[Logan]

@explorer, thank you for your suggestions sir. Please do share all the facts sir so that I and others can come to conclusion and we can have all our discussions based on the facts shared by you or better I and others can stop writing in this forum completely. No one will waste their time speculating this and that.

Please remember sir that like you, even we are humans with emotions, like you, even we have put our hard earned money and we can also share our opinions just like you. I just want to know, how much of your posts are facts sir, is it 100% ? If it isn’t 100% (or at least 50%) then even you are also speculating, right sir?

The main point which you are conveying is this – if you’re positive about the company, we should be positive too and if you’re negative, we should be negative but you are saying it in a different way, that’s it. You forget all the facts when you’re happy/positive and I’m sure sir that if the same stock had quoted at higher prices you’d be very positive now and it would be you who would be telling everyone that BCG will be like Nvidia, not me. I might not be as brilliant as you but I’m not an idiot to say something like that, that too looking at the current pathetic situation of the company. (I wouldn’t have BCG with Nvidia even if everything was alright)

Also, where in my previous post have I mentioned something that would raise hopes? I have clearly mentioned that SKR is manipulating and making all shareholders suffer. In your message you have mentioned that you hope that there’s value left in the company but it’s bad if I or others hoping about the same?

In the past, you were positive sometimes and negative sometimes but did I ever tell you to stop writing?

Regarding my messages and buying or selling, that can be said about your messages also, right? Even you don’t have all the proofs/facts and you change your views based on your moods which I have rarely done. I have clearly mentioned every time that if anyone has any doubts then it’s better to contact SEBI. I have never given any targets or speculated where the price might go. From day one I have always mentioned that BCG has very bad corporate governance.

And sir, one very important point is that it was me who suggested that small investors form an association and make sure that our voices are heard. When others were asking for dividends, I was asking for big 4 auditors. Being a long term shareholder, I know what’s important and what’s not and I have always cared for shareholders sir.

One humble request sir, even though we might have different opinions, it’s always better to stay united and fight for our rights as shareholders instead of targeting one another which looks very silly. I don’t want to have any arguments with my fellow investors who have been through hell all these years.

[Logan]

First of all, I want to thank the members of BGSHA and @radhutheoptimist for their efforts in making the management announce results. Without them, I think the board (aka SKR) would’ve delayed the results further.

Regarding the results, like I previously mentioned, SKR will hold us hostage until he gets back to his previous positions in the company. I think it’s a long shot but maybe that’s the reason he’s asking for adjournment in the SAT as he might be negotiating with SEBI for a settlement. He might show that he gave money to the company and that he converted it to stock etc.

I had previously guessed they’d show decline in both revenue and profits (after reading the Livemint article) but didn’t except it to be this much. I always thought that at least OMS will be independent and others will be under SKR’s control (like the American subsidiaries) but SKR is showing us that he cares only about himself and is willing to let lakhs of shareholders suffer.

BCG makes money buying media space of publishers to run ads for advertisers. This might not be correct but I’m guessing they didn’t buy any media space in the last quarter after SKR left (removed) and that’s the reason the revenues are less. They want to show complete dependency on him. OMS people might have told their clients that the company is undergoing restructuring and to add to that there was a war in Israel also (they changed the name from Brightcom to OMS which shows restructuring).

There are many opinions which we can form on the latest developments. If you believe the numbers to be true then SKR/company can reverse this somewhat by putting more efforts and bring the company back to normalcy. SKR has done that before also. Few years back (till 2021), the results were flat/stagnant for many years but the revenues and profits almost doubled in 2022. Maybe he was waiting for the approvals for the PWs. And if you don’t believe the numbers to be true then you will think that this can’t be reversed and SKR previously had only done it on paper and nothing is real. I hope and pray that everything gets back to normal. Like I’ve said many times before, I invested in BCG because of the Israeli leadership and because of SKR and now I stayed invested (even after seeing horrible things happening at the company and to its stock) because of the Israeli leadership. All the respect I had for SKR is gone. It might come back a little if he stops acting selfish and if he starts genuinely caring about all the shareholders and not just by his words.

[Logan]

One or two times it’s okay if the company doesn’t walk the talk but they do it every single time. Postponement of today’s board meeting shows that they only do the talk and not take actions. The meeting was not for this FY results but for last and that too Q3 of last FY. They were supposed to share it 6 months back but even now they are delaying it.

There are other important questions too, why was Kallol moved to a new subsidiary? He could’ve been in the parent company also. Now the parent company has only one executive director and what if he resigns tomorrow?

Positive changes happen when they acknowledge negative things about them and take action on it. Not just by saying this and that all the time using fancy words. Actions speak louder than words.

They have mentioned in the presentation that Trenova represents so many things (transparency, relevance, cleanliness etc) but what does the actions (or lack thereof) of the company and SKR represent? It represents betrayal, laziness, carelessness, inhumanity towards shareholders.

[Logan]

@vstvm, the company (mostly SKR) has the habit of hyping everything initially and become completely silent later. We have noticed that with Mediamint and audio ad deals. I find SKR to be a person who will mostly talk (90% of the time) and do the actual work only 10% of the time. You know how much they hyped the audio ad company and later said it’s a JV. They hyped it for over a year but all that was unnecessary if they were not sure of buying the entire company. Did he use that news so that his evil friends could sell the shares or was it a genuine thing? Only God knows.

Other companies will do the work (with or without hype) and get deals done but you can surely bet that any deal or update from BCG/SKR will rarely come to fruition and will always take a different turn.

I have asked about this in few of the conference calls also and he always used to say that they took decisions looking at the future. But my point is, why announce something and change it later? Things can be done without announcing initially and the announcement can be done when they are sure of executing it.

I never wanted BCG to focus more on Lycos and never gave much importance to it but I wanted them to get it done and dusted but what’s the progress on that? As expected it takes a different turn every time.

Entering into APAC is very important which should’ve been done years ago and it’s a very exciting update also and I’d be the happiest person if they walk the talk but history shows us that it’s better to have less expectations (I’m guessing the JV with Consumable Inc is completely dead and not sure whether it will be revived without SKR. So, it’s difficult to expect much from the new announcement as we don’t know what turn it may take).

I had massive respect for SKR and always thought that he’d be the right person to take BCG to new heights since it’s very difficult to manage adtech companies but his betrayal and selfishness overshadowed other good qualities of him. I don’t think the situation will change completely since Mr.Raghu is nothing but SKR’s proxy.

[Logan]

Thanks @saach.

I don’t know what SKR has in his mind and why they’ve decided to keep a different name. I think OMS is mostly independent (maybe the operations are under the control of 44 Ventures people) and SKR might not want to disturb that and he doesn’t want them to get involved in the mess created by him.

Regarding past name changes etc, BCG had to change the name twice because of the circumstances the company was in. (Other time when it changed to Lycos, it was to utilise the brand name of Lycos which was very big that time). It could no longer use USA Greetings while doing digital marketing since you’ll not get many clients, everyone would think the company as a greetings card company and not a technology company. Wipro’s original name was Western India Vegetable Products Limited and the company wouldn’t have got many clients if it used Vegetable in its name while doing IT/software/consulting/services business and it wouldn’t have been a major player in the IT sector. No matter how hard they tried, it wouldn’t have worked this well if they kept Vegetable in their name, people would assume it might be a commodity company or a vegetable oil company. I’m not comparing BCG with Wipro but only mentioning the obvious points.

Then again it couldn’t use the Lycos name because the company lost the case to Daum. It’ll be illegal to use the Lycos name.

I’m not supporting SKR or anyone here but name changes isn’t that serious in the tech world. Many companies do that and it’s very common. Sometimes they create products with new name or a new platform and give a different name. Recently Tremor International became Nexxen, Magnite previously was known as Rubicon and even Yahoo was changed to Oath Inc etc, Perion was previously known as IncrediMail. In BCG’s case it’s not like they want to bury the past like few fraud companies do, they mention about being called Lycos Internet in each and every notification. They’ll mention Brightcom Group (Previously Lycos Internet Limited) in most of the communications.

There are other serious matters which people have to give importance to like the management not providing complete details to the auditor, the company not appointing CEO or CFO or even a CS etc.

[Logan]

BCG is setting up entities under the brand name Trenova Corporation in EMEA and APAC markets.

Good update but is it a genuine one or just a tactic deployed to divert us from the delay in sharing last FY results? I get it that taking initiatives to grow the business is very important but more important than that is the survival of the company and the need to take care of your shareholders. Under normal circumstances we’d have been very happy and excited with such updates but I expect them to share updates on the results and pending issues first.

(Plan to start looking at the APAC region seriously was initiated last year and they were getting ready to appoint people but the SCN2 put all that in jeopardy I guess)

Also, why the name Trenova and not OMS? I understand why they might not want to start something with the Brightcom name (bad press) but why not OMS? Won’t the OMS people get involved? And why Kallol and others moved to the new entity from the parent company and why not stay in the parent company also? Is it because it’s difficult to be the rubber stamp of SKR while staying in the parent company?

There’s no point expecting answers from them.

[Logan]

It’s either they want to show complete dependency on SKR (and Raju) and are making the case for reinstating them or since SKR was handling almost everything (like a private company and all others were his rubber stamp), no one in the company knows anything or maybe like I previously said, some things might be fraud and the revenues and profits are not as reported previously and they don’t want to admit that.

Like I say, SKR & co are selfish to the core and they don’t have humanity and sympathy towards lakhs of shareholders. They’d rather see lakhs suffer instead of doing the right thing. I didn’t lose all my hope and that was only because of OMS but it’s getting clear that SKR and co will not let good things happen to us (unless he’s in charge). He’s holding us hostage until he gets what he wants.

I’m guessing that SKR is negotiating with SEBI to change the order and that is why they’re asking for adjournments all the time.

“We have been informed that the appellants filed an application
for settlement which is pending consideration. In view of the
aforesaid, we are not inclined to consider the stay application at this
state. Exemption application is allowed.”

The above was in December and there’s no progress on that. I’m not sure why SEBI is not giving a definite answer and reject the settlement. There’s zero chance that Sebi would accept what SKR is proposing but it did change the order against previous CFO, Raju.

I haven’t seen a drastic drop in Brightcom’s publisher count mentioned in Adauth or Builtwith or Web Tech Survey. Not that relying on these guarantees that the revenues are legit but these show some trends at least. Mediamath, which filed for bankruptcy last year saw drastic drop in publisher count for many years but I haven’t seen that happening in Brightcom. I could see that the publisher count reducing in companies like PubMatic, Magnite (Rubicon), Perion (Vidazoo) but not Brightcom. BCG also has brands like Audienciad (maybe subsidary dream ad’s brand), Get Media MX, Onomagic, Boldwin etc. OMS and the Israeli leadership is the only reason I hadn’t lost all hope but now seeing the actions of board (SKR), I’m losing hope.

(These are my guesses and opinions and please don’t take my opinions for buy/sell decisions and if you have any doubts please contact SEBI as contacting the management is of no use)

[Logan]

Board meeting on 31st to appoint independent directors and company secretary but no news on results.

Looks like 2 directors might resign (I’m guessing one independent and one executive or two independent). I’ll not be surprised if Mr.Kallol resigns, anything is possible looking at how things are going on in the company. Maybe Mr.Raghu was appointed so that Kallol could leave/resign. Maybe he doesn’t want to be in SKR’s control losing respect (I’m guessing this because Kallol used to sign these notification letters but today Mr.Raghu has signed).

Why can’t they appoint CEO and CFO? What’s the use in appointing independent directors and them resigning in 2-3 months?

[Logan]

They’ll send a notification on the 31st evening/night and tell us that the auditor is getting upto speed and that the audit is not complete and they’ll share the results ASAP.

And, they’ll also mention that they are sad to see the plight of shareholders and that they’ll follow the highest standards of corporate governance, they’ll be very honest, transparent and use fancy words to describe themselves. There’ll be zero progress and again give some random date and they’ll miss that also and the cycle will repeat

They don’t have any humanity left.

[Logan]

Kallol lost all his credibility when he didn’t share the results in March. He fooled us then and he fooled us again (before suspension of trading) and he will continue to fool us if there is no supervision from SEBI.

SKR’s arrogance is the root cause for our sufferings. No one should be this evil and prey on people’s lives. He single-handedly destroyed the dreams and hard earned money of lakhs of shareholders and now he’s not letting others do good also. Our curses and Karma should not leave him.

[Logan]

Board meeting on Friday to appoint executive and independent directors (one each). Going by the recent trends, maybe one or two directors will resign.

Why aren’t they trying to appoint an interim CEO or CFO at least? It’s no secret that SKR and Raju are trying to come back but why not appoint someone on an interim basis at least? It’s close to 1 year since they both left and there’s zero progression.

[Logan]

@saach, stocks or warrants can be allotted on a preferential basis to raise funds instead of issuing those to all the shareholders which is time consuming and expensive.

Please refer below link for details.

What is Preferential Allotment

In case of BCG, both shares and warrants were issued to people on a preferential basis in 2019-20 (shares), 2020-21 (warrants) and 2021-22 (and shares). Those shares or warrants weren’t preferred stocks or converted to preferred stocks but were issued on a preferential basis (they had a preferred buyer).

[Logan]

@saach, the scenario which you have mentioned doesn’t apply here. In case of liquidation, the first priority (seniority) will be given to debt holders, the second to preferred stock holders and the last to equity holders.

BCG doesn’t have any investors who hold preferred stock. The stocks issued were on a preferential basis but those stocks weren’t preferred stocks. And BCG doesn’t have any debt so there will be no priority given to anyone and in case of liquidation (in theory) the assets will be distributed to equity holders.

Hope this clarifies your doubt.

[Logan]

@radhutheoptimist, it’s good to know that Mr. Shankar Sharma is also a member of the association.

If you don’t mind, can you please share some details about the association’s meet with the management? I know it’s sensitive but lakhs of shareholders are very curious to know the developments happening in the company. Our anxiety and stress levels have reached the maximum and your updates will help us cool a bit.

Thanks in advance.

[Logan]

Thanks @saach and @spamfortress.

I’m not an expert on body language etc but it’s clear that the recently shared letter was from SKR and not from Kallol. Not just this but seems like all the clarifications came from SKR. I’m tired of seeing only clarifications and words but no action from the company/board. Only comforting factor is that BCG owns OMS. I guess/think they decided to change the brand name to come out of the Brightcom name because of negative press.

The main reason I supported SKR was because he kept the company from going out of business when many other companies failed. Adtech is a very tough industry to be in and also, it’s very hard to even guess short term future and will always be very unpredictable.

Check Perion Network’s recent developments, last 3-4 years it was everyone’s favourite company but no one wants it now. They are facing significant revenue loss because of Microsoft Bing’s policy changes. People have filed class action suit against the company for misguiding investors and the stock has tanked more than 80% in the last year (more than 40% in a single day in April).

Not just Perion but Direct Digital Holdings also. Last year it was below $3 (or below $2) and went above $35 and it fell to below $3 again this year (more than 90% down). It also tanked more than 40% in a single day (it was trading above $30 in March but fell below $3 in less than 2 months). One company said Direct Digital’s subsidiary, Colossus Media, misrepresented user IDs and showed wrong users or something (I’m not sure what that is as it’s very technical to understand for a layman). Many people have filed class action suit against Direct Digital too.

Some people will say that BCG couldn’t have that much revenue etc but that can be said of many adtech companies too as they have high growth rates with fewer employees like BCG.

Direct Digital revenue was less than $7M in 2019 but $160M in 2023 (increase of more than 20 times in just 4 years). I think it was started in 2018.

Perion Network – $4M in 2002 to $35M in 2011 but suddenly to $326M in 2013. In 2019 it was $261M but in 2023 it was $743M.

Magnite Inc – $37M in 2011 to $248M in 2015 and $156M in 2019 to $620M in 2023.

TTD – $45M in 2014 to $661M in 2019 and almost $2B in 2023.

I’m not cherry picking data and I’ve selected 2019 because it was the year before COVID. Everything is there in public domain and anyone can check anytime. I’m showing sudden growth or very high growth levels in many companies.

I didn’t suspect SKR’s intentions because adtech companies will always be looking for acquisitions. Perion has acquired Undertone, Vidazoo and recently acquired Hivestack which is a Digital Out of Home company, similar to Consumables Inc which BCG wanted to acquire. Hivestack has grown it’s revenue 20 times from 2019. Check the expectations Perion has set for Hivestack. Currently Hivestack’s revenue maybe is $45M but Perion wants it to do $300M+ in 2024-26. More than 6 times in 2 years which is crazy.

And, adtech companies need cash always. Affle has raised money many times (once in it’s IPO, then a QIP and maybe in 2022 or 2023).

BCG/Ybrant is older than many of the companies mentioned above. OMS was very big (maybe among the top 10) when it was acquired by BCG (in 2007-08). So, it’s not easy to say whether the numbers are real or fake because other companies have grown similarly or have done better. I don’t know whether SKR used MediaMint and Consumable Inc news to hype the stock or it was really genuine. One thing is that with other companies, they will also hype their target companies but unlike BCG they will share the name of the target companies sooner and won’t be like SKR saying the names of the companies after 1 year.

I wanted to share these earlier but due to health issues I was unable to. It takes a lot of time and effort to collect data and make opinions on that.

Some people will say everything is fake and don’t trust anything and others will say everything is real but please don’t listen to anyone as people are always biased and they’ll misguide us. Their only agenda will be to make you follow them. If they have sold their shares, their agenda will be to make you sell and if they’ve bought shares then their agenda will be to make you buy the shares. Always do your own research or approach sebi if you have confusions. Personally, I have remained invested because of OMS. That is the only hope for me but I’ll never force anyone to follow me. Let’s hope for the best.

[Logan]

Hi @adup, I fear we are falling into Stockholm syndrome as we have become hostages to SKR through Kallol. Everyone knew that it would take a long time to resolve the issues which BCG has but we’re not seeing any actions from the board. All the board members resigned and no other development has happened. They had so much time to publish the results but failed giving silly reasons.

With BCG/SKR, there was always drama and uncertainty but the survival of the company was never in question but now all our money will go to vain if no actions are taken. When Lycos case with Daum happened, I supported SKR’s decision because Lycos was not worth anything and the company didn’t depend on it but now there’s so much at stake. There’s no urgency or seriousness from the board to resolve the issues and they are depending on SKR to take actions which is making him more powerful. What if tomorrow all the 3 board members resign? Who will take care of the company? They are playing with us. SKR will be okay to wait for years to get back into the company but what about more than 6 lakh shareholders and their hard earned money? He has made thousands of crores cheating us whereas our life savings is at stake.

They really don’t have any humanity and are playing with our lives.

[Logan]

SKR and KS are the same. The Worst Of Times Can Bring Out The Best In People but seems this doesn’t apply to people like Kallol as he has made matters even worse.

They have no humanity and no sympathy. SKR and his friends made thousands of crores but we are losing all our life savings.

[Logan]

This is hopeless from the company.

They are saying that the auditor resigned when they were supposed to share the quarterly results. It’s either the auditor found something wrong or the company must not have provided the details which the auditor asked for and hence they’re resigning.

I think the auditors were appointed in November which is more than 6 months back and the company is saying that the review is still not complete. They think of us as fools. And now they’ve appointed a new auditor and don’t know how many months they will need to do their review.

People like SKR and Kallol are bringing bad names to prestigious institutions like IIT and IIM.

[Logan]

@radhutheoptimist, if you remember, it was me who suggested that shareholders/investors should form a legal association (not sure on other platforms but at least in this forum). I was also the one who suggested/requested people living in Hyderabad to visit the company to get more clarity. But unfortunately I won’t be able to join any association or group because of my health issues. I have informed about this when I suggested to form the association also. It’s not like I want others to do the work and I can relax but it’s very difficult to do anything when you’re having severe health issues.

Also, many things have changed a lot lately. When I suggested this, the SCN2 had not come and things were very different. Back then I had more hope and believed the numbers but since SCN2, I’m not trusting the numbers 100%. My only hope is OMS, Israel and if SKR has played with that too then there’s no hope left for me.

Personally, I don’t think I can contribute more than giving basic suggestions and for that joining the association won’t be required. If the company/board get their basics right then things will start to improve. The first basic thing for the board to do is to take actions quickly and be more transparent and good things will follow automatically.

If you remember, from day one I wanted the company to improve corporate governance and appoint a reputed auditor and I was okay with the company not paying dividends and use the same money to appoint a reputed auditor. This is an example of being more transparent which would’ve changed things a lot.

Everyone can contribute in different ways and it’s not that someone can contribute only if they join the association. They can write here or in various other platforms and share their suggestions with you and you can use those suggestions and present them to the board/management. I really appreciate your and all the shareholders efforts in creating the association but because of my health and other issues, I won’t be able to join.

[Logan]

@radhutheoptimist, great initiative, thank you for doing it.

[Author]

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