding into Europe and the USA, which Cohort has contributed to.

And don't discount a takeover offer from an international player at some stage if these business areas continue to heat up, especially if PPL get the USA NewsCorp deal.

So there is a lot to like.

It's a toss of a coin at the moment, as to which way this will go, but it's worth keeping an eye on the news here (for the patient investor).

Gw