I admit, my hand is a bit weakish, in that I do not like to see my money tied up for two years with no return. To those who got in a month or so ago, the current situation may seem fine. That was my bad judgement. In hindsight, I *could* have earned 5 or 10% on something safe, and then invested in WOF yesterday, and been in the same position I am now. I guess it is the market in general, as I have seen far worse companies do far better, at least intermittently.
As for DD, I have worked for small companies trying to get into bed with larger ones, and know from experience that the process can take years. The political process inside many companies can be completely Byzantine.
The scenario is probably something like this: someone inside IMC thinks the deal with WOF is a good idea and is championing it; some other party is probably opposed; the level of buy-in higher up the chain is critical but nobody wants to make a mistake because their job is potentially on the line if they commit to the wrong direction. The higher-ups will try to push responsibility downwards by insisting on quantity and quality of information that it is the duty of their functionaries to provide. If the functionary provides incorect information, then you have a potential scapegoat down the line if things go wrong, so the functionaries will try their hardest to ensure that their opinions are conservative and correct. Almost none of the people in the process give a rat's behind about Woulfe, shareholders, the bottom line, etc. And so the process may play on for quite some time until an actionable decision is made.
At this point, Woulfe would have approximately 0 influence over the outcome, except to take every opportunity to show they are competent or doing the right thing to allay fears at IMC. However, any announcement Woulfe may make, as we have seen, is irrelevant. It is entirely up to IMC and we actually have no knowledge at all about what IMC is doing, thinking, etc. and while having a secure tungsten supply would seem to make obvious business sense, I am sure that is only one factor (maybe a big one) in about a thousand going into their internal process that ends up with someone putting his neck on the line to sign over tens of millions of dollars. So, am I a little antsy about my money? Yes, I am. Do I blame Woulfe: no, not really -- I think they've been playing a good game, and again, I've seen many companies where directors and officers enrich themselves a lot more than Woulfe's have with even less to show for at, whereas Woulfe still has huge potential to show quite a lot for it.
So, I will continue to have patience for now, but yes, not having the faintest clue what is going on for such a long time is beginning to make me question the wisdom of having as much money tied up in Woulfe as I do.
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