blonde poker forum

Hi All,

As you might be aware I am one of the Blonde shareholders. For the last year my involvement has been zero due to other commitments. Prior to that I tried to be involved as much as possible to promote the site.
 It is obvious that my non participation does not help Blonde. To that end I am putting my shareholding in Blonde up for sale. I must stress I will only sell my shares to someone who wants to be involved in the future of the site. I want what is best for Blonde and an active shareholder is what is needed. If you feel you can make the necessary commitment to the site then please email me directly. For the record I have the largest shareholding in the company at 27%.  It might even be the right thing to do to sell the shares to a group of people who want one or two shares each. As long as your heart is in Blonde...

Denis O Mahoney

$1 transfer via FTP or Stars OK?

I offer $500 as long as I get access to the mods room and you accept a FT transfer

Even Dennis doesn't get access to that room. That will take a min 51% holding.

can we know how much shares are being sold for?

As Denis stated in his OP email him directly ... Or PM him.

what is an "active" shareholder?

What is the price for 1 Blonde share?

Whatever someone pays for it. Given it's not listed, and nobody is making a market in them (as far as I'm aware), that's the only way to value shares in a private company.

Share prices will not be disclosed on a public forum.

If anyone is "Seriously" interested in buying Denis's shares, please contact him directly.


I have been asked to post this on the thread.

It's very difficult to value an unlisted company - it's worth only as much as someone is prepared to pay for it imo - a company may have an asset value to it but this may only usually be realised with the agreement of a majority (if not all depending on way it was set up) of the shareholders.

For example there is probably a value to the adresses Blonde holds but unless the shareholders agreed this value could not be utilised.

Just my opinion.

I don't think we should speculate as to the value of these shares, that would be commercially a bad approach for buyer and seller.

how's about we all pool together for a few quid and buy it?...I was thinking about something similar earlier...say an extra share-issue in Blonde shares offered to forum members..they wouldn't get a say or anything but it would injext a bit of cash into Blonde.

let's value it then :)

from memory of the threads over the last few days and some guesswork

assets; a cardroom making around £2K per month
a sponsorship deal with celeb at around £1K per month for unknown period of time
a partnership just started with RT (http://blondepoker.com/redirect.php?id=1)R (http://blondepoker.com/redirect.php?id=1) possible good long term prospects
tikay, tighty and kev all great at their roles
loyal forum members
no debt!

liabilities; owe £12Kish to tighty for wages
£250 pm server cost


big question mark over whether or not it is possible to make money from forum members (fkin cheapskates imo)
loss of tikay for any reason would be massive I think

so that's a (possibly totally wrong) start. how do you value it from here? is it X x earnings, X x profits?

tis what i.ve been thinking

seeing as the staking side of the forum is going well why not same sort of thing on shares of blonde??

It's a lovely idea but in reality all shareholders would probably have to agree and the way it was set up may not allow extra shares to be issued.

Additional shares would probably reduce the value of existing shares so it's unikely this would get past some of the shareholders despite the fact that an injection of cash may in the long term increase the value of the shareholding. There are a lot of inactive shareholders which can make it difficult to say the least.

Sigh if only i could work that out!

Just so people know i am the 'prospective shareholder' Tikay has been refering too.

I watch Dragons Den all the time, it all seems really easy!

The total value of a company is roughly either 10x its profit or 3x its turnover according to sources I have read. Although ultimately its whatever someone will play for it.

Oops that was me on jamies laptop!! It's me not Mr BSQ!

NO...................I'M SPARTACUS.

lol thought that was a bit weird

what's this about commercial staking then?

flushy for mod

FYP

fyp

fyp
 ;)

Hi again

Thanks for the first emails and your comments and questions on this thread.  To clear a few things up. For once in his 57 years on earth Kev is right. The value of the shares etc is not for open discussion. The reason is simple. it is a private matter for whoever buys them. As for how you value it again this is subjective. Ideally it is a combination of turnover and profit. However in this case it is not about what I receive ultimately. It is really about the fact that I add nothing to the site yet I am the largest shareholder.  

As for Boldies comment about a pool of you buying the shares...It has a lot going for it. Blonde needs more people to help Rich, Tikay and especially Kev.  I can see things like promotion and updates to name but two.  Anyway I will answer any questions I can on here and more private matters off line. 

Now off to talk to Spartacus

damm can he sack the admins aswell, i will settle for 3x my annaul salary so thats a settlement of £0.00 but hey ho i am sure he can aford it he might even stake me for a $2 stt

I have thought about this for a while as well, especially when there was a blonde shareholder thing set up (which did not get off the ground in the end). The main problem I can see is the discussion on the value. You many have 1000 members who each pay whatever for it, but this cannot be done on PM's and emails, thus ending up with it being a open discussion..

It is the way forward for sure if there are no other prospective buyers or solutions to the value.. Extra shares would not be a problem, would each other shareholder not increase their shares in line with whatever they have now?

nah the main problem is trying to calibrate the validity of the pledges. How often have blonde run satellites where 20 people have said "I will defo play" but when the time comes, theres all the excuses in the world.. "sorry Kev, cant play, my dog just figured out a solution to fermats theorum and I need to take it to cambridge to get it on record"

The only clear way forward is if these shareholders that "want the best for blonde" stop asking for unreasonable sums of money for they holdings, and then someone will buy, and keep it all afloat. The delineation is in the mutual parties valuation of blonde, and if people really DO want the best for blonde, they will take a loss on their holdings and give it to someone at a "discount" who wants to make a go of this place.

Hi Jizzemm,

To answer your question re an increase in the number of shares. This would devalue the shares of those who currently own them. Also their are some seven shareholders I believe at the moment. Some of these have little or no interest in selling or devaluing their holding. As I explained being the largest shareholder and not putting any time into the site makes me a hindrance and not a help to Blonde. I am not looking to make a profit on this deal. It was never my intention, even at the outset. I got involved because I liked the site and the people. I still do. I was playing all the festival events and felt I could add something to the site. Things have changed for me since then and in fact I have played probably less than five events last year. I know the question of value seems difficult. I know what I paid for my stock and that sets the bar.
I can confirm that today I have received a number of enquiries for either the entire holding or to be part of the group scheme. I will email or speak to everyone over the next few days. If you want to be involved then just email me.

Totalise all I can say is I have only offered my shares to one person and I have not asked for a profit on my stock. In fact because of who it is I would make a loss, but he would be good for Blonde. If the right person makes an offer then I will do what's right. 

but it doesn't, not if your sentiment is to be believed. IF you truly want blonde to succeed, then you shouldnt care about profit or loss, all you should care about is giving your stock to a person that wants to turn this place into a profitable enterprise. Amount paid does not equal intention.

Dennis has never asked for more than he paid for the shares. Not to me anyway.

The value of shares may go up or down

And surely they must have gone down at this present time.

Which I assume is the difficulty.

But however good people's intention are you can only let goodwill and being 'nice' go so far when it comes to your finances.

It would be unreasonable to expect too much (the definition of 'too much' might be open to interpretation though).

Selling them to a consortium of blondes would be a nightmare.  The only way this could happen is for the group to get together, work out how much they have, then approach the seller as a single buyer rather than a group of individual people.    Little point speculating on this thread about it, form a group then approach Dennis and take it from there.

I'd be interested myself, but if Flushy hasn't snapped it all up, then I definatley can't afford it :D

Stake Fergus to be majority shareholder ftw imo lol mbfn rolf tl;dr tez etc etc

I was thinking something similar.

That it would basically have to be one person who could negotiate a price and do all the work basically, and have the rest of the consortium as purely investors. Possibly with some kind of AGM to discuss general aims perhaps, but essentially with just a single figurehead to take responsibility, because obviously there would be work to do after the shares were bought as well the process of buying them.

"Sir Jack Hayward has agreed to "gift" Wolverhampton Wanderers to business Steve Morgan for a mere £10. As part of the deal, which should be formalised over the coming month, Morgan has agreed to invest £30m "for the benefit of the club".

Hayward bought Wolves for £2m in 1990 and has since then invested some £50m of his fortune into the club. He has been searching for someone to hand the club over to since 2003, but always insisted that his concern was not to make a financial killing on the deal but to ensure new life was breathed into the club. He has previously rejected takeover bids by, amongst others, Graeme Souness. "In Steve Morgan, Sir Jack feels he has finally found someone who not only has the best interests of the club at heart but also has the resources necessary to take over the responsibility for returning the club to its former greatness," read a club statement."

Look how successfull the Wolves are now - perhaps this could be a lesson for you!
Find someone with the available wonga and the right business acumen to take Blonde forward.

avoiding losing more millions of pounds of his own money by selling the club for a tenner probably isn't the best example of commercial altruism you could give.

the site needs, the cost base sadly already lower to reflect some of the below

a) Shareholders active and facing in the same direction

b) New investment, if possible. Because of issues of dilution raising fresh capital for this requires point a) as a pre-condition

c) Better trading conditions, whether that be advertising markets, sponsorship markets or via improved card-room rake, which might be achieved by a better card-room offering, more promotion, a broader base of players or disposable income of the recreational players being higher.

Not too much to ask for then.

It has "the right business acumen" but asking that business acumen to succeed with both hands and legs tied up isn't that condusive.

Isn't it a tax write off to sell at a loss anyway?  Win win all around really, if that's the case.

I'm in the same camp as Silo.  Can't see us having the dosh if Flushy's interested and the deal isn't already sealed.

It is a tax write off but obviously this doesnt cover the money youve just lost on the sale of your shares.

Was never meant as an attack on you tightEnd as no one can deny the efforts, time or the financial resouces that you have put into Blonde. You have already stated yourself that there are better busiiness modules out there.

I was just voicing my thoughts that whoever buy's the shares should also prove that
1) They have got the capital to ensure that the business modules needed to get Blonde on at least an even playing field with AWOP are there.
2) An agenda in place with time scales to get all the work that needs to be done.
3) The right business acumen to take Blonde forward.

Perhaps you should speak to Richard Branson, Blonde-Virgin or Virgin-Blondes have a certain ring about them.

And, as an added bonus, if Branson were to put him grubby little attention whoring fingers on the forum and slap a big Virgin sticker on it and run it like his airline...I'd leave :)

but hey think about it we'd save a fortune on the food bill for the updates..

the only think awop have is thier updates. Their forum is pretty stale. Hope flushy gets the shares, as he breifly discussed some ideas with me and they sound like winners.

Agreed, me too. Good ideas and finally some money to invest. Lets hope so.

I know quite a few poker forums who claim to be 'much bigger than blonde' yet they always have about two active threads all day at the most. I met an AWOP fella who claimed that their TV site gets 1 million hits a week, which I refuse to believe.

Flushy for major shareholder then to ban himself FTW

FLUSHY FOR MD!

Hi again,

It is common Knowledge and Flushy has remarked that we have spoken about his involvement. As you would expect I will not say how much we spoke about but I would have made a loss on this deal. However as you have all said it would be the best deal for Blonde so both Flushy and I are keen to look at it. Overnight several others have expressed an interest in the shares. However Flushy has first refusal right now. He knows my position and his post confirms I am not trying to make anything out of this deal. God forbid anyone ever did anything for a profit. I love the site and the people. I just dint have the time anymore to do it justice.

Totalise I am bewildered as to why you are questioning my intentions in this matter. Perhaps I misunderstand your response. If so sorry.  When I got involved, I spent a great deal of time working with the guys. Indeed the numbers increased dramatically during that time.  I never received or asked for any return for my efforts. I was prepared to invest more money into the site but some of the other investors could not or would not do the same.  Is it now wrong that when I think the site would be better served by someone else that I should not at least try and recoup my investment.

As for the difficulties of a group scheme, the difficulties in organisation are simple enough. If a deal of that nature was to happen I would agree one price. That way everyone would have the same deal. It is then a simple matter of transfer of share certs.

attention whore? surely not

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mandrake/4425045/Sir-Richard-Branson-offers-the-moon-to-US-pilot.html

Cheers Dennis, when you called i was navigating my way around country lanes in a rear while drive car......just got home now, only took 5hrs for a 1hr jounrey, i will talk to you later but right now i need a big drink and something to eat!!

Are any other shareholders interested in selling?
How many other shareholders are silent as denis has been for the past year?

Yes

All except tikay

you could eat a wagonwhile ;)

what is tikays shareholding? Is it possible to buy a majority stake without tikay selling his shares?

25

Yes, in theory.

ok on a smaller scale

I averted a similar incident today on the slopes missing 2 old biddies walking their scottish terriers

with that in mind and flushy's takeover bid I'm expecting a seat in the WSOP ME

Could shareholders willing to sell put up the %'s definitely for sale, names not required just the numbers if happier to forward through tightend.

I will PM you

It could be a tax saving of 40%, 20%, 18% or nil dependent upon various factors. However telling your missus that 'don't worry about me losing that £100k investment because I could get up to £40k off my tax bill' is not going to work!

ffs boldie lets do this bruv, weve been banned from every other religous forum, we can start a new here, boldieboltism!!!!

be honest did it involve me being a mod or at least getting a t-shirt?

In our case, Mrs. is the one doing the books and Mrs. is ok with a loss when there's been no gain.  'Get out while the going is good' and all that.


Give it up.  You aren't getting a t-shirt.  xx

Does blonde have much of a windup value? Surely in current circs the shares are only worth x% of the liquifiable assets of blonde.

In most circumstances shares in a company like Blonde would be pretty much worthless.

No significant earnings streams, low returns, people the only assets etc. They become worth something if a new investor believes he can unlock value from the current membership imo

It would be nice for the members to buy shares but obviously buying the sharse does not give Blonde any money it just transfers ownership. So there would need to be further investment, this doesn't seem like a very good option unless all of the shareholders put in extra investment which by the sounds of it they wont.

Hi All,

Just to keep you all up to date with progress.  Since I opened the post I have had 12 people express interest in buying one or more shares.  I have also had four people / groups wanting to buy all my percentage.  I have spoken or emailed pretty much everyone interested. If I have missed anyone then please email me again.  Out of the four interested in all my shares I have said no to one group. Their interest was not in line with what is best for Blonde. i hope to conclude this ASAP as a drawn out affair helps no one.  If you have any questions then feel free to ring me on 07966 493232.

Hi Denis

I've emailed you @ your kewcomputers.com email address.

Cheers
Matt