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SkyMall's SkyFall

309 点作者 DavidChouinard将近 12 年前

19 条评论

aresant将近 12 年前
Here&#x27;s what I think happened:<p>a) Xhibit has built a solid digital agency team on the back of nutraceutical affiliate marketing offers, and enough revenue to support a trailing $300 - 500m valuation. But they realize their business isn&#x27;t sustainable, and want to unlock the value of their team &amp; experience with a larger play. They have failed at doing this with their own projects.<p>b) Najafi Companies, that originally owned Skymall, recognizes that the continued move to digital will eventually, and probably quite rapidly, decimate what is effectively a print advertising business in Skymall. They need a forward looking strategy, and a team that can execute said strategy ASAP.<p>c) Given that both companies are in Phoenix, a fit is recognized, and Skymall&#x27;s recently appointed CEO Kevin Weiss is named CEO of the merged organizations. They sign him to a 5-year agreement to develop the digital strategy for Skymall and, given his background at &quot;Author Solutions&quot; which shows his experience in transitioning print-to-digital, this makes sense.<p>d) They hatched this plan when Xhibit&#x27;s CEO met Skymall&#x27;s CEO standing in line to use the restroom at a Phoenix Sun&#x27;s game (a team that Najafi Companies has an investment in).<p>(1) <a href="http://biz.yahoo.com/e/130621/xbtc8-k.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;biz.yahoo.com&#x2F;e&#x2F;130621&#x2F;xbtc8-k.html</a>
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rohin将近 12 年前
Author here. We published this about a month and a half ago so the stock price information in the post is out of date.<p>Since then, the stock price of the acquiring company (XBTC) has fallen roughly in half.<p><a href="http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=XBTC+Interactive#symbol=XBTC;range=2y" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;finance.yahoo.com&#x2F;echarts?s=XBTC+Interactive#symbol=X...</a>
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ErikAugust将近 12 年前
Xhibit&#x27;s &quot;Twityap&quot;: <a href="http://www.twityap.com/" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.twityap.com&#x2F;</a><p>What an insulting joke.<p>Looks like their Twitter account was suspended: <a href="https://twitter.com/TwitYap" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;twitter.com&#x2F;TwitYap</a><p>Elancer from Punjab who put the app together has a couple screenshots: <a href="https://www.elance.com/samples/twityap-android/71857479/" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.elance.com&#x2F;samples&#x2F;twityap-android&#x2F;71857479&#x2F;</a><p>Totally funny stuff...
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draz将近 12 年前
I propose a 4th reason why they merged with Xhibit: the owners of SkyMall realized that with WiFi becoming more and more prominent on flights, bored traveler are less and less likely to flip through their magazines, but instead get online (where they&#x27;d have their own set of advertisements, shopping capabilities, etc). I think, therefore, it was the right move to cash out before companies themselves pull out of their agreements with SkyMall.
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jwheeler79将近 12 年前
From their 10-K: &quot;We owe $375,000 at a fixed interest charge of ten percent (10%) regardless of the time of repayment to four shareholders due March 31, 2014&quot;<p>That means they issued a 10% bond sale that four dumbshits, already holding common shares, bought into. A 10% bond!<p>When spain was on the verge of insolvency, they were issuing bonds at 7%
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chipsy将近 12 年前
As someone who has had the misfortune of holding this type of scam stock in the past, I have great sympathies for the shareholders.<p>There are all sorts of ways you can find yourself holding a worthless investment(myself, via the entreaties of an overly enthusiastic and gullible friend) but once you have it, the rationalization machinery is going to kick in deeply, because now you&#x27;re a sucker, and you really don&#x27;t want to feel like one.<p>That&#x27;s why there&#x27;s often a lot of online noise generated around obviously bad companies like Xhibit - it only takes the slightest big of hope to keep people in as the price plummets.
Afforess将近 12 年前
Seems like a fitting fate for Skymall. A company that profits by selling overpriced shiny garbage is bought by an overpriced and shiny company, that is garbage.
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skybrian将近 12 年前
I think the most plausible scenario is that SkyMall wasn&#x27;t a good investment to begin with, so their private investors dumped them.<p>We have no hard numbers. Magazine advertisers often don&#x27;t pay list price for ads and their expenses are private deals with the airlines, who are likely to drive a hard bargain if they can. And I&#x27;d be skeptical about how many people actually read them regularly; a survey commissioned by the company could be exaggerated or flawed in some way.
dschiptsov将近 12 年前
Nothing to see here. In general, being a cheater is much more efficient strategy than being a working drone, and, on the other side requires much less actual skills. This is why, for example, so many people struggling to create an appearance of competence and success, without actually possessing any appropriate skills or qualities. Their overconfidence sometimes fools simpleminded neighbors.<p>Creating an empty-shell companies based on buzzwords, bandwagon effect and spikes of mass hysteria in order to gain ballooned valuation via media campaigns and staged &quot;acquisitions&quot; is a normal practice nowadays. The nonsensical valuation of companies such as Zynga are canonical examples.<p>Using just appearance and media manipulations to create an association between few buzzwords, a brand and ignorant snap-judgement - &quot;oh, that is a cloud virtualization mobile stock&quot; or, you know, MongoDB - &quot;instant gratification and productivity (of ignorant)&quot; is a new-normal.<p>The exit strategy could be a fail fail due to &quot;bad economy&quot;, while pocketing all the money, or, if lucky, sale to a bigger fool, but first one is much easier.
throwaway9848将近 12 年前
According to Yahoo! the Xhibit CTO makes $3K&#x2F;year. Three thousand dollars.<p><a href="http://finance.yahoo.com/q/pr?s=XBTC+Profile" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;finance.yahoo.com&#x2F;q&#x2F;pr?s=XBTC+Profile</a>
toble将近 12 年前
Couldn&#x27;t there be lots of other reasons? Like the current owners may have been forced to do it? From reading the article, I got the impression that this business was being passed around like a toy. Are the previous owners indirectly linked to investors in the airlines that carry the catalogue? Or members of the same club? I think I have watched too many detective shows, but there you go.
eksith将近 12 年前
Funny thing is, I&#x27;ve browsed through for some ideas for electronics projects (not to use as-is, mind you, just to fiddle with) and found parts at wholesalers. What can I say, they were a handy supply of barely usable, often unnecessary rubbish, but as a museum of oddities and bad ideas, it was rather inspiring.
cpks将近 12 年前
Last time I saw something like this, threats from the Russian mafia to the selling party were involved. No kidding.
awongh将近 12 年前
twityap?!? you can&#x27;t make this stuff up.<p>It&#x27;s sad that this might work to get people to part with their money.
unreal37将近 12 年前
Option #4, the old owners of Skymall financially benefit from the deal regardless of the up and down of the stock price. What if current holders of xhibit stock are the ones getting scammed here?
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lifeisstillgood将近 12 年前
Isn&#x27;t the simplest explanation the best? SkyMall was simply made an offer they couldn&#x27;t refuse.<p>Don&#x27;t sell horses heads in the magazine do they?
circa将近 12 年前
So Xhibit is faceblock?
cmccabe将近 12 年前
I thought Xhibit was a rapper or something. Also-- Twityap? Is that for real?
adamtait将近 12 年前
I guess when Priceonomics finds their business model has also fallen on hard times, they can resort to ... uh ... journalism.