Predictions for 2019 Hi All,
Some reasonably sober reflection over the holiday season.
1. Financial results will continue to be dismal quarter after quarter as advertising revenues follow the pattern of the past decade with no signs of bottoming out.
2. All of the “initiatives” such as StarMetro, the paywall, iPolitics, The Wall Street Journal and the data infrastructure, advanced analytics capabilities and customer lifecycle management capabilities will prove to be both fantasy and DOA. The Board and perhaps the Voting Trust will finally come to the realization they have been duped by Honderich and Boynton.
3. Voting Trust members who have been trustees for decades will face increasing pressure from the cast of family members who have seen their interests in Torstar crater and are going to rise up in revolt. Honderich will be called to account and will run out of feeble excuses. Look for changes in the composition of the Voting Trust leadership and a significant move closer to a Fairfax resolution.
4. Freddy Krueger will last 6 months before he packs up and returns to Sweden. He will be incredibly frustrated by the lack of resources, the intransigence of the editors, the reneging on the promises made to him when he was being recruited and the constant meddling in the background by Honderich. Freddy will take the same path as the Chief Revenue Officer recently took and will get out before his reputation is crushed by a continuing association with the Keystone Kops.
5. VertigoScope will be the last chip to play to keep cash resources at levels to sustain ongoing dividend payments. If Torstar manages to get their original investment out, they will be lucky. Perhaps a next bigger sucker shows up to take it off their hands for a big premium. Not hopeful because they botched this investment as they have with almost everything they touch.
6. It is scary to contemplate what they might do with the proceeds should they sell VertigoScope, but hopefully they will buy-out the non-Fairfax B shareholders at a reasonable price. An offer of $5.50 to $6.50 would allow them to take out the 30 million shares and essentially privatize Torstar with Fairfax.
7. At some point in the year, Boynton and his gang of charlatans will be shown the door as part of the deal with Fairfax. Fairfax will have a plan to re-energize Torstar and will find a way to work with Postmedia to bring some sanity to the newspaper industry in Canada.