Hi nxt,
Their contribution is certainly opaque.
I don't want them running the daily activities of the company. But I also see little sign of them reining in the excesses or rethinking things like compensation.
I don't know anyone who now defends Wave's bonus structure, for instance. Except them.
Employing the unsafe harbour and the crack pipe to mislead shareholders is something they tolerate. The exposure of positive insider information argument for why the board doesn't invest appears to have been a premeditated misrepresentation, for instance: they weren't investing because they knew the results were awful, not because they knew wonderful secrets which they would be trading on. Why do that? Why say that revenues are growing when they are not?
This is all quite shocking and yet it appears that, with impunity and without consequence, SS crosses the line between necessary optimism and unreality. Witness snackman. Or should I say, even snackman. I remember trying to run calculations based on SS's statements in the dim and distant past and being shocked to discover they appeared to be internally inconsistent. Now many simply assume it.
And yet he does bring something to the party. He has pursued a strategic technological vision relentlessly and impressively.
That makes him an interesting strategist.
Steering wheel. Accelerator. No brake. No lights. Don't think that car drives well enough to be on the road.
This is something one would expect a board to consider.
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