Right before the bounce
An open letter from David Lucatch, CEO Intertainment Media Inc. / President Ortsbo Inc.
February 9, 2011
To all our stakeholders,
On February 8, 2010, we announced that we have an offer to separately publicly list our wholly owned subsidiary, Ortsbo Inc. on a US Exchange. We are currently reviewing this offer and will report on any updated information.
This was not our first offer to be involved in a public offering for Ortsbo. In late September 2010, we announced that we had received an offer from a US listed company with a valuation for Ortsbo of $30 Million. The Company never accepted that offer.
Before moving forward, I must remind all our stakeholders that founders and management have a significant stake in the Company and its success and have continuously invested their own monies into private placements and the exercise of other securities thereby making us both investors and management responsible for growing shareholder value.
When we look at Ortsbo, we see a product unlike anything we’ve seen before. Ortsbo has the ability to, and has proven to the market that is can initially take on the same, and in some cases surpass, the growth rates of some of the biggest and most valuable social media properties globally, including Facebook.
What Intertainment and Ortsbo don’t have is the same capital opportunities that these companies have. It’s important to remember that the large social media companies with exceptional values are raising millions of dollars to consistently improve their product, services and marketing programs.
We are proud to have developed and launched this technology in Canada, however a significant portion of Canadian technology companies find themselves, many times, competing for only a small portion of investor interest compared to resource companies. The acceptance of technology and social media companies as viable businesses and investment vehicles in Canada is still at a very early stage, while in the US, the markets embrace these social media and technology opportunities.
Amidst the phenomenal growth of Ortsbo, we have taken the time to clearly assess future opportunities that we might encounter. We have engaged some strong partners to assist us with our planning and execution.
So, what do we do then?
The following are three (3) potential opportunity discussions for Ortsbo:
Retain Ortsbo
The first is to keep Ortsbo as a subsidiary and fund it as necessary to keep pace with the rate of growth in both the social media and technology arenas. The impact, while not absolute, could be access to funding, timing to funding and include dilution of Intertainment and Ortsbo itself. The structure of a subsidiary may also have an impact on go forward funding opportunities as larger funding scenarios may ultimately require a stand-alone business model.
Result: huge cash burn and a mid stream change of plans for the direction of ortsbo.
Divest Ortsbo
The second opportunity is to divest, or sell Ortsbo. This option offers Intertainment Media the opportunity to crystallize the value of Ortsbo potentially from a “name brand†player in the industry. This allows Intertainment to have additional resources in development and building of other programs and technologies, all the while looking for other great technologies to invest in. Under this scenario, Intertainment shareholders may not participate in any increase in value of Ortsbo, but may benefit by leveraging the proceeds from the sale into other programs.
no offers announced
Hybrid Opportunity
The third is a Hybrid program. This program allows Intertainment to receive value for Ortsbo and participate in its ongoing success and potential value increase without ongoing dilution for Intertainment shareholders or by putting pressure on other Intertainment programs. A separate “spin off†or public listing for Ortsbo may provide this opportunity.
This option potentially allows Intertainment Media, in essence, to “sell†a portion of and “keep†a vested interest in Ortsbo, providing Intertainment and its shareholders with value from the retention and divestiture options and allowing Ortsbo to develop distinct and independent market presence. A portion of the potential growth of Ortsbo is retained, and well as allowing the Company to develop additional opportunities.
RTO of capstream not completed
Each of the three scenarios has its own merits and issues for both short and the long-term. The decision to take any action requires serious consideration and will not happen immediately. Management, the Board and our advisors are working diligently to find the path that will provide maximize the value to all our stakeholders.
It is exciting to see so many people using our products and voicing their opinions on the direction the Company should take. While we can’t always answer the flood of messages, we do seriously consider each one.
We are doing our utmost to work in the best interest of everyone and build a Company we can all be proud of. This is not new found success for us, as we have believed in our staff, our partners, our shareholders and all our stakeholders for many years, and today others are seeing what we have believed in all along.
Sincerely,
David Lucatch
thank goodness. They had the strategy planned and stuck to it. Right down to .12. They had a 30 million dollar offer. Then they had 30 million more in financing they turned down. Anybody think somebody needs a sit down meeting with the CEO and explain the theory of hemoraging money. Of dilution or value destruction?in 2 years what is different?
just IMHO of course