Wolf-
You have now gone around the bend on this investment. Your impatience that things are not happening fast enough is really grating on those of us that know that these things take time. Buying a technology company is not like buying a house or a dry-cleaning business. It takes way more time than you seem to think.
My company is currently involved in the buyout of a high-tech manufacturing company that we have been doing business with for more than 15 years- I have been involved in several of the key initial meetings so I do speak from experience. To give you an idea about timeframes in the acquisition currently going on in my little corner of the world- conversations started more than a year ago in late 2006. Meetings were convened to initiate all sorts of different aspects of the due diligence process and trips were made to the headquarters of the current owner of the targeted company to test the waters on the asking price of the business. All of these meetings and processes were considered the highest priority besides the absolute necessity to keep our respective businesses up and running efficiently. Meetings were fast-tracked to get to some common ground and to be able to negotiate with some semblance of a position based upon current & forecasted numbers and intense meetings took place to understand what synergies between the two companies could be exploited etc etc.
I'll spare you the detailed timeline that got us through the process, but in my little world we will be having our joint kickoff meeting a full sixteen months after initial talks had taken place AFTER decisions were made to make an offer on this company. These are two companies that know each other VERY well so add at least six months to the process for negotiations to take place between companies that DO NOT know each other.
What you seem to be missing here is that there is a whole feeling out process that needs to take place so one side or the other does not feel like they are leaving money on the table. Companies of real value are typically not "listed" or "on the market" so to go shopping for a technology company - even if you are well connected in the industry - would be like driving into neighborhood, picking a nice house and knocking on the door and saying you would like to buy the place.
Buying a company is a dance of sorts. Interest is shown and there is usually lukewarm response so as to not appear to be too eager to sell followed by posturing and some negotiations on what is what is not available for review etc., etc.
In the M&A world There are all sorts of companies and consultants out there going around kicking the tires on businesses without really turning the corner to becoming legitimate buyers. Companies need to be quite diligent and careful bordering on paranoid in their dealings with people that may turn out to be bottom-feeders.
The idea that you or anyone else on a message board needs to be kept abreast of developments in mergers and acquisition talks just because you own shares in a publically traded company is really quite ludicrous because of the simple fact that once the cat is out the bag that a company is a legitimate target of M&A the price now goes way up. This idea that "nothing is happening" because PTSC offices are closed is equally ludicrous. All sorts of work can and does get done over the holidays. Haven't you heard? We all can work anywhere in the world via the internet.
If you or Edigokie or anyone else of this recent phenomenon of "this is my damn company and I deserve to know what's going on" ilk actually gets a response that I would consider to be too forthcoming, I would sell in an instant. JMO
