RE:RE:RE:I spoke with LaFond this morningAn entrepreneur knows that if their company innovates and gets it right, you don't have to bother thinking of your annual compensation and whether it's fair or not. Nor a modest tax bill to allow you to put even more skin in the game, which any entrepreneur would love. His worry is that of a bureaucrat.
Speaking philosophically, there's a large difference between entrepreneurial management that feels and acts like a committed investor in a company --one looking to earn a good-to-great return from capitalizing on a firms innovation --and an unenterprising, bureaucratic management that just shows up and clips their coupons. Canadapeit has often highlighted this.
Unfortunately, most of management is from big companies. I recall when we were active at last years annual meeting many here had wanted to see someone on the Board with US VC experience who might push that narrative to management. I suppose Holler is sort of that, but I would have loved to have seen a real known VC firm background with someone. Most of the Board is from larger companies too. Paul should think hard of how to instill an entrepreneurial spirit with his top officers beyond just compensating them with options and shares. It's a mentality of embracing the risks around your innovation, having faith in your management team, and looking for big opportunities that change the game, not just showing up and worrying about your annual compensation.
Perhaps we'll see a linkedin employment ad soon for a general counsel with entrepreneurial experience..... Then we know Paul is looking to change the tenor of management down the hall.
palinc2000 wrote: China deal in the near future ,,,???,?We heard from another poster that Lafond does not understand oncology and yet he has to be involved in the legal documentation related to a China deal....
My faith in a soon to be China deal has almost completely vanished ...Why would Lafond sell if they were in the midst of negotiations for a cash injection by a Chinese bio? Its either no deal or if there is a deal coming Lafond is .......I cant find the proper adjective!!!
Wino115 wrote: So, instead of pushing management to do something constructive around building an audience for the share that provides both proper valuation and sufficient liquidity, he says nothing about this major issue and bails. That is the kind of internal pressure a shareholder would want to see on the management team. And he frets for it over the next 5 months.
If these were granted back in the 2016 timeframe, he's been compensated plenty over the hears to pay for that tax hit out of pocket. That's 6 years of pretty decent, growing pay, with bonuses at max. And I could be wrong, but the tax bill would be around $20k --or to look at it another way $3k a year he could have saved up. I don't mean to dimish a $20k tax liability but the simple fact is that for the last 3 years he could easily see that there would be a decent tax bill due on those and could have started to "defease" the bill knowing he would want to keep the shares for a company in which he loves the fact they take risks and have potential big payouts for. Selling after being within months of significant news is a no-no.
Lastly, if you actually thought there'd be good news coming, not only would you have a sweet bonus to either pay that tax off or nicely rebuild that savings pot beyond where it was, PLUS, you'd have paid up shares that could literally be worth 10x that tax bill then you would not have sold them. He is showing zero faith in milestones changing the trajectory of the company valuation or the liquidity. Time to look for a new in-house counsel who gets it and understands the severe value destruction company shareholders have witnessed over the last 3 years of a bull market.
SPCEO1 wrote: Our new head of IR kindly put together a quick call with Jocelyn, which was appreciated given the negative impact of this news.
He noted the trading volume is low so maybe he did not want to be in a position where he exercised them on the last day and then sold into a low volume market?