This was their response regarding my question about what management was doing to protect/reward shareholders, given the depressed share price for far too long:
"First of all, thank you for reaching out directly. Company has been inundated with inquiries lately from many diverse investors. Apparently, there are plenty of rumors circulating about VIQ. Some about being acquired by a competitor or private equity, acquiring others, financial distress, large new SaaS contracts looming, becoming #19 on TSX in the last 12 months to leave the public eye through privatization and many other rumors. The rumor mill is endless. Regardless the rumors, short sellers are back in feeding off such rumors anticipating one of them to materialize and benefit from it with little downside risk at current level given company foundation and demonstrated support from its lenders, insiders, and larger shareholders in recent quarters.
Current stock price is not something the company controls in its entirety. Some analysts told the company for most small cap and mid-size companies, about a 1/3 of the stock value can be directly controlled in average by the company. Other percentages are tied to specific industry issuers are in and broad market conditions. Company last disclosures go back to November 11, 2023. It was a mirror view reporting for the July-Sept of last year period. Given the industry stabilizations, recent trends, progress made by the company on many fronts, Q3 of last year is an eternity ago.
Company is going to report on Q4 and year end around March 27 next month. At that time, company will provide more recent updates that will likely help many long-term investors to sort through these rumors and better understanding where the company is at. It would enable you to assess the disconnect between the current stock value and fundamental value of the stock going forward given company foundation, industry trends, industry mergers and acquisitions lately, company’s value of its tech AI platform, global revenue asset and transformation of the revenue into mostly AI based revenue.
At this stage, given market conditions exceptionally harsh for most small cap public issuers at the moment, company understands the laser focus on returning ASAP to positive ebitda and free cash flow. I can assure you that these milestones are the sole focus of the company and detailed plans are being executed to make this a reality in the short term while protecting the completion of the tech AI migrations in Australia. The draw in December from the debt facility would have not gone through if such plans and actual trends in Q4 were not already well in progress. Cost reductions are one lever. Delisting from Nasdaq was another. The long-awaited migrations of Australia revenue to the company cloud AI Platform representing 50% of the company revenue expected to yield substantial gross margin gains like it did in USA and UK in 2022 and 2023 are other levers. There are more which will come up upon disclosures.
After 2.5 years of industry wide challenging cycles due to COVID shutdowns and labor constraints globally, the many noise factors disclosed in 2023 and outlined in the Dec 12 email with the company are in the mirror view going forward. Company understands it will likely take 1-3 quarters for the full new exciting outlook to emerge clearly for many shareholders. Meanwhile, many are doubling down on their ownership positions in the dips while they wait and see results. Others who've absorbed the high volatility for a number of years and sold with a high return in 2021 at the peak of the VQS rally in 2021 are coming back in to take a fresh look at VIQ ahead of possible next cycle. Many said their return in 2021 was not based on where they sold back then but rather based on the initial price which they bought at in the first place in prior years.
If you are interested to discuss further, Management is available to speak directly to its long-term shareholders via scheduled online calls. Please let us know and we will coordinate with Management for scheduling.
Thank you for your continued support.
VIQ Team"