Blinkx Plc (RTHM)

Blinkx Plc (RTHM)

Blog posts

Rensburg AIM VCT AGM and Blinkx AGM

Did the directors postpone the Rensburg AIM VCT AGM, originally scheduled for the 22nd July, as they knew the votes? And even more importantly, what is the future for AIM VCTs? These were some of the questions that arose at the Rensburg AIM VCT AGM yesterday (on the 25th August). No answer was obtained to the first question, but there was coverage of the second question which may interest anyone who invests in VCTs. All the resolutions were passed, but all three ...

Unhappy Shareholders at Sea Energy, Vislink and Blinkx

Perhaps it was the hot weather, or that folks have more time to spare in the summer holiday season, but shareholders in three smaller companies have been stirred to complain about a variety of issues mainly focussed on pay and overhead costs. Sea Energy Stuart Stafford has formed a Shareholder Action Group for investors in Sea Energy. See this web site for more details and to register an interest: https://seashareholderactiongroup.wordpress.com/2015/07/07/action-group/ His main complaints are about 1) Exorbitant central costs which destroy shareholder value; 2) ...

Quindell judgement

Yesterday (9/9/2014), Quindell announced that the company had won a judgement for libel against Gotham City Research LLP in the London High Court. Gotham simply failed to defend the action or even acknowledge the claim. Gotham had published a 74 page document earlier this year effectively claiming the company was fraudulent but Quindell immediately issued an announcement rejecting the allegations as being “highly defamatory” and “deliberately misrepresentative”.  Gotham also made it clear that they had a short financial interest in Quindell ...

Blinkx AGM Report – Was it a black swan event?

At the Blinkx AGM today the events of the last year were various described by the management as a "black swan event", "one in a 1000 years", and "a perfect storm". That probably echoed the emotions of shareholders after the Edelman blog, the attack by shorters, the resulting collapse in the share price, and the subsequent profits warning that caused it to fall by a further 60%. The share price peaked at 230p in November 2013 and is now 35p, so ...

Short selling petition

The recent shorting attacks on companies such as Quindell, Blinkx and Globo have dismayed many new investors in UK stock markets. Indeed this is what one of our correspondents had to say: "As someone who has recently taken the advice of many, including government, to invest in the stock market, I thought you might be interested to know that I have quickly realised that the whole thing is a manipulated scam and that I will be having nothing to do with ...

Are you a speculator or investor?

There was a very interesting article in a recent edition of Investors Chronicle. Stephen Wilmot reported the views of Interactive Investors, one of the major execution-only brokers, on their client profiles. They apparently classify half their clients as "traders" (i.e. speculators) or investors. In the former, half of those only buy or sell one stock which are companies such as Blinkx (now where have we heard that name before), Gulf Keystone, Quindell or Xcite Energy, with the rest speculating on small ...

Impressions of a self-publicist, and Blinkx

ShareSoc has covered the case of Blinkx in previous reports. Yesterday Prof. Edelman spoke at the UK Investor Show. He was given a 45 minute session, but spent a lot of it establishing his credentials by going over some of the common past abuses in internet advertising. For example he asked "why is the internet a wild west?" and answered it by saying "because nobody is paying attention", although he later talked about FTC (Federal Trade Commission) action in that area. ...

Blinkx rebuttal of blog allegations

Blinkx has today published an extended rebuttal of the allegations against the company made in a blog a few weeks ago. Those allegations called into question the ethics and business practices of the company and resulted in a major fall in the share price. As the blog author had been commissioned by investors, it has been suggested that this was a typical shorting attack, and might be market abuse (we understand more than one person has complained to the FCA on ...

Stop losses and shorting – Techinvest caught out with Blinkx

Stop losses are a way that many investors use to limit the downside risk on stock market investments. They help to counter the "loss aversion" psychological trait that encourages you to continue holding a stock because you have fallen in love with it whereas everyone else is seeing it differently, or may have some information that you do not. But as that well respected publication Techinvest has just found out, there is a significant problem when there is an active shorting campaign ...

Blinkx – more market abuse in AIM stocks?

The Blinkx share price reached a peak of 218p on the 6th January, but yesterday (30/1/2014), it closed down 33%. At one point it was as low as 90p. This followed the publication of a blog post by Benjamin Edelman under the heading "The Darker Side of Blinkx" which attacked various aspects of the company's operations. Blinkx sells advertising linked to on-line videos, supported by a video search engine (it originally spun out of Autonomy). Edelman, who is an associate professor at ...

The level of speculation in AIM stocks

How much speculation is there in AIM stocks? Quite a lot based on some figures recently published in a FinnCap newsletter. “Speculation” might be defined as a short term bet on a share price rising or falling. That’s the opposite of “investment” where someone takes a view on the medium to long term returns from investing in a company. These are the figures published by Finncap for the ten most traded AIM stocks in September – based on the percentage of the overall ...

AGM Reports

Blinkx Plc (RTHM) AGM Report 2015

Blinkx Plc held their annual general meeting today in the City at 9.30am. The timing was moved back from the previous year’s 9.00am start after complaints, but is still in my view to early (no seat on train etc). 25 shareholders were present, down from the 40 that attended last year, although that year was probably high due to the Edelman blog, attack by shorters and the subsequent fall in share price. The share price this year has not fared much ...

Blinkx (RTHM) AGM Report 2014 ‐ Was it a black swan event?

Blinkx held their AGM in London today, starting at 9.00 am. The timing apparently got some complaints but their AGMs do tend to last for three hours. I suggested after the meeting closed that they might want to move it to a 2.00 pm start time if they want to continue to hold them in London. There were about 40 shareholders present ‐ probably more than last year. But that is probably down to the recent events at Blinkx ‐ the Edelman blog, the attack ...

Blinkx (RTHM) AGM Report 2013

The Blinkx AGM was held on the 11th July 2013 in their lawyers’ offices in Cambridge, commencing at 9.00 am, as last year. But there were still about 25 shareholders present. Apparently the company chairman, Anthony Bettancourt, had been unable to obtain a flight from San Francisco because of the plane crash there, so the meeting was chaired by Mark Opzoomer. He commenced by introducing the other directors and then went straight into the poll – reading out all the resolutions ...

Blinkx (RTHM) AGM Report 2012

This report on the Blinkx AGM on the 21st September 2012 is a fairly long because it was a long meeting. It started in Cambridge at 9.00 a.m. (which is a bit early for my liking as I said to the Chairman but I did not then realise how long the meeting would take) and finished at 12.00 noon. But unlike many long AGM meetings, this was not because there were any contentious issues, just lots of presentations, demonstrations and questions. Blinkx ...