RE:RE:RE:RE:RE:RE:RE:RE:RE:RE:Emotional Selling prophetoffacts wrote: skelterhelter wrote: Question wasn't directed at me but I'll answer anyway..
Because the market DOESN'T TRUST THE CEO ANYMORE. Kapish?
The market is a manic depressive that has a hard time trusting itself at times and blames the CEO. It runs with a herd mentality.
Stick to the facts:
illumin had another very strong quarter with a 53% increase in adoption by tier-1 clients in just three months! Those are the kind of clients that can spent >$10 million annually and AT is targeting >$10 million deals for next year. AT now has 26 tier-1 clients! Imagine what 26 tier-1 clients alone could be worth at full spend. Let that sink in. It is speaking with eight auto markers alone. Talking to one auto company is one thing but 8? That's pretty much the industry! By consensus the auto industry is attracted to what AT is demonstrating this far into illumin's launch! What could eight auto companies be worth to AT annually? With 26 tier-1 clients on the platform as of Q3, and based on results to date, and feedback, the CEO affirmed his BIGGEST expectations for illumin. Nothing has changed and he has more data, feedback, and tier-1 clients than ever. Having proven the platform AT is now going to invest in hyper-growth! It is ready to take illumin to the world!
When AT announces its first >$10 million annual contract !!! BOOOOOM!!!!!!!!
There are so many problems with the results and the conference call it is hard to know where to start. While markets are irrational at times the problem here is that the copmany has done nothing to help.
Example #1:
Company sold illumin as the next next thing in programmatic advertising and sold it on its merits of a self serve revolution. Reality? Illumin is "white glove" service which very much sounds like a bait and switch on the legacy managed services. This is a major trust issue.
Example #2:
Company has not been able to replace their CFO which is hurting them badly as these analysts need to be held close. Analysts bought the marketing BS from the CEO and with no CFO to temper the message and remind them about FX and such the analysts are not kept in check. Now the results came in much lower than they expected and analysts got burned.
Result? Analysts will not have company's back from now on and benefit of the doubt is gone.
Example #3:
CEO is asked about a buyback and he closes the door. Golden rule is never appear to disrespect your shareholders and he did that in that moment.
Result? Investors see a CEO who does not care about the share price even after it's been trounced before the quarter.
Example #4:
CEO talked about how it takes a long time to close on an Enterprise tier 1 client as if it was a new discovery in the world of sales (nobody should believe this is new to them or anyone). At the same time, CEO talks about potentially landing said tier 1s (talking to many of them yada yada) at deals north of $10mil... righhhht.. you just missed a quarter and you're talking about landing deals you've never even got close to before and where you jjst admitted you don't know and are not set up for that sales process?
To me #4 is the most egregious. Either the como\pany is completely incompetent or is living in a dream world. When you just communicated that you have no idea how to sell to a tier 1 why would you then say you are going to "change the world of advertising" and land monster tier 1 deals? This is fantasy talk and the second he said these things he revealed himself as a promoter. Elon Musk can get away with this kind of talk but nobody else.
All of this no support for the stock, no CFO, and fantasy talk also opens up the stock to short sellers who I'm sure have been chomping at the bit. Analysts won't support the stock, no CFO to support the stock or make any deals, and the CEO himself has shown he doesn't care.
At this point, the question that should be asked is why own a stock where management is so careless?