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Key People:

Mark Wells (CEO)
Tom Kirby (Chairman)
Kevin Rountree (CFO)

And keep buying plastic crack, my pretties - or I'll get you and your little dogs too!

I need my stock to go back up to 2006 prices.

i know i'm a total newb, but how do i buy thier stock?

JohnHwangDD wrote:If you really wanted to control GW, it's very simple:

There are 31.1 Million shares outstanding.

To gain control, you need at least 50% of the shares.

So, you would need to control 15.6 Million shares.

The current stock price is conveniently around 200p / share, or about 2 GBP per share.

So you would only need to spend 31.1 Million GBP to take control of the company.

Anybody got a spare $50M USD in their pocket?

How many members are on dakka? Dakka buy out anyone?

lord marcus wrote:i know i'm a total newb, but how do i buy thier stock?

You go to a stockbroker. Your bank probably has a share trading service.

Even one share entitles you to go to the shareholders' AGM but your vote is only worth 1. Most of the shares are held by an investment company, I can't remember its name.

In a PLC, while the shareholders are the owners of the company, it is actually run by the management. The shareholders powers are fairly limited unless you buy something like 10% of the shares in which case you could expect a seat on the board.

Sirius42 wrote:

JohnHwangDD wrote:So you would only need to spend 31.1 Million GBP to take control of the company

How many members are on dakka?

According to the front page, there are roughly 14 thousand users.

If we all paid equal shares, each would have to fork out 2.2k GBP, or $3.3k USD...

if i get a job and worked for a year, i'd do that.

Then unfortunately as you spend the final closing amounts of money GW gets wind of whom owns shares, sees they all belong to one person, and pulls strings to keep themselves in the majority. You lose. You're bankrupt.

-J.

Why doesn't Dakka create it's own gaming system and thereby start its own company? There are plenty of modellists out there far more skilled than GW's and plenty of painters up to 'eavy metal standard. All we need are rules and funding, right?

i bet we could do that.....anyone smell a forum-wide project coming on?

I smell my socks.

Also, a forumwide project.

Cheese Elemental wrote:Why doesn't Dakka create it's own gaming system and thereby start its own company? There are plenty of modellists out there far more skilled than GW's and plenty of painters up to 'eavy metal standard. All we need are rules and funding, right?

There was a thread a few weeks ago about doing this. It's certainly doable in the modern age: You could sue a simple easy-to-admin wiki* as your rules, especially if you want to make the rules 'open source'. I forsee some issues with settling on a theme and such, especially if there's no "guiding vision" but it's worth a try.

*Hey, one of the many features of Daka is a wiki, even!

Cheese Elemental wrote:I smell my socks.

Three words for you: Detergent, Washer, Dryer.

If that doesn't help, Gold Bond Foot Powder helps with sweaty feet.

The problem is that if we make it anyway similar to the 40k ruleset, we'll have lawyers sending C&D Letters in record time, and if we don't, no one will play it.

JohnHwangDD wrote:

Sirius42 wrote:

JohnHwangDD wrote:So you would only need to spend 31.1 Million GBP to take control of the company

How many members are on dakka?

According to the front page, there are roughly 14 thousand users.

If we all paid equal shares, each would have to fork out 2.2k GBP, or $3.3k USD...

OR....

You could do like all the other mom and pop stock clubs do and pool your money in and buy shares as a group. Legalities aside, you have enough talent on this forum to not !@#$ it up and actually come out ahead. I would suggenst starting small, like 50-100 each and keep the idea simple. You are trying to get in on the ground floor, so in eff3ect you have to get into bed with these people. That would actually have to have your memebers get themselves into the mode of business sense and not be !@#$ing about GW and Jervis being thier enemy. THAT in itself might drive off half of your base, but the ones that really want to kick it in th guts need to know what they are talking about.

Buying shares isn't hard. COming to a consensus after the fact, and splitting the profits... THATS the hard part. Then there is the little matter of WHO is going to be calling the shots on the cash, the upkeep costs, the distribution, representation, etc.etc. etc.

Come up with a buisness plan, give me a prospectus and do your homework. If it looks good, I'd give you a look and decide if you are serious and throw a couple of bucks your way. Groupwide shareholding of this company might be a worthy endevor if you people were smart about it and we didn't screw around.

Jervis would actually be looking your way and you would actually influance some of the lame ass decision making going on behind the scenes.

If it looks good, I'm in.

lord marcus wrote: i bet we could do that.....anyone smell a forum-wide project coming on?

I bet that we can't.

If you think that you can, please feel free to be the ringleader for the circus. It's a thankless job and everybody will hate you.
____

Balance wrote:I forsee some issues with settling on a theme and such, especially if there's no "guiding vision" but it's worth a try.

Oh, there will be no problem with a "guiding vision".

The problem will be *whose* guiding vision prevails...


What mystifies me is this:

If you look at YMDC (specific existing rules) and Proposed Rules (potential larger rules / Codices) on Dakka, what makes any of you think that a complete fan rewrite of 40k would be possible?


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Grot 6 wrote:

JohnHwangDD wrote:According to the front page, there are roughly 14 thousand users.

If we all paid equal shares, each would have to fork out 2.2k GBP, or $3.3k USD...

You could do like all the other mom and pop stock clubs do and pool your money in and buy shares as a group.

COming to a consensus after the fact, and splitting the profits... THATS the hard part. Then there is the little matter of WHO is going to be calling the shots on the cash, the upkeep costs, the distribution, representation, etc.etc. etc.

Jervis would actually be looking your way and you would actually influance some of the lame ass decision making going on behind the scenes.

Regardless of whether we pool our shares or vote as a bloc, we're still talking about coughing up *real* money for GW that doesn't translate into product on our gaming tables.

I have strong doubts about consensus, along with actually maintaining profits. I would suspect that the basic operations are probably sound, aside from executive compensation to Kirby.

I don't have any issues with Jervis per se - his basic direction makes sense to me, though some of the detail decisions are baffling. But that, again, is from the outside looking in.

Cheese Elemental wrote:Why doesn't Dakka create it's own gaming system and thereby start its own company? There are plenty of modellists out there far more skilled than GW's and plenty of painters up to 'eavy metal standard. All we need are rules and funding, right?

Because there is no "dakka". There's a bunch of guys that talk on the internet. Any project is screwed from the start with too many people. To start a company and get work done, you need a small group of people. An open group of people that post on Dakka isn't going to do it.

In the end, people here want to talk. Some even want to play games, paint, etc. If they wanted to be creating a game system, then they'd already be doing it.

lord marcus wrote: i bet we could do that.....anyone smell a forum-wide project coming on?

I smell the fresh embers of pyres and fat stench of charred flesh. People can't agree on anything, if you just look at the big three here you'll see why.

I don't think any group would have to buy up a majority of the stock. A big chunk is often enough to at least get your voice heard at the stockholder meetings.

If you just want 15% so they pay attention to you, it's still $1k USD per person. Still not cheap. And they can choose to ignore you from time to time.

JohnHwangDD wrote:If you just want 15% so they pay attention to you, it's still $1k USD per person. Still not cheap. And they can choose to ignore you from time to time.

But, it's still less than $3,000. Even if dakka rose and bought up control of GW, they still wouldn't 'have' to listen to the dakka block. It's just that the dakka block could fire them. Most shareholders don't vote, so someone with a big chunk of the stock (maybe even 10%), can sometimes mobilize enough of the non-participants to vote with them (or even better, give them their proxy votes). The notion of dakka buying GW is completely off the wall, but a nice dream. Dakka users wouldn't even agree if the next release should be Marinez! Hurr!, something new, updates, terrain, or Space Hulk.

I have strong doubts about consensus, along with actually maintaining profits. I would suspect that the basic operations are probably sound, aside from executive compensation to Kirby.

Really ? Joking aside I don't think he is particularly well paid, and he has been quite proactive in leading by example.

The first is Games Workshop (LSE: GAW), the table-top wargames business. I admit shareholders here have watched earnings collapse over the years and they no longer receive a dividend. But at least executive chairman Tom Kirby has recognise the difficulties. He's not received a pay increase since 2005, ditched his old bonus plan and joined the ordinary staff scheme. His maximum annual bonus now? Just £1,000.

source of quote

I think compared to some of the more..... shall we say optimistic...... executive pay packets we hear about I don't think he's ripping the company off per se.

A £1000 bonus is saintly. Really. He's def not a slash and burn 80's guy Thankfully. If I was in his position I would add a 0 to that bonus and consider myself a saint.

A forum project wouldn't work because most of you are idiots. Other group rules projects have worked because they weren't done by idots. (I'm thinking of the epic/40k conversion rules).

reds8n wrote:

I have strong doubts about consensus, along with actually maintaining profits. I would suspect that the basic operations are probably sound, aside from executive compensation to Kirby.

Really ? Joking aside I don't think he is particularly well paid,

http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/people/person.asp?personId=643872&ric=GAW.L

Tom pulled nearly 400,000 GBP ($600,000 USD) last year...

And that says he has a bigger bonus too ..? Hmmm..

That does seem more than he's worth.....

....but, although it's an ungodly sum to my mind ( and dreams... ) I don't think that's excessive for executive pay in the Uk at that level. Hell most local councils have a few people now on 6 figure salaries... .....

Cheers for the link though !

I have no problem with him drawing six figures - 100k GBP / $150k USD would be fine.

2x or 3x if GW were doing well, like the LotR years, sure.

He's not worth nearly 4x that, though.

We'll make a socialist of you yet John !

Ratbarf wrote:Who are the CEO's?

Some little kid who I kicked in the balls a while back; after which I screamed "Dark Angels are the Best" ...shortly there after the 4rth Edition Dark Angels Codex came out .

The Dakka Dakka investment club.

You put in a couple of dollers into a till and we vote on companies to invest it in.

If you want to pick a dog like GW, then you put it to a vote and the club decides. You could easily distribute the fundage throughout gameland and distribute the shares throughout different companies. FOW, WARMACHINE(PP), Reaper, GW, FF, etc.etc.etc. Hell, you could even drop a few duckets onto tin, Metals, etc. and see how it goes.

Issues that would come up, first and foremost would be posers. You cats out there that want to get into the game to just slash and burn and cause all kinds of douchebaggery would easily wreak a good thing. Serious homework and distribution of the funds through a solid established plan and discipline are what would be needed to do the trick. Long distnace stupidity and convoluted scheming from children would as well deep six the operation.

Freaky Idea, but small acorns grow big oaks. If you have an interest, it would easily get off the ground.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Investment_club is just a small drop in the bucket of info.

SERIOUS INFORMATION-

http://www.betterinvesting.org/public/default.htm

http://www.investopedia.com/terms/n/naic.asp


Other issues that would eventually come up would be taxation, international financial law, a decent lawyer or two. Establishment of a board of directors in your own right, and representation and elections to that board of directors. Serious offers would probibly be hamstrung by the morons that eventually try to pull sillyness.

People get skittish when they hear that money is getting lost in the market, so fear of the unknown.

Monitary distribution, and decision on profit- ( do you want checks, or just reinvest the profit into more stock.)

I'm not some sort of finacial wizard or something, but in my hypothetical discussion, there is easily four or five different guys here on Dakka that are worth thier salt and have experience in business, investment, shareholding, serious discussions in finacial matters, and running a website.

For those of you dogging the Dakka crowd, you don't give people enough credit. There are a few here that are actually worth more then 2 cents.

Buy out GW? Create a Dakka created game? Dang. We must be desperate.

I do like the idea of a community made ruleset that could be used for SF, fantasy, and historical games all in one game with sourcebooks for each genre or time period.

Reecius wrote:I thought Kirby stepped down as CEO?

He was replaced by a techno-savant...