Mixed Results and No VisibilityEarly reviews are more positive than negative owing to the cash position and what appears to be improved results. In my opinion you can’t have your revenues continue to decline by 9 or 10% quarter after quarter and think you are on a good track. That’s just whistling past the graveyard.
VerticalScope growth coming entirely from acquisitions should have sent off alarm bells with analysts. That means the business you acquired for $200 million needs a steady diet of cash to fund acquisitions to show growth. In what world does that make good sense?
Boynton won’t discuss the transformation like he is holding the secret formula to Coke. He clearly doesn’t understand the media world and is doing nothing for investor relations. If you are going to put up a paywall at The Star then just get on with saying and doing it! Does he think The Globe and Postmedia are going to invent their own paywall? They already have them and this level of secrecy only confirms his insecurities and paranoia borne from his years at Rogers.
Not it sure what FFN will make of these results. They are clever enough to drill down beyond the transformation smokescreen and assess the situation. Honderich is likely spinning all of this as positive signs for the future and the dimwits on the Voting Trust are incapable of discerning fact from fiction. They are unfortunate victims of the Stockholder Syndrome (inherited controlling shareholders without the faintest clue on how to manage their fiduciary responsibility to all shareholders).
Time is still on our side and underneath all the lipstick, Torstar still remains a pig on its way to Fairfax.