That the CIO took the time to write it about herself didn’t really bother me. It was short enough that she could’ve written it while sitting on the toilet.
Even so, two things about it bothered me. First, it’s poorly written. If you’re going to waste time blowing your own horn, you should at least try not to play out of tune. The other bothersome thing is she never actually says anything about the specific problem the insurance industry isn’t aware of that she has solved nor does she specifically provide any clues (other than generic IT solution) as to how she has addressed the mystery problem.
I’ve kept my investment in PN very small. At times I think I should through more money at it because it looks like it will probably rise rather quickly. But then there are just too many things about it that give me pause. This stupid little uninformative, self-flattering article by a C level executive is just another one of those things.
I agree with everything you said brittlerock, including that it will probably go up quickly. I keep wondering if the companies they sell their products to really don’t have high costs that need fixing. This year will tell us if the fees PN collects start to soar or not. I also keep getting the feeling, without any objective facts, that the CEO is looking at this whole business as a market play (get rich in a few years) vice a serious long term business (5 to 10 year strategy plan is probably nonexistent). He is growing something very fast though.
It amazes me to think how every $1 change in share price the guy is $12M richer on paper.
Word. Amazing is an understatement.
I didn’t go back to make sure Mariano has held his 12M shares since the record highs where PN was trading around 18.50 a share, but if so, he has now lost nearly $200M in PN.
Forgive me for being stuck on the PN carnage. Strange doesn’t begin to describe this story.
I’m with you, Bear. I’ve been out of PN since June but have still kept an eye on the car wreck. Remember that PN is but one piece of Mariano’s puzzle. As much as his varying business interests interact with and patronize each other, his PN “losses” are more probably transfers in wealth to his other entities (e.g., did PN’s loss this quarter create a blowout quarter for one of his other entities, of which PN is a customer?). I exited PN when I felt it was a shell game designed for the insiders’ benefit. Nothing that’s happened in the last 9 months indicates to me I was wrong. Happy to have been LUCKY on this one–sometimes I’d rather be lucky than smart.
Most on this board have also exited the stock (PN) for varying reasons. However, it does profit us all when we can see more clearly why the train wreck happened. Such shell games may be more common than is realized by most investors.