Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I just looked up GW on the London stock exchange and they have a total stock value of £31m and a quick calculation £31m/52000 dakkanaughts comes to £596.

So if we all buy just £600 of GW shares then we can block vote the prices down and save more than £600 in the long run.

What d'ya say?

I say that most of those 52000 probably don't have £600 spare

Well you only really need 51% of the valuation to have a controling stake if that helps... everyone dig deep for £300 instead.

My Bad market capitalisation is £163.35m atm in 31m shares.

This is only meant to be a silly Baldric idea but if you do have the money to spare and you buy GW minis why not buy the shares and exert your shareholders rights. The CEO has to listen to shareholders he can ignore customers if he chooses.

You assume that the shares required to take control are avaiilable.

You also fail to understand the prices are what they are in order that those who have invested in the company see a return on their money.

This is precisely why a number of people would have to purchase over a period of time and excercise a block vote.

The share price of GW has unsurprisingly spiked after Christmas but will probably soon start to drop again as the new year blues set in.

I understand that the GW is answerable to its shareholders who want to see a dividend on their shares and as their sales drop they are increasing prices.

Finecast was brought in to save money on materials and shipping but has QC issues. Personally I think the savings made more than offset losses through returns.

I will re-iterate the point that this is meant to be a SILLY but not impossible idea.

Because you'll never find 52,000 GW customers with £600 to blow on shares?

Because the people currently sitting on all these shares may not want to part with them? I don't see people like Kirby giving up their shares while they are still with the company. Just because something has a 'value' doesn't mean everyone owning it is prepared to part with it for that actual amount.

While a fun idea, not really viable. The tendency of stock prices to spike as people are buying them up is rather the nature of stock prices. What you're seeing right there is the lowest ask price, also. Without depth of market, it's hard to see what all the other prices are.

Also, as much as I might disagree with GW's business practices, the combined voices of the rabble would probably be more damaging to the company than their current course of action is.

If i have shares, i want the prices kept high so I earn more money and I can finally buy that solid gold house Iv'e always wanted!

Considering the number of dakkaites I'd trust actually having a say in how the games are designed, and the even fewer number I'd trust to actually have a modicum of input on how a company is run... there's no way anything could go wrong with this plan.

daedalus wrote:
Also, as much as I might disagree with GW's business practices, the combined voices of the rabble would probably be more damaging to the company than their current course of action is.

But...but...! We're a loud rabble! Loud rabbles are always effective leaders! Especially when the rabble is from one forum of a global hobby! WE ARE THE 99% OCCUPY GW!

Please, lord, please. No more occupy anything. If anything, this should have it's own name.

Steal Initiative GW?

How about "The People's Front of Judea" as a name?

@Skippy Profits are not just a result of high prices but also volumes of sale I can sell 1 thing for £100 profit or 100 things for £1 profit; I would be just as rich and I would have a more stable business.

Sonophos wrote:How about "The People's Front of Judea" as a name?

@Skippy Profits are not just a result of high prices but also volumes of sale I can sell 1 thing for £100 profit or 100 things for £1 profit; I would be just as rich and I would have a more stable business.

Nononono, we're the Judean People's Front!

Sonophos wrote:
@Skippy Profits are not just a result of high prices but also volumes of sale I can sell 1 thing for £100 profit or 100 things for £1 profit; I would be just as rich and I would have a more stable business.

...I think Skippy was referring to stock prices, not product prices.

aka_mythos wrote:Well you only really need 51% of the valuation to have a controling stake if that helps... everyone dig deep for £300 instead.

Unlike most movies from the 80s, you can't actually make corporate decisions without board approval at 51%. You actually need a super majority to do that.

You can change board members when it comes up for vote with 51%.

Lord_Vader wrote:

Sonophos wrote:How about "The People's Front of Judea" as a name?

@Skippy Profits are not just a result of high prices but also volumes of sale I can sell 1 thing for £100 profit or 100 things for £1 profit; I would be just as rich and I would have a more stable business.

Nononono, we're the Judean People's Front!

SPLITTER!!!!


Automatically Appended Next Post:
The Government of the UK are proposing to give shareholders control of executive pay so we could potentially hold their wallets to ransom.

Sonophos wrote:How about "The People's Front of Judea" as a name?

@Skippy Profits are not just a result of high prices but also volumes of sale I can sell 1 thing for £100 profit or 100 things for £1 profit; I would be just as rich and I would have a more stable business.

Wrong. You're forgetting overhead. You'll need more people to make 100 things than you would for 1 thing, so to make the same profit, you'll have to produce a lot more than 100 things.

It was a simplification but your point is valid.

In the case of GW though I do believe an adjustment toward sale volume over unit profit model would be a good idea.

They can only keep people addicted to the brand for so long.

Sonophos wrote:

Lord_Vader wrote:

Sonophos wrote:How about "The People's Front of Judea" as a name?

@Skippy Profits are not just a result of high prices but also volumes of sale I can sell 1 thing for £100 profit or 100 things for £1 profit; I would be just as rich and I would have a more stable business.

Nononono, we're the Judean People's Front!

SPLITTER!!!!


Automatically Appended Next Post:
The Government of the UK are proposing to give shareholders control of executive pay so we could potentially hold their wallets to ransom.

Let me make an analogy using American football. The team is like a company. In order to be successful, you need a good CEO, the quarterback. Quarterbacks are thus the highest paid member of the team.

The shareholders are like the fans, who pay ticket prices to see the team play. Now let's say the fans want lower ticket prices. As a result of lowering prices, there is less money to pay the team. So they get rid of the quarterback they have who costs a lot, and get someone of average ability.

What they end up doing is taking a player who helps the team win 14 games a season, to a player who only gets 8 games a season.

So what you do by lowering CEO/executive pay is you drive off the people with proven ability, and you may not be replacing them with people who are brilliant, thus killing the company. If you do, they will eventually want more money, and if they don't get it, they will leave.




Automatically Appended Next Post:

Sonophos wrote:It was a simplification but your point is valid.

In the case of GW though I do believe an adjustment toward sale volume over unit profit model would be a good idea.

They can only keep people addicted to the brand for so long.

Not really. GW products, for example, are made in the US. Right now, if they expanded their workforce to keep up with a larger demand created by lower prices, they would have to spend a ton of money. In the last 3 years, due to increased regulations, it costs +3000 dollars minimum to employ someone, and that will probably go up another +10000 once the Obama Healthcare kicks in. That is on top of salary and retirement pay. So costs go up so much that increased sale volume may only provide a negligble bump in profit. You need to hire more managers and human resource people to maintain the work force.

Once I'm part of the organization that holds the majority share, I'd want products priced for maximum profit anyway.

Oh well if I'm paying for health care for poor people i don't mind.

The Dreadnote wrote:I say that most of those 52000 probably don't have £600 spare

How many US dollars is that?

FYI the total market cap of Games Workshop is about GBP 135M.

you would need to acquire at least 51% of that in order to gain a majority stake. Quick calculation says this is about GBP 68M.

The issue is further complicated because, if only GBP 31M is floating on the LSE, that is only 22%. By looking at the GW Investor relations page, 52% of the company is held between three asset management funds. Dakka would need to contact two of these three funds and propose an exit deal that they cannot refuse, or else they will. Because we are buying with cash, this would mean a huge premium.

So, buying GBP 31M = 22%.
Minimum additional stake required to gain majority share: 29%.
Market value of 1% stake = GBP 1.4M
Market value of 29% stake = GBP 40.6M
Minimum cash required to acquire a majority stake in GamesWorkshop as of 11/1/2012 = GBP 71.6M.

This value does not include the premium you will probably be required to pay on the 29% stake which could easily double its purchase price.

Throwing a wild educated guess of about GBP 100M for the total purchase price of a 51% stake in GW, each dakkanought would be required to fork over GBP 2,000, which would roughly equal USD 3,000 at this moment in time.

More importantly, I would like to ask the OP, what do you plan to do after you have voted the prices down? Let GW go bankrupt?

Sonophos wrote:This is precisely why a number of people would have to purchase over a period of time and excercise a block vote.

have you actually spent any time reading Dakka?

You can rarely can get more than five people to agree on anything to do with GW for the lifespan of a single thread (usually measured in days), much less an extended period of time...


You would have better luck capturing bigfoot...

sonophos said:
I just looked up GW on the London stock exchange and they have a total stock value of £31m and a quick calculation £31m/52000 dakkanaughts comes to £596.

So if we all buy just £600 of GW shares then we can block vote the prices down and save more than £600 in the long run.

What d'ya say?

Or we could save the $31 million dollars and start our own company. We certainly have enough dedicated painters, modlers and writers.

Sonophos wrote:
I will re-iterate the point that this is meant to be a SILLY but not impossible idea.

Please see above.

I would, however, love thank all the people who have discussed this and researched it so thoroughly. All I did was misread the market datasheet and start this thread as a giggle.

Personally I think I could just about scrape up £2000.

The original idea was to look at offsetting the cost of my hobby by taking over GW and lowering the costs. It was in no way meant to be taken seriously (well maybe a little).

Maybe we could offer share options with army boxes. :-P

You should do some insider trading next. That's rly kunnin

Wot like buying shares then persuading a whole boat loada people to buy them and push the price up.

I don't know what you mean.