[Logan]

The company will never come out of SKR’s influence and we have to live with that and there’s no other option. For 2 decades everyone relied on him for everything and it’s no use expecting them to change now. If the board really wanted to change then they wouldn’t have brought in Mr.Kallol Sen who is nothing but SKR’s proxy, though he might not get involved in illegal things as he’ll be fearful, he still will follow SKR’s advice because SKR has brought the perception that the company can’t move ahead without him.

Looking at things, I don’t think we will see major shift in the company’s behaviour till he comes back. Don’t know for how long SEBI will ban him but he’ll drag things till he comes back and the stock will continue to underperform. Arrogant, narcissist, selfish people are like that, they’ll not care about others and they’ll do whatever they want till they get what they want.

One year back SKR said we all will thank him for giving the second bonus but look at the state we are in now. When he resigned he made the statement that everyone will come out of the difficult situation keeping the company’s long term vision and the INTEREST OF SHAREHOLDERS in mind.

Company people just patting themselves on the back just because they shared an update saying things like transparency, meticulousness, integrity, commitment etc. In few weeks time they will be required to share Q4 results but they haven’t even shared the Q2 results. Is this the long term vision of the company?

[Logan]

I want to know what SKR/BCG angle is regarding OMS, Israel. As per March 5th update from company, revenues and profits include OMS’s financials but they’ve removed any reference to BCG from the website. So, SKR is not planning to remove OMS from BCG entirely but maybe he’s trying to keep it under the radar so that BCG or SKR will not lose it or because he doesn’t want OMS to be involved in legal troubles which may hurt its business.

In the conference calls he used to say that he had ring fenced all the major subsidiaries of BCG when Daum case happened. I saw in one of the transcripts of the court that Daum wanted a piece of the subsidiaries and BCG refused to accept that and that’s the reason Lycos was purchased using a different US based subsidiary (Ybrant media acquisition) so that Lycos won’t be associated with any of the other subsidiaries of BCG (Ybrant).

Like mentioned before, for me OMS is the main factor to stay invested in BCG.

These are just my guesses/opinions and should not be considered as facts and for buy/sell decisions.

[Logan]

The company currently is headless and we need strong character people with integrity to run the company. In companies, when founders leave (mostly forced) there’ll be less growth in the business but the governance will improve but here it’s even worse. They keep using fancy words to describe themselves but nowhere we have seen that translate into actions.

I don’t know how many of you watch European football leagues. Unlike IPL and other leagues, in football they have relegation and promotion. The 3 teams to finish bottom of the table will be relegated to the second division and the top 3 teams in the second division will be promoted to the first division and same for second, third, fourth and other divisions. A team relegated this year has to play a year in the second division and if they are in the top 3 then they will come back to the first division. Few teams do this but few teams become even worse and get relegated to the third division and later cease to exist.

Top teams (who are very rich) will always be in the top 6, at least in the top 10, and there are mid table teams who for years will be in the mid of the table, they neither go up nor down. Then there are teams which always fight relegation but survive on the last day. There are other teams who play first division this year and the second division the next year and again first division and on and on.

Why I’m bringing this up right now is because many companies go through relegation and promotion phase unofficially, that is, because of different circumstances. Some will be self inflicted (like BCG), some will be because of the market conditions (commodity companies or few companies during recession etc).

There’s a club called Everton which was playing well this year but the EPL (English Premier League) officials found the club had breached financial fair play and they deducted 10 points because of which Everton now is battling relegation and it might get relegated also. Nottingham forest was deducted 4 points. But the champions Manchester City who have breached more than 100 rules have got no point deduction and they are winning many trophies. Many years back, Italian giants, Juventus, were relegated because they had done match fixing but they bounced back the next year and won their league 10 years in a row few years after that incident.

Football clubs while facing relegation will immediately sack the manager/coach and appoint a new person as a manager. Staying in the top league will mean more revenues and more commercial opportunities. Most of the players will leave clubs which get relegated.

Now we have to understand where BCG is, it surely got relegated stock price wise but is it the same with the business? BCG got relegated when it came to the market but bounced back and later got relegated again when Daum case happened and stayed in the lower divisions for many years. Then in 2021 it bounced back and was ready to stay in the top for years but SKR dragged the company down with him so it got relegated again. We have to analyze whether it will get relegated even more or cease to exist or will bounce back.

All these happened because the leadership/manager (SKR) of the club was not an able and a stable person. He was good at business but utterly bad at other things. We can see many companies in adtech or commodity industries like this but most will be because of the market conditions and very few because of the leadership. Magnite will always play in top division this year and lower divisions in the next few years and again back to top division and on and on. Criteio though is not as bad as Magnite, will still get relegated when things are bad and rise during good times.

Real business is like having good players, you change the underperforming manager and bring in a manager who can bring stability and make sure you survive this year and fight for better places in the next year. But if the business is not real then it’s imminent that the club will cease to exist in the coming years (unless a rich guy buys that club and injects money).

Personally, for me, it’s the Israeli company OMS which I believe is like having good players in the team. I will stay till OMS is part of BCG. Now the problem is with the manager/leadership (SKR & co). If they bring in a strong leader/manager with integrity would mean BCG may get promoted again and many years of stable leadership will mean it get promoted to the top division. But for that to happen, SKR shouldn’t play games and he should stay away from the company. I thought Mr.Sen even though is under SKR influence might bring in positive changes because of the situation the company is in. So far it’s just words and not real action.

I always believed SKR was a good manager and the situation was bad for adtech companies before COVID but never imagined he’d backstab us.

Let’s pray for the best and prepare for the worst.

[Logan]

We are past the stage where we (or the market) take comments from the company seriously.

I don’t know whether to laugh or get sad/angry when they say things like transparency, meticulousness, integrity, commitment etc, especially after suffering from the wounds caused by them. No one is interested in words and all we care about are the actions and I don’t know who they are trying to fool with words like that.

There’s no use in pleading or requesting with them as they are least bothered about shareholders’ pain and concerns. I don’t think they have any humanity left, they’d have changed things quickly if there was even a slight of humanity left.

I don’t know when the “Bethal” which has been on all our backs will go away permanently and give us peace. Except for the last few months of 2021, I haven’t seen good days in BCG from the day I started investing in its stock.

Sebi should’ve appointed an independent director when it ordered the CEO and CFO to resign. Without supervision BCG board will do nothing and drag things for years and they’ll keep using fancy words while sharing useless updates.

[Logan]

Mark Twain said “History does not repeat but it rhymes” and I think he saw people like SKR and companies like BCG to come up with that quote.

SKR and BCG told us they’d improve most things within some time frame but they were always lagging far behind. Even if they did something within that given time, it was always the last possible day. And Mr.Sen looks like the same. Birds of a feather flock together.

Mr.Sen said two weeks time for limited review results but still no update on that and tomorrow is the last day. We all are waiting curiously for that but they won’t care. Instead of saying two weeks he could’ve said 3 and do his task within the given time. Why set expectations and disappoint later? Why do everything on the last possible day?

It’s the same old since last many years and though it’s not repeating, most things are rhyming. It’s 6 months since the CEO and CFO resigned but still no news on hiring new people for the jobs. They hired an executive board member after 4 and a half months and don’t know how long they’ll take to hire a CS.

I hope and pray Mr.Sen will start paying attention to shareholders concerns and he’ll bring positive changes in the company.

[Logan]

This is a good development but not sure whether it came from the heart or came considering the circumstances.

Mr.Kallol Sen and the board had updated us 3 weeks back that they’d share the results and updates with us and they did it in 3 weeks and this shows that it came from the heart.

But this also came after the recent SAT event (yesterday) so the update from the management might be because of the circumstances and might not have come from the heart.

If it’s the former then it’s really commendable and shows that Mr.Sen does what he says and is committed and trustworthy (too early to say though) but if it’s the latter then it shows that he and the board are not really committed and there’s no improvement since he came on board.

From now onwards I want them to have these three important things – honesty, commitment and empathy. Let Mr.Sen, the board and the employees take tens/hundreds of crores salary/compensation if they do things honestly. No one will complain if they do that but they should not cheat or back stab shareholders and they should comply with all the rules and regulations.

Regarding numbers, Mr.Sen and the board are well aware that the whole country is watching them and I guess they’d not have shown fake numbers but if they did show fake numbers then they’re not only stupid but also evil.

[Logan]

All the observations are related to misdeeds of SKR and as of now SEBI hasn’t complained about the financials of BCG. Like I’ve said many times before that BCG was (and being) run like a private company, SEBI has also made the same observation. Giving one man all the control is never a good idea (unless it is Warren Buffett). All these years there was never a board actually and it was only SKR.

The acts of SKR shows utter disregard for rules and regulations and his careless attitude. He never cared for shareholders as any idiot would’ve known that he couldn’t get away with these stupid things. I think most of the loans were taken for SKR’s personal use and since he couldn’t pay back, he gave away BCG shares for free not giving a damn about shareholders and their hard earned money. We are paying the price for his crap. Sorry for the language but that is what I feel. He could’ve taken crores of rupees as salary and paid back his personal loans but he never wanted to harm the subsidiaries and he used the parent company only for his selfish uses. Not even a single shareholder would’ve complained if he took crores of salary but he messed it all up. In all this, only his friends made hundreds/thousands of crores but the shareholders who trusted him through thick and thin are suffering the most.

SKR will continue to fight as guilty people will rarely agree to committing fraud. He’s falling and dragging the company along with him.

Now the board has 2 options – one is continue to be SKR’s puppets and don’t resolve the issues for years and let SKR drag the company down along with him and the second is come out of SKR’s control, focus on clearing his mess and continue to do business and concentrate on protecting shareholders’ interests and doing the best for shareholders.

I supported the SKR who built the company from scratch with hard work taking wise decisions like buying OMS and starting Brightcom but I’ll never support the SKR who cheated and back-stabbed shareholders for his personal gains and who takes stupid and reckless decisions without caring about shareholders. How could he do all this without shame and call shareholders his family? No one will treat their family like this. Like I’ve mentioned before, I’d rather die than put my family in this position.

All these are my opinions/observations and I maybe completely wrong, please don’t consider my opinions for buy/sell decisions.

[Logan]

@odysee, I agree with you but at the same time we have to look at how things were handled in the past too. SKR is someone who will be ready to drag things and will be least bothered about others. I supported his decision on Lycos because Lycos was not worth that much, it was more to do with perception than the actual survival of the company but the recent events can’t be dragged and now it’s actually about the survival of the company (and of course the perception too). He could’ve appointed interim CEO and CFO and a chairman at least but he’s not willing to do that because that’ll cause him to lose control. Shareholders badly need leadership in the company now but it’s been 5 months since the SCN2 came and still there’s no actual progress.

We were about to see growth in standalone numbers because of the audio ad business and the recent disruption in technology because of AI would’ve been an advantage to the company but all that will be gone because there’s no leadership in the company. I think the audio ad business is dead and maybe the US subsidiaries too because of SKR’s absence. My only hope is OMS and if he does something to that then there will be no hope left.

I don’t know much about Securekloud’s events but I think they appointed a new chairman and CFO immediately after the CEO/chairman was removed in 2022 but look at the progress in BCG. I don’t support SKR coming back and I’m not supporting Securekloud too but BCG could’ve followed the same path so that shareholders wouldn’t have suffered.

[Logan]

Securekloud’s (formerly 8K Miles) previous CEO/chairman/promoter was arrested last year by ED but two weeks back the ED case was quashed by the HC of Madras and SC agreed with the HC judgement.

He faced similar charges to SKR and in fact the company had shown fake revenue, profits and assets for years and had gone through forensic audit also. Sebi imposed penalty and banned him and others for few years.

This is how these rich people will get away. They’ll delay things until the end but in all this time the people who suffer the most will be the retail investors. They’ll delay and delay till the tide turns in their favour as they have resources to survive but we will invest our hard earned life savings which will be very important for our future.

Now MCA has decided to probe BCG and SKR will again put shareholders into trouble instead of agreeing to the frauds he has committed. One person is destroying the health, peace, dreams and hopes of lakhs of shareholders and their families.

Looks like the chances of BCG drama ending soon is not in sight and it may take years.

[Logan]

It’s good that the board is updating us regarding important things but if there are no actions then those notifications will lose significance. They shared a similar update on the same items on September 1st and we all know what the progress is.

If the result is not favourable to SKR (in SAT) then he will appoint a dummy CEO and a CFO and drag things for years and he will have (in)direct control.

We boarded this ship trusting the captain thinking that he would take us to a good place but it turns out that the captain is a pirate and we’re in the middle of the sea in stormy waters.

Many other ships went past us but we didn’t jump to them and we are stuck here. Now it’s too late to jump and our only hope should be that this should not be a sinking ship and that the fault is only with the (pirate) captain and not the ship.

[Logan]

Meta (Facebook) is paying its first dividend. There are many opinions and observations on this but I’ll stick to only two. One is it shows the company’s financial strength and confidence and other is that it shows it has plans to grow even while paying dividend. Not only that but it plans to buyback $50B worth of shares. Next Google may start doing the same. Google has close to $150B cash with which it can easily buy TCS (our country’s second largest company by market cap).

Big Tech companies are getting stronger everyday and it’s really hard for smaller companies to compete and SKR shot himself in the foot and is making us suffer at a time when we needed stability in the company the most. The main reason I supported SKR before was because he’s good at adapting to changes in the industry and has a good grasp on technological trends but his evil side made him take things for granted. He saw the trend in audio ads and adapted well, he saw Quantum computing getting more traction so he wanted to invest in that field but all those will be of no use now without proper leadership in the company.

If everyone remembers, I always wanted the company to appoint a top 4 auditor instead of paying dividend. If they had done that, SKR wouldn’t have taken things for granted and he’d have feared the auditors. Appointing a top auditor is a good step in making the governance (financial side) better and for the operations side (and also financial), it’s having a strong board. It’s a welcome move to appoint a whole time executive director and new independent directors on the board but the sad part is that still it looks like the company will be under SKR’s influence. I don’t know when things will get better for us.

[Logan]

Thank God, they’re appointing an executive director on the board (the meeting is on Friday).

Finally the board woke up and it’s a good step. He’s also from IIT, Kharagpur and has been working in the tech industry.

[Logan]

I want to make it clear that I’m not angry/sad/disappointed because the stock price is not going up whereas other stocks have rallied, I’ve seen this before not only in BCG but many other stocks where they’ve underperformed when others are doing well but later do well. I’m angry/disappointed/sad because of the lack of actions from the company/board and also because they are still dependent on SKR for taking any decision and that SKR back stabbed us and doesn’t care about us.

I’ll be more disappointed/sad/angrier if SKR tries to separate OMS from BCG. Ad tech companies rely on technology but equally or sometimes more important is the human factor. You can’t replace someone like Jeff Green (of TTD) and expect TTD to outperform others. Similarly, it’ll be hard to replace the Israeli talent of BCG/OMS.

So, my concern is SKR starting a new company and taking away the talents from OMS. As I read from knowledgeable members that OMS can’t be separated from BCG, but it still can be in a dishonest way by taking people away from it. Anyone can start a new company but it’s the human factor that differentiates the ad tech companies. Years of connection with clients, know how of the technological trends, talent recognition can’t be replicated easily and that’s why many companies fail in the ad tech industry and it’s hard to compete in the industry.

[Logan]

Thanks @saach. I hope that we all come out of this situation and see bright days ahead.

Regarding the increase in FII shareholding, please don’t consider it as a positive as those FIIs are buying only because BCG is part of an index and they will dump all their shares immediately if BCG is removed from the index.

SKR destroyed the dreams and hopes of lakhs of shareholders and he is okay with cheating us as it looks like he doesn’t give a damn about shareholders. He wouldn’t have committed that fraud if he really cared about us and the future of the company. It would’ve been very hard but we could’ve somehow forgiven him if they hadn’t sold a single share (if he and his friends paid penalty to SEBI) but they dumped all their shares not giving a damn making thousands/hundreds of crores as soon as the lock in ended. SKR knew that the ones who were buying those shares dumped by his friends were retail investors and that we’d suffer the most but he didn’t care about us a little also. He kept on lying and he’s the main reason for our misery. We can never forgive him for back-stabbing us. SKR should suffer for cheating and back-stabbing us. It should haunt him forever for cheating lakhs of shareholders.

[Logan]

@saach, sorry for the late reply. I don’t know what’s SKR’s angle and what plans he has.

Sometimes SKR looks textbook selfish and pure evil but sometimes he appears like a good person as he answers all the queries in the conference calls and doesn’t cancel even when the situation is very tough for him and the company. But one thing is sure that he’s reckless and careless and mostly does things only when it suits him and he’ll not care if others suffer because of his actions. He’s a pathological liar and is overly optimistic even when he does stupid things and doesn’t want anything negative talked about his company (when he does stupid things.)

Sometimes he doesn’t understand the reality and lives in his own bubble. He thinks that he can get away with the PW mess and forgery, both of which are serious fraud. The company grew because of him but it’s also in an embarrassing position because of him.

He’s intelligent when it comes to few things but is utterly stupid and lacks common sense in other things. Imagine how stupid he must be to give away crores of shares for free and thinking that he doesn’t get caught.

Shareholders will not forgive him and it’s a shame that he’s trying to get back to his previous positions (Chairman and CEO) knowing very well that he’s committed a serious fraud. We can’t expect much from someone who lacks integrity. It’s better to tell the truth and face consequences than to lie, cheat and back-stab others.

I’m guessing they have separated Brightcom and OMS for 2 things

-To show dependency on SKR and tell everyone that only if he’s there as the CEO the company will grow and survive.

-To come out of the bad name that Brightcom has because of SKR.

SKR will say that there’s no one important in the company who can take main decisions and BCG/Brightcom will not survive if he’s not there in the company anymore. So, except OMS, they might show revenues falling in other companies (Frontier Data Management, International Expressions Inc, Dyomo etc). Like I said before, many things were clear during the Ybrant days but after starting Brightcom it’s little difficult to say who’s handling what. My guess/theory is that SKR was handling the US subsidiaries and those are/were more dependent on him and they used OMS people to get the sales for those subsidiaries using the Brightcom brand but operations were handled by SKR and his team. In the many conference calls I have asked SKR many times to give more details about the structure of many subsidiaries but he never did that. Sometimes he used to say that they won’t disclose much because competitors knowing that will cause issue to the company (and also because of the Daum case).

SEBI didn’t find any issue when it did the forensic audit of US subsidiaries and when MediosOne, DreamAd, Addynamix, VoloMP, Max Interactive were bought, they were few of the top ad networks (back then ad tech companies were called ad networks) in their countries/region. OMS was among the top in Europe. But my fear is that if SKR can manipulate financials of BCG then he can do the same for subsidiaries also and that is why I’m considering only the financials of OMS and will be gutted if he tries to separate it from BCG.

Previously I supported SKR a lot but I started losing respect for him when he hid the news of FA, his actual shareholding and lost respect for him completely after the second SCN. (I had respect for him because it’s very tough for companies to survive in the ad tech industry. I had seen many companies going bankrupt and losing business because they couldn’t compete. Recently also I was very scared when Mediamath’s bankruptcy was announced. Since the technology is changing everyday and since AI is taking over, I thought BCG and SKR would take good decisions as the company is good at adapting to changes but SKR back-stabbed his shareholders who trusted him and respected him for years.)

I’m so stupid that I missed many opportunities and bought only BCG (before second SCN) thinking SKR will change things for better because SEBI was monitoring the company and he had no choice but to follow SEBI’s instructions but the second SCN dashed all hopes and SKR’s reckless/careless/arrogant behavior is the reason for the misery of shareholders.

Since this is a forum for BCG I don’t want to talk about companies in other sectors but I will mention about one company which also had to go through forensic audit. Like BCG, Man Industries had also hid the news of forensic audit for many months, but its stock is up 4-5 times from the date the FA news was announced whereas BCG has crashed 80-90%. I wanted to buy that stock but felt that BCG being a tech company was more undervalued and had better future but I was completely wrong. Man Industries settled with SEBI by paying Rs.9 lakhs penalty for lapses in disclosing about forensic audit.

I don’t know whether my hard earned money and life savings will go to drain because of SKR and I have no choice but to be ready because it was I who decided to keep BCG and invest more. I may regret my decision in the future but I have to live with it.

(Please don’t consider my views/opinions for buying/selling decisions of any stock)

[Logan]

I’m not sure what these new independent directors might be thinking before joining the board/company. They are willingly joining a tainted company. Are they hoping to revive it? or are they thinking that anyway it’s just being independent directors and later they can say that they didn’t/don’t have any control so they’re resigning and not get associated with the company?

If it’s the former then I appreciate them but if it’s the latter then no hope for us.

It really takes courage to join a company like BCG at this stage. If things go bad then they’re risking their names (and potentially their careers) by being associated with a company like BCG.

If they willingly let SKR destroy the company then they are no better than SKR.

Separation of the chairman and the CEO roles is very important going forward (if the company/board is serious and ready to move on). The chairman should be like Sri Rama and the CEO like Hanumanji or the chairman like Sri Krishna and the CEO like Arjuna.

Unfortunately the person who was supposed to be the hero has become the villain in BCG and one of the main reasons is because there was no strong board. SKR still has time to become a hero once again. He should move away from the company and should accept whatever the courts/Sebi order and later based on his behaviour he can come back to the company as a consultant. Each and every shareholder had trusted SKR for years and it’s the least that he can do now.

[Logan]

This is seriously hopeless from the board and the management (whatever that’s remaining). The sad/worst part is that there is still SKR’s influence in the company and seems that the board is not ready to move on.

SKR will drag this for years as he did many other things before (debt, Lycos/DAUM case etc). SEBI should’ve appointed an independent board member when it issued the order to protect interests of lakhs of shareholders.

[Logan]

I’m guessing they are trying to separate Brightcom and OMS.

https://onlinemediasolutions.com/about-us/

Check the website of OMS which was recently Brightcom and now they’ve removed Brightcom and it’s not showing up anywhere. Even in the “About Us” section, previously they had mentioned that the support and operations team were from India but now they’ve removed that also.

Even in LinkedIn they’ve changed from Brightcom to just OMS.

Either they’re trying to come out of the bad image that Brightcom has or SKR has some evil plan and ultimately we’ll end up with just the parent company (Brightcom Group) and SKR might declare it is out of business etc.

If he does that then he’ll be one of the cruelest persons ever to live on Earth. He’ll be cheating and backstabbing 5 lakh shareholders and their families.

[Logan]

SKR’s reckless and careless attitude is the reason that the company is in this situation. He knew that most of the shareholders of his company were retail shareholders and like I mentioned many times before, I still can’t digest the fact that his friends made thousands of crores not paying a single rupee but we retail shareholders have put our hard earned money and life savings and now it’s at risk because of him.

He had energy, he had intelligence but he didn’t and doesn’t have integrity, which according to Warren Buffett is more important than the previous two.

He should respect the verdict and without protest should handover the company to someone. How could he even think of coming back when he has committed so many wrong things?

If he has even a shred of humanity left then at least now he should care about 5 lakh shareholders and do what’s best for the company.

[Logan]

@odysee, my fear is that SKR is looking at things only from his perspective and is least bothered about the shareholders and the actual well being of the company. He’s highlighting shareholders suffering only to make case for himself as his only agenda is to get back to the company.

If this drags on and if they don’t focus on the business then we all will suffer and looks like SKR is willing to destroy the company he built from scratch instead of handing over the responsibility to an able person.

I don’t think Sebi will be okay with him coming back to his previous roles even with a hefty fine as it would set a bad example. Imagine thousands of companies doing the same and getting away with whatever they do. It’s SKR who cheated lakhs of shareholders and it’s because of him the shareholders are suffering and not because of Sebi. If he really cared about shareholders like he’s pretending he is then he wouldn’t have given away crores of shares for free in the first place and he wouldn’t have let those people dump their shares on retail investors when the lock in ended. One of the main reasons the stock crashed so much is because those evil people dumped their shares not caring about the value.

In every conference call he lied to us about not knowing why PW holders dumped their shares. He didn’t inform about FA, and the investigation on PW allotment.

[Author]

Posts