Message to the CEO of The Stars GroupDear Mr. CEO,
As you well know, I have been a big supporter of yours and of Amaya/TSG for many years. For much of that time I have defended people and actions which I felt were being judged too harshley without full disclosure of information. Where I have been most vocal has been to lament the poor state of "Consumer IR". It was as if Amaya acted as a private company, while PokerStars was a very public brand. Its IR was reactive, and of course, we know that the former CEO was challenged to accept that his vision wasn't understood or supported by all.
In came you. You had a daunting task of quelling investor disenchantment, operational challenges, and the serious distractions of a former team accused of insider trading. You have navigated those storms marvelously, far beyond what anyone could have expect. Your rebuilding of a team is superb, the company performance is breaking new ground in many aspects, and from this operational perspective, there is truly very little one can complain about. Your conservative nature works in your favor in that when you say you're doing something, its pretty much most of the way done.
With the entry of a new CFO and corporate branding, we had been promised a new attitude towards IR. Well, Mr. CEO...we are still waiting. When a company has been through what TSG has, it has a "trust deficit" from the retail market. This brand challenge can only be dealt with on a direct basis. It cannot go through an IR team which is focused on "investor conferences" and standard media. It must have a planned and sustained social media campaign and strategy which talks directly to consumers and investors.
The TSG brand has an opportunity to be a thought leader, communicate daily with the world, and create a true distinction between the "old company" brand and its new reality. The switch was timely, the naming perfect, the only thing missing is...we don't hear from the C level team at all through social media, nor otherwise. Its still in "silent" mode.
If companies as large as GE can have daily activity on their corporate social media, staying in touch with investors who get their information as much from Google/Facebook as they do from BNN, then why isn't TSG properly targeting them? You know so much about the industry, why aren't you positioned as a thought leader and given direct access? Its not because of the SEC. Its because its a choice of a traditional IR team which is still stuck in an old reality. Today, we get our information by a few clicks...and there's a whole world out there that you could be talking to accordingly. And yet despite a brand change, your corporate facebook page stopped posting the day it was established.d
When things are going just great, silence is OK. But when we've been challenged in our past, when there is a run on the stock and the only information we get is because one poster gets a response from IR and then puts it on the board, then that is the time to rethink your strategy.
Respectfully,
Solarman2013