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Post by jpg on Jul 10, 2014 0:12:45 GMT -5
You post belongs on another board (that will remain nameless) where bashing A. Mann (while still cashing in on his shared successes) is THE thing to do. Those who don't follow the 'A. mann bashing protocols' or object to them don't seem to post very long there... Hmmm
JPG
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Post by chmith27 on Jul 10, 2014 1:15:47 GMT -5
by cashing in on success do you mean the $40/share we'd be at now and the $80/share we'd be looking at after a partner if not for massive dilutions and obvious blunders by mngmnt?
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Post by jpg on Jul 10, 2014 4:25:22 GMT -5
Hi Chmith,
Some call them obvious blunders. I prefer to say 'retrospectively noticeable blunders'. We will agree that near perfection in business is rare? Could we also agree perfection in biotech or in any start up is even more difficult? I personally think biotech is one of the hardest sectors to actually make good decisions in and especially to make them cheaply. What Mann pulled off was and is extraordinary in my mind. One guy putting his fortune on the line to develop a drug everyone else was giving up on and he pull it off. Amazing.
Not as smoothly as many wanted it to go but then again if it was as simple as some make it out to be everybody would be doing it! As MDs how perfect are we? How many times have experienced MDs completely gone off on the wrong tangent when dealing with a sick patient? Experience makes the wise clinician humble and capable of altering direction when going the wrong way. Same thing in biotech maybe? The young clueless medical student tells his friends that 'the diagnosis was so obvious I can believe so and so missed it'. 10 years later the medical students become wise and remember having said this and hopefully chuckle!
Some people are visionaries, leaders and deal makers. Others are good technocratic managers. These 2 groups of qualities rarely intersect I think. It seems many wanted Mann to put a billion or so on the line, be a perfect scientific visionary, perfect manager and perfect FDA insider. Oh yes and all this on a tight budget without any risk of dilution... And put up his own money issued as debt instead of stock to avoid diluting us minority shareholders.
Reasoned criticism of management is appropriate. I do feel some of the nastiest critics of Mannkind are maybe not the most experienced or best biotech investors maybe? I suspect that for many Mannkind was their first biotech investment? Biotech is not a domain for those used to investing in power companies obviously. It comes with some very nasty surprises and often very quickly. More like a tech start up but costing 100 times more to get going and with 1000 times more regulations and regulatory oversight. Now that is risk! Of all the biotechs I have invested in in the last 20 years Mannkind did pretty well from my 'big picture perspective'. We got the drug approved and the time delay gave us small investors a chance to buy many more cheap shares then the dilution cost us. From an investing point of view it was almost perfect for some. For others who bought high, got diluted and didn't buy along the way: not so good. Same goes even more so for certain options strategies (which I don't do) I guess. Basically I am saying that frustration in any management is often directly correlated to performance of ones' stack in the company in question. Those who do well are usually much more tolerant of managemrnt then those who do badly. There were dozens of buying opportunities when there was 'blood in the street'. Did the vocal critics buy then? I would guess not. Some seemed to be emotiomally involved and mad. It got personal. Not good qualities for an investor. Especially not in biotechnology...
I don't know A. Mann's personal balance sheet but I do suspect that at a certain point he was running low on cash or maybe even collateral and probably decided to make a few 'fast and easy' bioequivalence studies that made it possible for a few hedge fund wise guys to push the FDAs rules against us and we got the second CRL. That shortcut was obciously a big mistake. Then again prospectively when the 100s of millions are fast draining away taking a short cut could look tempting to the best of entrepreneurs. Especially if it had worked! All this is speculation but it would explain a lot of what so enraged various shareholders. I think many didn't appreciate that A. Mann was running out of money and couldn't say it to investors without crushing the share price and massively increasing dilution. As for the sometimes opaque nature of Mannkind: companies needing capital are often and luckily more poker games then democracies. Happily for us management wasn't as communicative of every blunder they made as some wished them to be! I also think some vocal posters hurt us a bit at some very strategic time points when we most needed outside financing.
My main point in all this: we now have FDA approval and got 3 years of extrordinarily good buying opportunities. We should be thankful for where we are and where we are going and stop imsulting A. Mann. Without him we wouldn't be having this civil discussion anyway!
Cheers,
JPG
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Post by babaoriley on Jul 10, 2014 8:43:01 GMT -5
jpg, I think you may have taken my post the wrong way, it was a total spoof. I love Al Mann and overwhelmingly agree with your post to CSmith!
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Post by mdcenter61 on Jul 10, 2014 9:19:22 GMT -5
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Post by spiro on Jul 10, 2014 9:24:56 GMT -5
Spiro, don't put too much store into what Al Mann said. Just look at Brentie's post above, containing a partial resume for Mr. Mann. I mean, when you get right down to it, this Mann guy really hasn't done all that much with his life. Frankly, he comes across as somewhat of a ne'er-do-well, heck, I should know, I play golf with those types all the time. And not only that, he's had 89 years to do those things! How many of us have lived 89 years? Give me a little time, that's all I need. I'm feeling my great accomplishments are right around the corner, don't write me off quite yet. I'm planning on having incredibly productive and insightful 8th and 9th decades! I'm positively flummoxed as to why everyone gets so excited over him. I mean, when he walked into the AGM, a hush went through the crowd, and then the camera flashes started going off. Made me nauseous. What, had Bruce Springsteen or Pee Wee Herman just walked in? I didn't see any Holy Water at the doorway, did I miss a kneeler in front of my seat? I felt I might get tossed if I didn't genuflect and bow my head. Heck, five'll get you ten Al was a constant source of disappointment to his parents. Probably tortured puppies and threw kerosene on cats. This Mann is a master illusionist, and he's fooled plenty of people in his day. Have any of those universities actually tried cashing those hundred million dollar checks he's written to them? Last thing a university wants is for it to be made public that they gotten taken by Al Mann. I'm thinking Al may be related to Bernie Madoff, I'm seeing the similarities, how about the rest of you, admit it now. Did he do extraordinary things when he was 8 years old? Did he lift a car off of someone? How was prom night - did he attempt to show his date his prototype inhaler? Did he do well with the ladies when he was in college? Did he even go to college? I'll bet he skipped class to go to the race track. Was higher education even invented when he was 20? Jack Bauer could take care of him, especially now. I know this post is going to hurt some of you, and I apologize, especially to Chris's young son, who really admires Al Mann. But it's time someone took him down a few pegs, and I might as well be the one to do it. I just couldn't hold it in anymore, Al Mann is not God and you all need to get over it this minute! There, whew, it's off my chest, feels good, like when I helped an elderly lady across the street and ran off with her purse, now I can go back to documenting my loan transaction...
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Post by spiro on Jul 10, 2014 9:26:41 GMT -5
Liane, don't get upset, but Babaoriley is a short.
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Post by babaoriley on Jul 10, 2014 10:30:17 GMT -5
Right, Spiro, and I'm very upset that we're hanging in so well on a miserable market day!! I can't get a break!
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Post by jpg on Jul 10, 2014 10:59:11 GMT -5
Hi Baba,
I absolutely know you were 'spoofing'.
On some other boards people seemed to be regularly and systematically banned for daring to express positive views of A. Mann though.
I would not have invested so much in this company if I did not trust management. I don't understand those who invest money and time while having no faith in management. A good biotech idea is worthless without hard working dedicated management. A. Mann defines that in my mind. A perfect inexpensive, non dilutive run from theoretical idea to FDA approval is obviously highly desirable but I have yet to see it happen with any of the biotech companies I have been involved in. Maybe I haven't been lucky or picked badly? Or maybe some are expecting to much and have a limited view of biotech start ups in general?
JPG
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Post by babaoriley on Jul 10, 2014 11:19:04 GMT -5
Hi, jpg, Al Mann has done so much good with his life, it would reveal poor character to take pot shots at specific items (and, of course, those shots are taken with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight). Respectful second guessing is fine, and we've all done that from time to time.
The unwarranted bow shots at Mann were one reason I needed to get clear of our old friend who started his own board. Have never been on that board, so don't know what goes on there.
We've all heard it is absolutely unprecedented for a CEO to have put as much money as Al has into a public company, but that's just one of the many things that sets him apart. He is a legend.
BTW, I now fully understand your initial response.
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Post by chmith27 on Jul 10, 2014 11:20:27 GMT -5
jpg- myself, the members of this board that follow pc's board, and pc's board are not bashing a. mann. your post was very good, but only serves as a reminder of who al is. yet we all already know what great things he has done and how his legacy is shaping up. the impetus for my comment was that you mischaracterized the other board's position, thus i point out that there is legitimate reason for some to feel a bit jaded with things that management has done and the nice bonuses they've received while doing so (not a. mann specifically). in a nutshell, keep those sort of comments out of the dialogue. thnx. -chad
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Post by chmith27 on Jul 10, 2014 11:22:47 GMT -5
Hi, jpg, Al Mann has done so much good with his life, it would reveal poor character to take pot shots at specific items (and, of course, those shots are taken with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight). Respectful second guessing is fine, and we've all done that from time to time. The unwarranted bow shots at Mann were one reason I needed to get clear of our old friend who started his own board. Have never been on that board, so don't know what goes on there. We've all heard it is absolutely unprecedented for a CEO to have put as much money as Al has into a public company, but that's just one of the many things that sets him apart. He is a legend. baba i thought he read your post wrong at first too but then i realized he was just going along with you. so stop groveling- he knows you're good!
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Post by jpg on Jul 10, 2014 11:33:15 GMT -5
Chmith,
Sorry I don't understand? What sort of comments should I not make? And why not?
JPG
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Post by alcc on Jul 10, 2014 12:05:31 GMT -5
by cashing in on success do you mean the $40/share we'd be at now and the $80/share we'd be looking at after a partner if not for massive dilutions and obvious blunders by mngmnt? Did MNKD spend too much $$ to bring a potential blockbuster into a market with well entrenched, accepted treatment? I don't think so. The company had a huge burden of proof to bear. Were the 2 CRLs obvious blunders by management? 1 CRL is not uncommon. I agree 2 is unusual, but only in the sense that most companies give up after 2. Swapping out the inhaler in the middle of PIII I suppose can be deemed a blunder. The alternative would have been to re-run PIII, which would have cost more $$ and delays. A judgment call by management, and they lost. How obvious a blunder that is (without hindsight), I am not prepared to second guess. The near death experience caused the stock to tank, resulting in the painful, massive dilution to long term holders. However, consider the alternative to near death: death.
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Post by chmith27 on Jul 10, 2014 14:31:58 GMT -5
Chmith, Sorry I don't understand? What sort of comments should I not make? And why not? JPG false comments a.) the comments that a. mann is bashed on the other proboard b.) that people get banned on the other proboard. both are incorrect. say correct things. that's all.
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