Tom Winnifrith Audioboom BearCast

Comments

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   Paul Scott

   20 December 2014, 15:20

   Good audiocast Tom. I much prefer the more serious & measured tone too, much better.

   AudioBoom is a tricky one. I can see both sides of the story. On the one hand, I like their App, and have it on my iPhone. Also, I use their facility for hosting my audiocasts – it was £60 pa. which I think is good value. It’s quick & easy to upload audiocasts onto their platform, so they do have an interesting business. I did very well on the shares earlier this year, twice actually – I made money buying them at 5p, and made 2-3 times my money, sold out, and then managed to buy some new ones in the Placing.

   I didn’t intend flipping the stock, but talking to Was afterwards, he convinced me that my bullishness on the stock was misplaced, so I sold out.

   I think Was is being too bearish on the company, but he does have a very good core point, that the valuation of £57m at 10.75p per share is, realistically, way, way too high. In the real world, it’s probably worth about 2-3p per share.

   BUT, in trendy growth sectors, valuations can become very excitable. So who knows what will happen?

   Personally, I’m neither long nor short. The valuation is much too high probably. Anyway, we’ll see.

   I agree with your (Tom’s) key message, that the company should stop worrying about the share price, and just get on with running the business. They have £8m-ish cash in the bank, and they made themselves look like fools last week, putting out a spurious “we know of no reason…” announcement commenting on the share price, when it just did a typical move that you would expect from a volatile small cap.

   Also the £10k Director purchase was ridiculous – naive in the extreme – actually it was such a stupid move, that it adds to the bear argument, not the bull case. A token Director buy to boost confidence doesn’t actually give confidence – it just makes the company & its advisers look like manipulative fools. In my opinion.

   Regards, Paul.

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   RPC

   21 December 2014, 00:06

   Tom,

   I appreciate your somewhat more measured response regarding Audioboom.

   You have taken it upon yourself to advise Audioboom as to how, in future, it should respond to negative criticism.

   As a regular reader of Shareprophets, and a supporter of your efforts to expose AIM frauds, may I offer some advice to you?

   When publishing an article with your name on the header, when the content is largely the work of another, please make it much clearer where your introductory words end and your quoted author’s begin. It was not at all clear in your original article on Audioboom. I genuinely mistook Waseem Shakoor’s quoted article as your paraphrase of/agreement with his sentiments. It simply didn’t register that it was a c & p of an old MF bulletin board post by Waseem, largely because it wasn’t presented in such a way as to make it obvious.

   Also, please be aware that, as a reader, I will always assume (not unreasonably) that the inclusion of another’s work in an article that says “by Tom Winnifrith” will signify an endorsement of the sentiment expressed unless otherwise stated. It is disingenuous to argue at a later date that the sentiments expressed were not your own when no attempt was made to state that in the article, especially since you haven’t exactly laid claim to impartial journalism – rather the opposite. You make no bones about your bearish bias. I have no problem with that, per se, but you should be aware that your bearish slant will automatically be assumed by your readers unless clearly stated otherwise.

   I appreciate the work you do to expose frauds and fiddles on AIM, but I hope your enthusiasm for this (much needed) work doesn’t go to your head such that you tarnish the few genuinely innovative, entrepreneurial and well managed companies on AIM which are the stated reason for its existence.

   As a private investor, not a trader, I am always on the lookout for such companies; it is a hard enough job to discover them, research their business and then assume the risk of investing, without having to shoulder the additional risk of bear raids initiated by irresponsible journalism.

   I know you argue in your Bearcast that short term sp movements should be discounted by long term investors but this is to ignore such facts as being “stopped out” and forced to buy back at a higher price. And if stops are not used, not everyone is able to access spare funds in time to buy the dips and take advantage of a lower sp caused by a bear raid, as you suggest they should.

   In short, a little more discernment and a little more attention to journalistic conventions when quoting the work of another would be appreciated.