[ Thanks to Danny Walters for this
link. ]
“There are countless dot-com companies… struggling to stave
off collapse by destroying the only real currency they’ve got:
their own stock.”
“One of the most cynical deals recently involves the merger
of two software companies trying to cash in on the Linux
operating system craze: Andover.net Inc. of Acton, Mass.,
and VA Linux Systems Inc. of Sunnyvale, Calif.-which went
public within 24 hours of each other back in early December. Less
than eight weeks later, on Feb. 3, the two companies announced a
stock-for-stock merger…”
“As for investors in VA Linux, they are getting
hosed… the only really valuable asset Andover.net ever
had-its cash from the I.P.O.-was creamed off by the company’s
insiders almost the very instant they got their hands on it,
leaving VA Linux’s shareholders to face a 100 percent increase in
the float of their own stock for the privilege of winding up with
the worthless trash that the Andover.net bunch dumped at the very
first opportunity.”
Complete
story. (From 2/21/00 Issue of the New York Observer. Link
only good till next week’s issue — lt ed)