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 pretre wrote:

I think the preamble doesn't predict that.

It doesn't say anything realistic about 2014 being a good year though and given that these figures will contain a month of sales for the new edition of GW's flagship game I suspect that the numbers will be at best 'disappointing'. It would appear that this year is make or break time given that there are no more crutches left for GW to lean on and now that Kirby appears to be gone maybe, just maybe someone competent will take charge.

 Paradigm wrote:
...

"We have, this last year, spent an indecent amount of your money trying to stop someone stealing our ideas and images." ...

That might be actionable as libel, actually.

WayneTheGame wrote:

Kirby is stepping down as CEO (and will remain chair

Ladies, Gentlemen, prepare our "The Witch is dead!" song!

 Kilkrazy wrote:

 Paradigm wrote:
...

"We have, this last year, spent an indecent amount of your money trying to stop someone stealing our ideas and images." ...

That might be actionable as libel, actually.

Not to mention the not-so-trivial fact that IP laws don't protect "ideas" in the first place. They only protect the expression of those ideas.

Man, the more I read it, the more convinced I become of a really unhealthy culture at GW corporate. Kirby sounds deranged.

Well that and he goes on to imply that it wasn't neccessary to do this at all.

The argument is that we have to do this or we will, bit by bit, lose everything that we hold dear, everything that keeps the business going. Our crops will wither, our children will die piteous deaths and the sun will be swept from the sky. But is it true?

Who writes that in a letter to investors?

Yeah, I really felt embarrassed for him reading that.

Hollismason wrote:
Who writes that in a letter to investors?

The man who thinks we've forgotten about Pokemon and is CEO of a company that thinks Social Media is something to run away from, and not embrace. That's who.

Hollismason wrote:
Well that and he goes on to imply that it wasn't neccessary to do this at all.

The argument is that we have to do this or we will, bit by bit, lose everything that we hold dear, everything that keeps the business going. Our crops will wither, our children will die piteous deaths and the sun will be swept from the sky. But is it true?

Who writes that in a letter to investors?

Someone who doesn't like having investors?

Hollismason wrote:
Well that and he goes on to imply that it wasn't neccessary to do this at all.

The argument is that we have to do this or we will, bit by bit, lose everything that we hold dear, everything that keeps the business going. Our crops will wither, our children will die piteous deaths and the sun will be swept from the sky. But is it true?

Who writes that in a letter to investors?

A raging madman that finally has to face his very own complete incompetence and burns all bridges behind him.

Hollismason wrote:
Well that and he goes on to imply that it wasn't neccessary to do this at all.

The argument is that we have to do this or we will, bit by bit, lose everything that we hold dear, everything that keeps the business going. Our crops will wither, our children will die piteous deaths and the sun will be swept from the sky. But is it true?

Who writes that in a letter to investors?

A man who is fresh out of feths to give? Or who possibly was born without any to begin with? Face it, if Kirby cared about what anyone else thought about... well, anything at all, he would run that company a heck of a lot differently.

A man who has a forge a new narrative for investors to keep them from running away.

I have to admit though I'm surprised that it wasn't written in the form of an Imperial communique.

Still not 100% sure it's legit, but it sounds crazy enough to be true. Seems like he really does write this way in his preambles.

 Kilkrazy wrote:

 Paradigm wrote:
...

"We have, this last year, spent an indecent amount of your money trying to stop someone stealing our ideas and images." ...

That might be actionable as libel, actually.

CHS ought to keep a copy then.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
A man who has a forge a new narrative for investors to keep them from running away.

Dammit! I can't believe I didn't think to make a Forge The Narrative joke! You can tell I'm new at this, huh?

If it's not legit it probably wouldn't be up on the website possibly?

I dunno his other preambles are the same way.

squidhills wrote:

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
A man who has a forge a new narrative for investors to keep them from running away.

Dammit! I can't believe I didn't think to make a Forge The Narrative joke! You can tell I'm new at this, huh?

Agreed

Will be interesting to see the full report. Jokes aside, I'm guessing the numbers aren't good, particularly with the way he opens.

Also he's stepping down, or at least aside, which suggests this gravy train is at the end of the track.

"If you consider a successful business one that 'makes money', you're gonna be super disappointed. BUT! If you consider a company that's failed to deliver growth for several years despite the soon-to-be-former CEO's empty promises of potential growth for half a decade or more to be a good investment, have I got an opportunity for you!"

I am truly stunned at the 4 million mark for the website, how is that even possible?

A moment of silence for everyone holding GW shares

If this is a real thing the numbers are going to look fairly bad.

If they were any good he would be trumpeting them as proof of the success of his strategy.

 mattyrm wrote:
I am truly stunned at the 4 million mark for the website, how is that even possible?

I know nothing about web design and the costs involved, so someone please explain why is this bad?

Oddly enough GW stock is trading higher today (up 15p)on unusually high volume (average 17k, today 31k).

That fact that he spins everything related to their results isn't really a problem IMO. It's his job.

I think the general writing style in these missives is obviously strange, and could be dialed back about 50% and still achieve the goal of sounding breezy but direct. It seems fairly clear that he writes those himself and doesn't let his communications people edit them much. And I don't think that's a generally positive trait for a CEO.

So who else is writing them a letter for the CEO job? *raises hand*

 H.B.M.C. wrote:

 mattyrm wrote:
I am truly stunned at the 4 million mark for the website, how is that even possible?

I know nothing about web design and the costs involved, so someone please explain why is this bad?

A good mate of mine does web design and search optimization and gak for a living, hes Google certified and all that bollocks.

Anyways, he said he makes a cheap gakky website for like 500 bucks, and a fully designed, all singing all dancing, original art and sounds and buttons and videos and all of that gak website for between 5 and 8 grand.

Now, I know that for a big company like GW, with a massive inventory and all kind of complex gak it is obviously going to be much higher, as require much more effort, but do you see what I'm saying? If one bloke who does it really well and professionally for say, 8 grand, you would presume it would cost some sort of derivative of that amount.

So, lets be generous and say it would take not just one bloke, but twenty, surely you are still talking under a million bucks right?

If I had been asked for a best guess before reading that, seriously Id have basically times my mates figure by twenty or something, so Id have said like.. between 200-300 grand. I certainly wouldn't have got near a million, and feth me, 4 baffles me completely, because surely you could hire twenty pros to work on it full time for 6 months, and still not get anywhere near that figure.

 agnosto wrote:
Oddly enough GW stock is trading higher today (up 15p)on unusually high volume (average 17k, today 31k).

Not surprising, really. When there's blood in the water, everyone seem to be a bit more busy than usual.

I cannot wait to read that report. It will be very interesting.

My first draft for CEO position.

Edited by RiTides: This is not appropriate for Dakka Dakka.

Please keep it PG-13, folks. Thanks.