Polaroid Digital-What Is The Status?

[jtrotta]

Neil; that link failed - but no matter, read about that purchase quite awhile back, apparently this is the finish. It was bounced back & forth a bit, because it's a Canada based company. So far haven't had any problems reaching tech support and they've always been very responsive.

Good Luck All 8)

 

[Neil (Texas)]

Just tried that link from this page and connected. Are you current on your connection fees? :lol:

Appareo is listed on the Canadian exchange with the symbol "KNO" and traded today at $0.53 (don't know if that's US or Canadian). Their year's high-low was $1.08 and $0.25 which seems like a pretty steep swing this early in the year. Filings indicate losses for the past 3 years but in light of today's accounting standards it probably doesn't mean much.

Glad to hear that you still get tech support. Me, I use alamode.

 

[bradellis]

Randy,

The sale is held up in bankruptcy court due to Al la Mode's protest over the sale. Not sure what they are claiming, but they do have a pressx release on their site if you are interested.

Does not bother me much so I have not pursued it.

Brad Ellis, IFA, RAA

 

[dbiggers]

No, we've stepped aside now and are very happy to let Appareo have it.

The judge ruled that we had to be allowed to have the same access to information (due diligence) as Appareo, since we had actually been bidding on the company way back last summer, prior to bankruptcy, and their attorneys made some incorrect statements in bankruptcy filings regarding the level of access we had had up to that point. After visiting Michigan under the judge's orders and spending time digging through their books and questioning the principals, we came to the conclusion that it wasn't worth more than $1.8 million. So, we're very pleased that Appareo is paying what we think is too much for the company.

Someone posted above that Appareo's losses may not make much difference in today's market. But I'd suggest digging a little deeper into those Canadian filings -- look at the records on the other companies they're merged with and the prior employment of the management team (dig into those previous companies' filings). It's interesting. Some of these enterprises sank millions into ventures which wound up generating less revenue per quarter than most appraisers make alone in a month. These are simply facts. Check them out and draw your own conclusion regarding the possible impact on ACI/PDSI.

I hope ACI/PDSI users truly look closely at Appareo's future plans with ACI/PDSI. Stay informed. It's hard to read through Appareo's website and even know what they do, but you can use the public filings (annual and quarterly reports) and keep the management's feet to the fire on being very specific about their intentions.

As I said, we have to look at Appareo's financials and their stated plans as a good thing for us competitively. I know that sounds blunt and not politically correct, but we tend to call it as we see it (and we think appraisers tend to appreciate that style more than the dot com approach of legal and marketing doubletalk).

Dave Biggers
CEO
a la mode, inc.

Randy,

The sale is held up in bankruptcy court due to Al la Mode's protest over the sale. Not sure what they are claiming, but they do have a pressx release on their site if you are interested.

Does not bother me much so I have not pursued it.

Brad Ellis, IFA, RAA

 

[Neil (Texas)]

:lol: Hey, Dave, my remark was in jest with regards to Appareo financial status and today's accounting practices (what ever that might be).

I believe alamode made the right move when it dropped the ACI acquisition consideration. I had been a long time Toolbox user and decided last year to look at new software after installing new hardware. Tried ACI demo and found it a painful environment. Attended the Athena seminar last fall in Austin and found what I needed. Not only does it do everything I need but does everything efficiently. Great product and absolutely great tech support. Keep on keeping on.

 

[bradellis]

Dave,

Thanks for the update. I recall seeing your notification of the protest but not your notification of the decision to walk away from the acquisition. Did you post that on your website?

By the way, I am an Athena user and no longer use other software- I especially appreciate the incorporation of Apex at a really fair price- I hated Winsketch.

Brad

 

[dbiggers]

Oh, I got that, but it's amazing (in the "Enron age") what's acceptable these days from companies, and how many people really don't think twice about the financial status of companies. The dot com boom/bust didn't seem to sink in for a lot of people -- I still see companies being funded who haven't got a snowball's chance in hell of ever being profitable.

Thanks for the backup on the acquisition and the kind words about our product and staff. That goes a long way (with the employees who do all the traveling to seminars in particular).

Dave

:lol: Hey, Dave, my remark was in jest with regards to Appareo financial status and today's accounting practices (what ever that might be).

I believe alamode made the right move when it dropped the ACI acquisition consideration. I had been a long time Toolbox user and decided last year to look at new software after installing new hardware. Tried ACI demo and found it a painful environment. Attended the Athena seminar last fall in Austin and found what I needed. Not only does it do everything I need but does everything efficiently. Great product and absolutely great tech support. Keep on keeping on.

 

[jtrotta]

Neil,
went from Toolbox to ACI and found nothing "painfull" about it, are we talking about the same software :?: From reading many of your posts it doesn't seem that you lack knowledge in the software field :!:


Just my input 8)

 

[jtrotta]

dbiggers;
you said; "still see companies being funded who haven't got a snowball's chance in hell of ever being profitable".

You know more about this field of activity than I do, but wasn't that comment made about "Amazon Dot Com" when it ran red ink for for a few years?????????????? I here it now provides some serious "black ink" currently. No need to respond if you don't want to

I think in any business market you need to be careful, but seeing into the future is a tough business. just a brief- new this guy who ran a trash company, had everything going in the right direction, but was politically oriented with many towns; so they (political folk) opted him out of business via newspapers. Sold everything off for several million and disappeared for a couple of years. Went into another area and bought several independent trash companies and now owns an actually larger market share and has no competition - is swimming in profits once again. So, although you at present believe you did the smart thing, you may find in the end, that based on the discovery, you may have missed a great opportunity. Oh well, hindsight is what we all know to be the greatest of; all knowing; all seeing and sometimes leads to making a bigger mistake in the next opportunity.

Just A Thought 8)

 

[dbiggers]

I never had that opinion personally about Amazon.com, and I don't think it's a good example of the dot com mess. It was the aberration (it actually sold something that had value and that people wanted). Of course, oddly enough, people used it as an endorsement of "all things Internet", which was silly and led to a lot of mindless ventures being touted as the next Amazon.com.

The companies I'm referring to are the ones who sold products and services nobody really wanted, at a price point either too low or too high, and with an investment level which could only see positive returns through rampant stock speculation rather than actual income generation.

You really can't argue that the companies wiped out in 2000 and 2001 didn't generally fall into that category. Sure, some solid companies folded and some stupid ideas are still around, but the overall reality is that most capital has started to flow back to real ideas and real plans. As I said earlier, I'm still surprised at some ideas that get funded, but those are the outliers not the norm.

Dave

dbiggers;
you said; "still see companies being funded who haven't got a snowball's chance in hell of ever being profitable".

You know more about this field of activity than I do, but wasn't that comment made about "Amazon Dot Com" when it ran red ink for for a few years?????????????? I here it now provides some serious "black ink" currently. No need to respond if you don't want to

I think in any business market you need to be careful, but seeing into the future is a tough business. just a brief- new this guy who ran a trash company, had everything going in the right direction, but was politically oriented with many towns; so they (political folk) opted him out of business via newspapers. Sold everything off for several million and disappeared for a couple of years. Went into another area and bought several independent trash companies and now owns an actually larger market share and has no competition - is swimming in profits once again. So, although you at present believe you did the smart thing, you may find in the end, that based on the discovery, you may have missed a great opportunity. Oh well, hindsight is what we all know to be the greatest of; all knowing; all seeing and sometimes leads to making a bigger mistake in the next opportunity.

Just A Thought 8)