Company News Herve wants employees to leave

[Saint_Proverbius]

Comments from a few random employees and guys who've bought a few shares should definitely be enough to be the authority.

Actually, the remaining shareholders are just now starting to figure things out. The long term shareholders in IPLY have rosey colored glasses that have kept them from selling the shares a long time ago when most people knew the company was toast.

I remember back when IPLY got kicked off NASDAQ because the stock was below $1/share for several months. It was around 60 or so cents then. I remember people clinging on to the stock because Herve issued some press release about how he had a plan on how to get that stock back up to $1/share. You know, two years later, it's never been back on NASDAQ nor has it ever come close to being a dollar per share. Yet, Herve had a plan.

The sad thing is, investors today are still thinking that Herve has a plan. I'm not sure how they can honestly think this considering how the company has been run for the last three years, but they think Herve can come up with a working plan. Never mind that his other companies are in the crapper and owned by the creditors. Herve has a plan. Never mind that Herve decided to cancel a PC CRPG that would have made massive bank for the company in favor of making console games with that property, a PC CRPG that was nearly finished. Why? Because Herve had a plan.

That console game with that property they made will never see the full extent of it's profit potential just because Herve kinda forgot to pay Atari the royalties for it's distribution of D&D games. After all, Herve thought he had a buyer for IPLY, so why pay Atari when he was about to make lots of money? Herve had a plan then too.

Herve had a plan with a property Interplay developed and owned. Make an actiony console game quick and dirty. Established license and low budget game development is one of Herve's big plans, the one he used to bury Titus and Interplay with. Unfortunately, that game went overbudget and required developers be pulled from another PC CRPG which would have sold pretty well. It ended up costing them two to three times more then the console game Atari pulled the plug on, and didn't sell worth a damned. But, they cancelled the PC CRPG because they understaffed it. Herve had a plan.

See the point there? Herve has lots of plans. The problem is, none of them are good plans. In fact, they're plans that haven't worked in the past, but he keeps on using the same ones. That's why Herve has three companies, and three failures.

I was merely commenting that it's somewhat amusing that a bunch of people on a gaming site message board think they know how to run a company better than a long-time CEO. Of course, that was before I realized you were here. If I had known that The Expert himself was gracing us with his presence here on the Codex, I never would have made such a vile comment, obviously.

There's a huge difference between knowing the right thing to do and recognising the wrong thing to do. I may not know how to design a wooden suspension bridge, but I know using them for locomotives is bad. That's the same thing about most of the stuff about Interplay, you don't have to be a good CEO to know that one that repeatedly makes the same mistakes is a bad one. You don't have to be a good CEO to recognise that it might not be a good idea to make a company that's got a strong pressence in the PC arena and a dismal pressence in the console front in to a console only company.

I'm sorry to be an asshat by asking. I don't give a damn either way. All I'm asking is if it is a friend you know personaliy (in reality, not just the net) or some guy you don't know emailing you. I'm not asking for his name and address....

Let's see.. I posted news that Feargus Urquahart had quit Interplay two hours after the letter had been placed on Herve's desk. I'd say things like that would be enough to establish that I know what I'm talking about. It shouldn't matter where the info came from, only that it was spot on. If I got this info by reading tea leaves and chicken bones, and it's still correct info, what does it matter?

 

[Major_Blackhart]

You know, here's the sad thing: I talked to my father about this type of situation, and he said it's an all too common occurance that when a company is bought, they put either themselves or someone else up top, and he/she runs the company into the ground. As for my fathers qualifications, he's a CFO, VP of Finance and Director of all operations for sterling publishing co. Anywho, what's Herve's legal situation anyway? Anyone gonna sue or something?

 

[Country_Gravy]

I thought that Interplay was supposed to release their financials from Q1 yesterday.

What gives?

 

[Briosafreak]

Yeah what gives? They can`t afford a fine by the SEC.

 

[Psilon]

Didn't they file for an extension, though? Or has the "five-day extension" expired by now?

 

[Briosafreak]

Yeah i think it has.

 

[Country_Gravy]

Yeah what gives? They can`t afford a fine by the SEC.

They can't afford lunch, much less a fine.

 

[Walks with the Snails]

Yeah, the phrase "stand in line" comes to mind.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Aren't there criminal penalties for things like this, not just fines?

 

[Psilon]

There will be eventually. Where the threshold lies, I have no clue. Depends on whether some of that missing money is going to lawyers.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Considering the fact that Herve has been bleeding the company for years, how much is he worth? Anyone?

 

[Rosh]

Well, I had a suitable response planned since Fireblade was becoming pathetically predictable, but you folks have to go and skullfuck them over. Damn, spoil my fun.

Then again, I could also rub a couple of noses into the carpet by pointing out that we regularly post news about this subject and have been for over a few years. That woud infer some idea as to what is going on versus being some bumbling fool who jumps into the conversation and starts blathering on about running a corporation.

Nice try, kids.

 

[DarkUnderlord]

Nice try, kids.

Not really. I give them a D- and that's just because Fireblade showed some effort.

Oh wait, you were being sarcastic...

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

Speaking of how much it's worth:

don't know, but what I do know is that if Interplay folds, I'm starting a class action lawsuit against Caen (at one point I had over a million shares, sold 300 and some thousand but I still have a lot invested, a lot to lose, and I feel I should have made something out of this if Herve was acting in Interplay's best interest). I think the only way Interplay can go bankrupt is if Herve wanted it that way. He could have sold the company long ago. I'm betting Atari would be willing to buy Interplay for 50 million right now (which would be 50 cents a share), heck, Atari could make that back on just BGDAIII. So, if INterplay folds, I'll be checkign on this board to see who else wants in on the class action lawsuit. I'm going to have a financial lawyer investigate all the dealings with Titus, including the ridiculously weird move of Titus investigating Caen and taking 9 million shares away, then selling those shares on the cheap, 5 cents a share to Herve. Something seems pretty fishy there to me. But there was lots more "fishy" stuff going on and I'll be going after Herve for what I feel I should have made if he bankrupts Interplay. Hopefully it doesn't come to that as I don't want to have to personally chase Herve down in France and throw him back on a plane to the US, where i can prosecute the snake.

Tell me that isn't funny. Just to reach $50,000,000 on what Atari sees from the retail distribution sales, 2,500,000 units have to sell. That's not counting paying for development, overhead, printing, PR, and so on - just the money they get back from every unit sold. BG:DA didn't sell nearly that much, and BG:DA2's sales are slower than the original's was.

The class action suit thing is a scream also. I'd just love to know on what grounds these guys think they could sue Interplay for because they were stupid enough to invest in the company. The only way I can see a suit even being remotely possible is if Herve and Crew do something illegal, such as posting falsified info in their reports.

 

[Rosh]

Tell me that isn't funny.

That isn't funny, that was pathetically INSANE.

How the hell do these idiots get the money in the first place?

Grandma kicks the bucket so they decide to invest in a company where the dog shit on the paper?

 

[Walks with the Snails]

Wow, just, wow. Guess that's what happens when BG kiddies get trust funds.

I'm not sure chump is a very adequate description. It's called diversification, buddy. If you're planning on sinking that much money in one company, expect to have a little say, and most of all do a little bit of damn research. The idea that this idiot probably owned more than 1% of Interplay and is just as in the dark as anyone chatting it up on a messageboard is just hilarious. At least Herve's reign of terror has an upside, maybe through economic darwinism (did I just make that up), this bright spark will be less likely to find a mate and reproduce now. All that's left is to hook Binky up with a competent hitman.

 

[Country_Gravy]

Why can't Interplay just get this over with? What are they waiting for? Sell or go belly up, but they need to do something. The suspense is killing me. I can't even imagine how those investors feel. What a bunch of jackasses. It will be interesting to see their financial report and see what good old Herve has planned. I wonder if it will say what happened to all that money they had right before they said they had no money.

I hope someone goes to jail. That would be awesome.

 

[Voss]

Economic Darwinism? No, you didn't.

I bet Herve is really scared of that guy chasing him down, too. The thing these people don't seem to realize is while seem might seems 'fishy' to them, they're ignoring the fact that they're ignorant fucks. Theres a lot of legal aspects (and loopholes) to shifting shares around. And that class action suit is going to get a nice belly laugh from whoever he files it with (I wonder who'd he'd approach with it) Investing isn't a sure thing, and trying to hold one particular person *criminally and legally* responsible for failure... good luck. Might as well try to shit leprechauns.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Truly sad sad sad.

 

[Country_Gravy]

Might as well try to shit leprechauns.

Dude, it can happen.

 

[Sol Invictus]

frymuchan has got to be the most clueless rich fucker with money I've ever met. I can't wait to see the reaction of the judge's face when he brings his proposal for a class action lawsuit.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Who is stupid enough to side with him?

 

[taks]

i'd like to see him go down on criminal charges out of this...

How? The entire point of a corporation is limited liability - the owners/directors aren't held financially or legally responsible for the "company's" actions. Yeah, the employees can sue Interplay, but you can't get blood out of a turnip. Herve can be dumb sometimes but probably not in that way.

limited liability does not apply to criminal activities. if a CEO orders criminal behavior by the company, he/she can be charged. how do you think they've managed to indict all those enron people?

the liability of a corporation is there to protect the individuals from financial harm mostly. rather, they run the company poorly, it fails, they can't be sued personally by the stockholders.

fraud is fraud, if herve commits it, and is found out... he just may be charged.

taks

 

[Walks with the Snails]

limited liability does not apply to criminal activities. if a CEO orders criminal behavior by the company, he/she can be charged. how do you think they've managed to indict all those enron people?

the liability of a corporation is there to protect the individuals from financial harm mostly. rather, they run the company poorly, it fails, they can't be sued personally by the stockholders.

fraud is fraud, if herve commits it, and is found out... he just may be charged.

taks

Enron got investigated because the whole damn country was mad about it and it was an election year. Where there's a will there's a way. Even then they've just now (2 years later) managed to get one guy to turn on the others by promising not to lock up his wife. It's still unclear whether anyone else is going to be punished now that it's a page 23 story. Herve's garden-variety shenanigans ain't even going to register unless Frymuchan happened to get his trust fund from his daddy, the Senator.

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

Right, Herve hasn't really committed fraud or anything else blatantly illegal yet, so there's nothing they can sue him for. That's the thing about it. You can't sue a company or CEO as a shareholder just because the guy has run the company poorly. If you could, then the stock market would crumble and fall. A company will always do something some stockholders don't like, after all.

Here's another funny thing from the Raging Bull forums:

BGDA2, a hit that has sold more than 500K copies, was sabotaged in stride by the loss of the license from ATARI.

Vivendi only had 400k to distribute, so, how could it have sold over 500k copies?