Baltbear on Finance markets are like marshmallows

here are the highlights of the 10k–which came out amazingly “early”. of course that can have nothing to do with my woofing about the biotime habit of waiting til the last minute.
The number of common shares outstanding as of February 26, 2009 was 25,213,569
that’s a 3 million share increase.
“As of March 10, 2009, there were 6,676 holders of the common shares”
was that increase in authorised discussed at the last annual meeting?
when was the last annual meeting?
“We intend to submit that amendment to our shareholders for approval at our next annual meeting.”
:” Management’s report was not subject to attestation by our registered public accounting firm pursuant to temporary rules of the Securities and Exchange Commission that permit us to provide only management’s report in this annual report.”
lolol…
for thoughts on accounting and filing with the sec, see
http://baltbear-on-finance.com/stock-market-speculating-is-a-hold-up-shoot-them-with-x-barrels

and  lookie lookie…some amusing info about “big al’s basis”. wunderbar:
:”We paid Greenbelt $90,000 in cash and issued 200,000 common shares for services rendered for the twelve months ending March 31, 2007.  Greenbelt permitted us to defer until October 2007 paying certain cash fees that otherwise would have been payable earlier in the year.  In return for allowing the deferral, we issued Greenbelt an additional 60,000 common shares.  For the 2008 calendar year, we agreed to pay Greenbelt $135,000 in cash and to issue 300,000 common shares.  Greenbelt permitted us to defer paying the entire $135,000 cash fee until January 2009.  In return for allowing the deferral, we issued Greenbelt an additional 60,000 common shares during January 2009.  We have agreed to file a registration statement, at our expense, to register Greenbelt’s shares for sale under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, upon Greenbelt’s request.  We also agreed to indemnify Greenbelt and its officers, affiliates, employees, agents, assignees, and controlling person from any liabilities arising out of or in connection with actions taken on our behalf under the agreement.

ok, 620k share at a basis of…..zero.
zero.

and: $225,000 in cash.
so, here’s the algebra problem:
a train leaves the nasdaq at 9:30 in the morning with 620k shares which can be sold at any price at all, and bought back at any price less than sold for;
a train leaves park avenue with $225k cash
to buy stock at any price and sell it for any amount more than was paid for;
what is big al’s  basis?
the answer?? 0 on more and more of the shares in his control+ 9% profit after trip tickets are paid for+ $225,000 in cash.
extra credit question:
if late comers to biotime should have to pay 4x more than al pays, what should be their basis?

Since inception, we have primarily financed our operations through the sale of equity securities, licensing fees, royalties on product sales by our licensees, and borrowings.

our total research and development expenditures were approximately $1,700,000 and our administrative expenditures were approximately $2,600,000.
The Credit Agreement permits us to borrow up to $3,500,000, and as of March 6, 2009, BioTime had outstanding Credit Agreement loans of $3,330,000.

Current loans under the Credit Agreement bear interest at the rate of 12% per annum and will mature on April 15, 2009, at which time the outstanding principal balance of the loans plus accrued interest will be due and payable.

Currently, lenders may exchange their notes for our common shares at prices ranging from $1.25 to $1.50 per share,

and our ability to commence and complete the clinical trials that are required in order for us to obtain FDA and foreign regulatory approval of products, depend upon the amount of money we have.

so, taking “big al” lol..out of th equation, what is there for fair market price in the opinion of those who have access to serious due diligence???
1 1/4–1 1/2 ….divided by 1.12.

hmmmm.
that put’s a price amusingly close to 1 3/8..which got defended as a raw marker…
and verrry close to 1 5/32….right where the defense kicked in.

so, those who see that hextend >>>works<<< and give a dang aobut that;
who see that hetacool therefore >>might work<<;
who think that “dr west” matters one way or the other;
and who can overlook an over 20 year trip to the gorss receipts level, and overlook the r&d/g&a of this puppy;
now know what price to pay.
there are 2 ways to pay it:
call them up and ask when they are getting ready for the next level of dilution (which is alread oocurring by seling embryome stock)
or trade this puppy into accumulation s that u end up with shares closer to “big al’s” basis.
so..what is big al’s basis???

anybody notice what this burst of news, did for volume?? 9k thru 2 pm…another 7k tossed back and forth in the last 30 minutes to to create illusion?
http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=BTIM.OB#chart2:symbol=btim.ob;range=1d;indicator=bollinger+ema(20,50,10)+psar+ke_it+volume+rsi+volumema(10);charttype=candlestick;crosshair=on;ohlcvalues=0;logscale=off;source=undefined
anybody notice that the whole “sector” as a “story” play now rests on the spines of 8 rats?

Posted under finance

the Federal government is contemplating spending up to $7.2 bb in funding to improve internet connectivity in the usa, to perhaps bring it u to the lvel of iceland, or nigeria.
Being as competent as the french is something evidently beyond the asirations of the telecom providers to that 3 hours in between manhattan and hollywood.
what is the objection these government protected entities ave to being told to perform according to some meaningful minimum guideline?
:”"Speed is a movable target,” said Dave Malfara, speaking for Comptel, an industry group that represents smaller rivals to companies such as AT&T Inc.

“One of the fears that we have is that a definition would be too high” and the cost of providing such fast service would eat into profits, he said at a public meeting on the funding.”

As soon as someone can explain to me how a subsidy eats into profits, i’m prepared to listen.

In the meantime, haing been a CEntryTEl customer back when it felt it had to compete with compuserve and aol, ad forced itself up to the level that my 33.6k modem actually had something to do, i am unsympathetic to the idea “speed is a movable target.”
“speed” is something rural people are frequently whipping up a batch of while they wait for their files to upload.
Anybody care about telecommuting, broadband TV, or virtualised work environments?
only those who don;t want to learn chinese, so they ca talk to the boss.
the job of any government since the day when hammurabi said irrigation ditches had to be maintained is to set minimum standards that allow for wealth creation, and the ability to rise through the class ranks.
people may or may not recall that the fraudulent recalcitrance of the “mom&pop” telecom to obey Federal law on dial tone access is the principal reason wcom had to cook the books waiting for legal compliance to allow its business plan to unfold.
they may recall that just beore the end, world com could begi to offer $50 a month “all u can eat” telecom in indiana, and then elsewhere, as state utilities commissios could no longer invent excuses for non-compliance.
in the midst of the current liquidity crisus, wouldn’t it be nice to not set the next chokehold into place??
measure a t1 cable. it’s gee…virtually the same size as a 7600 baud line.

so if i can get 10 mips in a rome coffee house, why not 2mbps on any land line in the usa?
o yeah…profits…to the protected few.
funny, i thought crony capitalism was out of fashion.

Posted under business

i was reminded by an associate today about the tantrum being thrown by jon stewart over the fact that the american people are finding a lack of substance in his spelic ventings about nothing.
in the normative fashion of generation “sa” (self-absorbed), stewart holds tht if something is keeping people being able to enjoy smugness, it must be somebody’s fault.
and so, cramer.
stewart bashes cramer et al for not telling the american people what as in sec filings. after all, reading those filings would keep people away from sumner redstone’s money making schemes of movis, tv, more tv, sports, more tv, and ..o…video games.
to those fox watchers who stroll by–who is sumner redstone? stewart’s boss. the guy who pays the light bill so that jon and other talking heads can direct people to things in redstone’s self-interest: politicians and celbrties and media coverage.
cramer on the other hand shills for ge, and the french, 80/20.
let’s see, who knew the economy was reaching an unsustainable level of resource draw? anyone paying $3+ for fuel.
who knew that financial indices were getting out of whack? anyone who had read adam smith, and could compre p/e to p/b to the inverse of the long.
that would of course require people to turn off viacom media for a while, and check yhoo stock prices, and spend $8 on a book about basic finance. however, that $8 wwas better spent on a movie ticket sent at national amusements (which is redstone as well).
if stewart had something to actually say, he could pull old sec filings on cramer. but that would be taboo, since it would point to the utterly fabricated numbers in the street.com’s s3s that did so much to create the net bubble gerbils-r-us.com thinking.
he could check the sec’s investigation of cramer’s possibl front running stocks back in the good old days.
he could have looked at an old cramer online analysis of btim and recived a thinking lesson when he read cramer about jono steinberg being slapped on th wrist by the sec for front running btim during the days when he was courting maria bartiromo ( i am told they are now married). he might have invesitgated how it was that a well-respected “guidance counselor” could be promoting a stock wildly, while shorting it, and when caught..not be sent to prison.
but that would require stewart to be able to read, instead of talk.
with practice, he might learn that cramer is a circus performer, like stewart.
he might lern that cramer’s shtick has apx the value of a cnn sports late night commentary show, except, this time the sport matters: money.
it’s a sport. gambling on it produces the future, unlike gambling on physical sports, which produces the present.
and at some point stewart might say this to his audience, “go get a life.” or not. if he did, given how many people “beleive him” he’d lose audience, and that would make sumner redstone angry. and since redstone has publicly stated that he will never die (does anybody care that minds/egos like that control so much of america?? ) there would be no way for stewart to live it down.
so why does anybody care about this “feud”?
people watch cramer or stewart to feel like they belong. knowing what either said yesterday or 5 minutes ago is a marker for a class, and of prestige within the class.
it’s no different than buying a t-shirt carrying some logo.
and that, i advise my associate, when he reads this, is also part of how the hamster (not gerbil….he goes somewhere else) stays in the cage.
and it is an art, but not one for the weak.
stewart’s issue, as near as i have ever been able to ascertain, is confusing posturing for strength.
perhaps he should think about becoming ceo of a biotech.

Posted under business