RE: Still don't understand it That part of the business IS successful for Futura. Look at the gross margins. 40-50% most quarters. That's pretty good. The issue, is and always has been their G&A. The politically correct statement would be that they didn't reach high enough scale fast enough to achieve profitability to offset that G&A. The other argument which is what I have brought up before in similar terms is that the leaders of the company past and present had a very high salary relative to the value they were bringing into the company. So who cares if they lost out on the equity or debt portion of their investment, they were really just paying themselves, possibly something a lot higher than a job they could have gotten in the open market. Plus using gross margins and the equity and debt of outside investors to pay themselves too.
Futura isn't a drug company or some other complex product-based firm which simply ran out of money. They're a reseller. Anyone with business experience knows that reselling is the easiest business you can get into. Franchises like Tim Hortons are glorified resellers. Futura's business is virtual, so they would need even less money than a fast food franchise to start up reselling loyalty points. Other than a few proprietary software systems which I'm not sure is essential to their Aeroplan business (maybe to their Futura rewards business), I don't think they have anything special going on. Technically any one of us could go to Aeroplan and buy $10K worth of loyalty points then sell them for $20K with the right contacts, an ability to set up a website and some good marketing niche ideas.