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Tuesday, May 30, 2006

Triangle Multimedia Limited (QBID) ends

QBID, which I had been following for entertainment purposes, is gone as a going concern.
Triangle Multi-Media Limited (Other OTC:QBID.PK - News) and its wholly owned subsidiary the Q Television Network (QTN) announced today that Q Television Network is no more. Effective 5:30pm Central time, the Q Television Network signal broadcasting programming was shut down. Previously, the entire Q Television Network staff had been terminated.
Well, at least they have their $2 billion film library, right? I mean, they said it's worth two billion dollars, right?

Well, that may have been a stupid statement, but the film library does bring in $200K per year in royalties... supposedly. If that's true, the library is worth perhaps $3 million (more if the royalties reliably grow over time, less if they're declining). But there are always those pesky liabilities.

They did release an annual report for 2005 here which looks like a scanned hand-typed piece of paper.

For June 30, 2005, assets are almost entirely the film libarary, which is carried at $7.7 million less depreciation (much of which might be against other assets). Total assets were $8.9 million. Unfortunately, there are over $16 million in liabilities.

The income statement shows "income" (actually revenue) of $3,344. Yes, that's correct: less than four thousand dollars. Direct costs were more than 100 times greater at $425K. G&A fixed costs were $7.2 million, making the revenue essentially zero.

So let's see if I have this correct. They burned up $7.2 million of fixed costs in six months to support revenues of three thousand dollars which cost $425K in direct costs against that revenue.

We then have another balance sheet for Dec 31, 2005.
Cash: $162K
Deposits for 2006 [gay] games: $1.1 million

Furniture, fixtures, equipment: $822K
"Transportation equipment": $396K
Leasehold improvements (Burbank Studio): $350K
Films/movies/videos: $19 million
Depreciation: $2.3 million

They show $450K intangible assets, licenses, permits associated with the Burbank studios.
They show $1.3 million goodwill for the Burbank Studio (sheesh!)

The liabilities increased to $37 million.
Due to Triangle Multim. Ltd. Inc.: $7.0 million (up from $6.0 million at the end of June)
Notes/loans payable: $25 million (up from $9.2 million at the end of June)

The shareholder deficit increased to $15.5 million (from $7.6 million at the end of June)

In the income statement for 2nd half of 2005, we see that income jumped up to... $9,644. Direct costs were even higher than the first half at $718K. G&A was steady at $7.2 million.

Congratulations to anyone who shorted the stock. And to anyone who actually owned shares in this thing, I'd hand that worthless outhouse wallpaper over to the most ruthless legal pit-bulls I could find.

Today, the best bid is "Unpriced" and the best ask is $0.0001 (which are probably short sellers covering).

Conclusion

Whoever ran this train-wreck, feeding-trough of a business are bastard people. That's right, they're just bastard people and I'm just gonna go home and I'm gonna, I'm gonna bite my pillow is what I'm gonna do!

Actually, this business seems not far from criminal in my opinion depending on how much (if any) of the huge expenses in cash went to related parties or how much of it went towards increasing the lifestyle of those involved instead of directly advancing the business.

UPDATE: Saturday, June 3, 2006
James Altucher of RealMoney's Blog Watch calls this an autopsy. He mentions the 38% year-over-year growth in Internet advertising.... and I sold ValueClick at $4.40, thinking that was full value. We all have things that we kick ourselves about.

And what amount of money would I need to retire? I have to admit that I'm not retired and despite the fact that I'm still young to be retiring, I really, really want to be in retirement. Not because I'm lazy and I do love my job oh so much [they read this blog sometimes], but because of all the things I want to do that have low, uncertain, or very lumpy returns. Well, I have one kid finishing up college and another one that's starting. So that affects the number a great deal. But putting aside the cash needed for college, I think a better question is what percentage draw per year is reasonable? Over at the Retire Early Home Page, they seem fixed on 4%. I'd go higher than that because I intend to keep working as an investor and I've been beating the S&P 500 fairly consistently, but I wouldn't go much higher than 4% because I don't need the stress. So let's say 5% or 6%. I'm not far from my goal, but then I said that back in 2001.

Comments:
James! Hi, it really depends on what my expenses will be and that depends on a lot of things I haven't decided yet. If I were to move to India, I'd be all set right now. If I wanted to live in Manhattan or DC or San Francisco, I'd have a lot farther to go.
 
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