OT StockhouseInvictus Financial left with nothing
2010-06-11 19:07 ET - Street Wire
by Stockwatch Business Reporter
Invictus Financial Inc., formerly Stockhouse Inc., has now completed the great unravelling of company assets that begin last October. Today it announced the sale of all remaining assets and liabilities except for a $231,519 debenture and its $22-million tax loss.
Marcus New, who has presided over the divestitures, will resign his position in Stockgroup Media Inc., which was the Invictus operating subsidiary sold to the new group, though he remains a director of Invictus.
When Invictus, then Stockhouse, began selling its assets last October, it started with what it called its media business, which included all advertising, all editorial and the Stockhouse name. The buying group, which the company has repeatedly avoided identifying, now evidently functions on the Stockhouse website under the name Stockhouse Publishing Inc.
Today's final piece of unwinding may make no difference to the legal standing of Invictus's longstanding creditors. Reuters Canada Ltd. says Invictus owes it $291,905, in outstanding payments for data. Reuters cut off that service to the company last July. As at March 31, 2010, Invictus had large financial obligations; it had payables of $2.12-million and accrued liabilites of $609,202. After the sale, Invictus retains part of a debenture it sold in November, 2008, wherein it revealed the name of only one subscriber, Mr. New's wife, Yvonne. The names of the other five investors were not revealed.
In the same month that then-Stockhouse sold the mysterious $550,000 of debentures, it also took on a new newsletter writer named Thom Calandra for its Stockhouse website. In his inaugural issue of Ticker Trax, published on Nov. 18, 2008, Mr. Calandra began: "We shall talk about money, art, food, literature, swimming, friends and family. We will, I hope over the course of a year's approximately 30 or more issues, have spawned and nurtured a select family of garage-loft investors who can rely upon me and each other for a hand to hold, a property to market, an ear to listen."
In his premiere issue on Stockhouse, he also had noted that he was once in trouble with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Without going into much detail Mr. Calandra said he "recognizes the shortcomings that led to his settlement." (He was referring to the $541,109 he paid the SEC after it accused him of scalping stocks in his other newsletter on MarketWatch, which he called Thom Calandra's Stock Watch.)
Now, more than a year later, while it is not clear how the select family of garage-loft investors is doing, it is clear that Mr. Calandra is the star feature of the Stockhouse website under its new ownership. Stockhouse does have other columnists, however, the links to their articles lead back to other websites.
With all assets of the once-mighty Stockhouse sold off, investors of Invictus Financial find themselves in a most-peculiar position. They cannot name with any certainty even one buyer of any of the company's assets.