Saturday, May 1, 2010

I was Wrong... sort of

With the New Zealand Yellow Pages Group in apparent financial trouble (who would have thought that would happen after the purchasers borrowed most of the money to buy it !) I must revisit a statement I made about the sale by Telecom New Zealand [TEL.NZ] back in 2007.

I criticised the company for selling a profitable part of their business at a time when the company's other units were mature with falling revenue and future falling profits.

It looks like I was wrong, (and this is where the sort of comes in) Telecom owning Yellow Pages was profitable because of the long established nature of the unit within the company and low base cost but when sold the new owners had far too much debt to make the whole thing work.

People are using the internet more for searching numbers (I use Yellow and White pages online and it is free) and the books seem redundant.

The price Telecom got was superb compared to its worth now, probably less than half its sale price to the current owners and worth less than its debt mountain.

Telecom made a smart move and I praise them for that (now), credit where it is due and all that and that credit goes to Theresa Gattung. The best and only good thing she did for the company she used to head - sorry I couldn't help myself there.


Telecom NZ @ Share Investor

Telecom NZ: TV3 60 Minutes Segment more like Corporate PR
Telecom Share Price Limbos but has it jumped the Shark?
Telecom NZ: Saint Gattung gets her Ya Ya's out
Telecom NZ: Bye Bye Paul Reynolds
Long Term View: Telecom NZ Ltd
Stock of the Week: Telecom Ltd
Revisiting Telecom

Getting cute and fluffy with Teresa Gattung
Telecom NZ Hangs up
Business Gobbledygook puts up barriers to communication
A Rare Breed
Telecom NZ facing a watershed period
Biology a major key in "glass ceiling" for women
Telecom rewards Gattung for mediocrity

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From Fishpond.co.nz

Bird on a Wire: The Inside Story from a Straight Talking CEO

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c Share Investor 2010

3 comments:

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  3. RobiNZ, that can be explained. I put that ad there.

    ReplyDelete

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