Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
(Operator Instructions) Your first question comes from the line of Richard Whitman – Benchmark Capital
Richard Whitman – Benchmark Capital
Back in June of 2007, the company put out a press release saying that they had received an unsolicited offer to buy the company. The price was $18.00, the company deemed it insufficient. They further stated that they were exploring the sales of the gift division and had ?indications of interest? from perspective buyers and that you had hired an advisor to explore possibilities including sale of the company or divisions or acquisitions. Since that time, we have not seen a follow-up announcement as to what conclusion you had come to with your advisor, could you just tell us strategically where you intend to go and what the status of that agreement or whatever discussions you’ve had with advisors and where that has gone.
Bruce Crain
I don’t think we’re going to use an earnings call to make any public announcements of any sort and I would say just as a general comment we continue to look at lot at a variety of acquisitions. We look at divesture stuff and we continue to explore all of those strategic alternatives. I think if and when we’re ever ready to make an announcement, we’ll make one. But it’s a regular process that we continue to go through to assess where we’re going with different parts of the business. So I would just say that all of those subjects remain things that we certainly look at as a management team on an ongoing basis. As you can see a result of that was announced at the last call with the acquisitions of LaJobi and CoCaLo, so I think those are pretty important things and I think when we get to the point where we have any other announcements we will put those out.
Richard Whitman – Benchmark
Are you still working with the advisor though, that’s what I’m trying to hone in on? Are you still using an advisor to explore strategic alternatives to your current business model?
Bruce Crain
We have a constant process that goes on and we absolutely have a variety of advisors we’re using for various efforts that we look at. I don’t think we’re going to announce each and every time that we bring somebody on or some relationship changes, but that’s an ongoing process with a variety of advisors. As you probably know I joined here in early December and obviously I’ve revisited a lot of those efforts from last year and I wasn’t necessarily part of all that history but it continues to be something we look hard at and I think is part of our growth strategy and part of our capital structure and everything else we continue to engage appropriate outside people to help us look at that stuff.
- To read the full transcript on Seeking Alpha, click here »
