To: ciVic who wrote (270) | 4/19/1999 1:53:00 PM | From: OFW | | |
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. --(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 19, 1999--IRT Industries, Inc. which trades on the OTC Bulletin Board owned by the Nasdaq Stock Market (OTC BB:IRTG), announced today further progress in the acquisition of Thinkbid, Inc., and other efforts. The Company is in the process of completing an acquisition of Thinkbid, Inc. (http://www.thinkbid.com) and anticipates, based upon arrangements reached between the management of both companies, to complete the deal later this month, following the filing of the Company's 1998 Annual Report and subsequent quarterly reports which are due. The Company has been waiting for its accountants to complete the financials for the reports, expected to occur later this month. Mr. Wrobel, the CEO, of the Company, along with accountants, have been working around the clock to complete the reports. Mr. Wrobel's immediate responsibility after stepping into the CEO position of the Company was to formulate and undertake a plan to move the Company from the casino gaming business into an Internet business. The Company sold or divested itself from its gaming pursuits. While the Company had hoped gaming would eventually prove profitable, the Company anticipates significant losses to be reported for the prior periods for which filings are being prepared, including the Annual Report. Management, however, believes the Internet can provide greater opportunity for revenues and growth. Management of Thinkbid has confirmed it understands the losses exist, and understands it is part of the past business pursuits, but may provide a benefit as a operating loss carry forward against any future profits. Thinkbid.com is a leading online Internet person-to-person auction web site similar to Ebay, Inc. (Nasdaq:EBAY), Ubid (Nasdaq:UBID), Amazon.com (Nasdaq:AMZN) and Onsale, Inc. (Nasdaq:ONSL), but is significantly different than the others in various respects, including in pricing--Thinkbid, unlike the others, charges a nominal fee only after an item is sold. NOTE: Safe Harbor Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: This release contains forward-looking statements that are subject to risk and uncertainties, including, but not limited to, the impact of competition, continued acceptance of the company's products and services, fluctuations in stock price and liquidity, fluctuating operating results and other risks detailed from time to time in the company filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. --30--cp/mi* CONTACT: IRT Industries Inc., Fort Lauderdale Arnold Wrobel, 954/351-0270 |
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To: ciVic who wrote (270) | 4/22/1999 4:13:00 PM | From: ETS/316 | | |
This pullback must be really setting us up for a real bust. Next week is when we are supposed to get what we have been waiting for. Hope we get it. Still holding after that run down from 3 1/8. This is an excellent buying opportunity. Should start seeing some kind of buying starting tomorrow to set up for next week. Looking for some news soon.
Let's go IRTG....
ETS |
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To: PK who wrote (236) | 4/22/1999 4:46:00 PM | From: ETS/316 | | |
Damn number 954-351-0270 is going to a fax. Looks like they were getting a number of calls, they disconnect their line and set it for fax. Will try calling again after business hours..est.
ETS |
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To: ETS/316 who wrote (273) | 4/23/1999 8:54:00 AM | From: TallTrader | | |
IRT Industries Announces Termination of Thinkbid Acquisition FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. (April 23) BUSINESS WIRE -April 23, 1999--IRT Industries Inc. -- the company which trades on OTC Bulletin Board owned by the Nasdaq Stock Market (OTC BB:IRTG), has announced that the company and Thinkbid have agreed not to continue forward to complete the acquisition of Thinkbid. While the parties were awaiting the audited financial statements of IRT, Thinkbid determined that it would terminate the proposed transaction in order to pursue other opportunities. The parties had been awaiting the completion of work by the accountants for IRT. IRT decided, with a change of its management in recent past, that a new direction was necessary and had selected Internet related businesses as the key focus. In this regard, the company hoped to complete the Thinkbid acquisition as its first major step into the Internet arena. IRT had hoped to complete its accounting sooner, but it must rely upon its accountants to do the work and await their completion. The company is in the process of reviewing existing Internet businesses for acquisition, which may prove easier to complete since the company is close to completing the accounting. The company is involved in the pursuit of Internet business opportunities and acquisitions and related ventures. NOTE: Safe Harbor Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: This release contains forward-looking statements that are subject to risk and uncertainties, including, but not limited to, the impact of competition, continued acceptance of the company's products and services, fluctuations in stock price and liquidity, fluctuating operating results and other risks detailed from time to time in the company filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. -0- pp/mi* CONTACT: IRT Industries Inc., Fort Lauderdale Arnold Wrobel, 954/351-0270 KEYWORD: FLORIDA INDUSTRY KEYWORD: COMED COMPUTERS/ELECTRONICS INTERACTIVE/MULTIMEDIA/INTERNET RETAIL MERGERS/ACQ Today's News On The Net - Business Wire's full file on the Internet with Hyperlinks to your home page. URL: businesswire.com |
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To: Joana Tides who wrote (275) | 4/23/1999 7:55:00 PM | From: Dr.Zhivago | | |
TO ALL: Read POST 227 & then read how you all scoffed at me ... Remember the fish laughs last! We posted it was a scam long ago before this news release. You all laughed.>>>>>>>>>>>>>To: ciVic (226 ) Thursday, Apr 15 1999 7:57PM ET Reply # of 276 THE WALL STREET JOURNAL INTERACTIVE EDITION When IRT Industries decided to jettison its casino roots and make a play on the Internet, investors took notice, sending the company's stock soaring fivefold in two weeks and chatting up its prospects in online message boards. The former casino operator plans to buy ThinkBid (www.thinkbid.com), a privately held online auction site that IRT, in its press releases, likened to those of electronic-commerce leaders eBay and Amazon.com. Among other things, IRT promises to offer "live" auctions that combine the "real-time excitement of stock market day trading, with the online auction arena." Lost in all of the hype is the fact that although ThinkBid, based in Amityville, N.Y., has its site up and running, it has attracted few bids in its online auctions so far. A visit to the Web site this week showed just one bid had been made in auctions for more than 300 products that were listed in the four product categories -- notebook computers, desktop computers, camcorders and jewelry -- featured prominently on its home page.
Meanwhile, there may be more than IRT's press releases behind the gains in its stock. A Web site called Investrek recently promoted IRT as a stock with "tremendous growth potential." Investrek, an investing site with a Star Trek theme, was run by ThinkBid's creator, Raymond Barton.
Shares of IRT jumped as high as $2.562 on the Nasdaq OTC Bulletin Board on March 31, the day the company made its most recent announcement about the deal with ThinkBid. Just two weeks earlier, the stock was quoted around 50 cents. On Wednesday, it closed at $1.50, up 25 cents for the day.
Mr. Barton says he didn't update Investrek during the time that he was in talks to sell ThinkBid to IRT and, indeed, the IRT profile didn't mention the company's plans to move into Internet ventures. But the IRT promotion was visible on the Internet during the talks. In late March, Investrek's home page carried a notice saying that the site was "inactive."
Arnold Wrobel, the president of IRT, says he hadn't heard of Investrek, and says that Mr. Barton has "never received a dime" from IRT in exchange for the promotion. Mr. Barton, too, says he wasn't paid for profiling IRT. However, a disclaimer on the Investrek site stated that companies featured on the site "pay consideration to Investrek."
Mr. Barton says he considered the site to be a beta test, and says he has "abandoned it at this point."
(Investrek had registered as an affiliate of the Interactive Journal. Affiliates distribute a handful of news headlines and market data from the Interactive Journal and are given a small payment for each subscription they generate for the Interactive Journal.)
IRT, based in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., has been promoted in the past by newsletters and in mass electronic mailings, known as spam. One of the promotions was examined by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in its sweep against Internet fraud last autumn. The SEC, however, didn't accuse IRT of wrongdoing or allege that the company had made any payments to the promoter.
In the SEC case, John Wesley Savage of Princeton Research, without admitting or denying guilt, agreed to pay $40,000 to settle civil charges that Princeton Research broke securities rules in promoting seven companies, including IRT. The SEC, in a case filed in U.S. a District Court in Southern Florida, alleged that Princeton Research made inaccurate statements about IRT's earnings in newsletters between 1996 and 1998. Mr. Savage recently died.
Mr. Wrobel, who says he became president of IRT in January and was a creditor of the company before that, says he isn't familiar with the matter. Richard Rossi, who is listed in company documents filed with the SEC as the former president of IRT, couldn't be reached for comment.
A year ago, IRT also was the subject of another stock promotion involving unsolicited e-mails from Harvard Equity Research touting the company's stock. Mr. Wrobel says that before he took over as IRT's chief executive early this year, IRT gave Harvard Equity stock as payment for the promotion. A spokesman for Harvard Equity couldn't be reached for comment.
IRT says it previously ran two casinos in Costa Rica, but set a plan to focus on Internet-related businesses shortly after Mr. Wrobel took control. The company says it sold the casinos, and first disclosed its talks to acquire ThinkBid in early March. IRT says it plans to acquire ThinkBid for $2 million dollars in restricted stock, plus a convertible note. The company hasn't disclosed additional terms of the deal.
IRT faces considerable challenges in using ThinkBid to carve out a stake in the Internet auction business. "It is hard for a newcomer to get into [the online auction] business. If someone else already has a lot of buyers and sellers, why would [customers] switch," says Paul Resnick, an associate professor at the University of Michigan's School of Information, who does research on electronic commerce. "It's an uphill battle," he says.
Nearly all of the products listed in auctions on the ThinkBid site earlier this week were being offered by ThinkBid itself. In contrast, most of the goods sold on eBay are offered by users of the site. Mr. Barton says he made arrangements to list merchandise provided by wholesalers to bulk up the number of auctions available on the site while it builds a user base.
"We have agreements with a few major wholesalers. We sell for a very small markup," Mr. Barton says. "It came out of a need to have a wide selection of merchandise."
Some bids were found in the site's computer-printer category. The 25 items listed had attracted a total of five bids.
Mr. Barton says the site receives more than 100,000 unique page views each month and has 2,200 registered users. eBay says it has more than 2 million users and lists more than 1.8 million items for sale every week. "We'll need to get our traffic up two or three times to get some activity," says Mr. Barton.
Mr. Barton refuses to provide earnings information about ThinkBid, other than to say the company generates around $2,000 a week in net revenue, which he said is enough to cover the company's "overhead." As a private company, ThinkBid isn't required to release detailed earnings data.
IRT reported a loss of $1.2 million for the nine months ended March 1998, the most recent results for IRT before it was delisted by the Philadelphia Stock Exchange for failing to meet registration requirements.
Mr. Barton says he has invested less than $10,000 in ThinkBid since it was created about eight months ago. Mr. Wrobel says he hasn't yet put any money into the company, but plans to once the acquisition is completed. The closing of the deal, which had been expected for this week, couldn't be confirmed.
Meanwhile, online investors have been ecstatic. On the financial Web site Raging Bull (www.ragingbull.com) more than 1,000 posts have been made in the past three weeks about IRT. Prior to that, fewer than 70 postings had been made to the message board since its creation in November 1998. "We are on the forefront of something huge!!! Word is getting out big time," writes one participant in a posting made late last month.
"This has all the ingredients for a mind numbing run. Auction site + search engine + innovative live auction site + very low float = big money," writes another in late March in a posting made to the message board devoted to IRT on the Silicon Investor site (www.techstocks.com). The ThinkBid site also includes a search engine called ThinkFind.
Mr. Wrobel worked as a broker in the early 1990s. Records from the National Association of Securities Dealers show that regulators in Kansas accused Mr. Wrobel last year of defrauding an investor by making misleading statements. That case is pending. Mr. Wrobel says the case is about a "disgruntled investor who lost some money" by investing in a business in which Mr. Wrobel was an officer. ARE YOU ALL STILL LAUGHING? |
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To: Dr.Zhivago who wrote (276) | 4/23/1999 11:59:00 PM | From: Joana Tides | | |
Dr. Zhivago, you deserve to say "I told you so" but you didn't see any post on here from me scoffing at you. Wish I'd seen yours and/or that WSJ article. A dayjob/business doing office work caused my usual past-the-surface DD/scrutiny to slip a bit these last few weeks with hopping to that tax filing deadline. No time to read proxies too closely either, been just catching up on that these past few days. Fortunately for me IRTG's one of my small flyers, so now the only choice will be hoping to see it redeem itself by December. The continual news reports of progress with the acquisition had me lulled, and so didn't look at it any further. (BTW I had looked at the Thinkbid site when I bought the stock, and it didn't look so bad to me as it did to that reporter). Had I seen that news in WSJ or as you had kindly forwarded it, most likely would have git while the gittin' was good. Oh well, you know what they say "Hindsight is an Ass with glasses on" (LOL, hey I resemble that remark) Better luck next time to all in the same boat, Joana |
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