Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by schmittz 5472 days ago
I completely disagree. A company can be frank and honest without revealing anything. Of course they needed to release a press statement in immediate response. The press release could have been written much better as to not sound so nonchalant about the whole situation. For instance, they could have acknowledged the shortcomings of their current product and announced that their current roadmap's focus was on developing innovative, superior products. They could have also said that in light of the letter, they were beginning a new internal dialogue to allow employees to address problems in the company subsequently increasing profit, productivity, and potential.
1 comments
goalieca 5472 days ago
it's hard to be frank and honest without having investor confidence and stock prices drop. That's truly who the audience of the letter was.
link
schmittz 5472 days ago
Your point is murky. Usually investors are ahead of "the news." Some of the best examples of this are actually with Apple (go figure). The days after a major product launch the stock usually falls several percent. This can be attributed to the fact that people buy in leading up to the event and cash out afterwards. Analysts had moderate estimates for RIM's quarterly, they came in way under (making it extra funny they emphasized their "strong" earnings in their response) and their stock price fell 20% that day. They know their hurt, their investors now know they're hurting (they had an idea before, hence moderate estimates), the letter was aimed at convincing the public they're just fine. Honesty works, look at the recent Domino's PR campaign, sales are up after admitting their product was shitty.
link
JanezStupar 5472 days ago
And?

Do you remember how Wall Street pundits jumped when Larry Page did some frank thinking? Nothing happened. They went on and silently released Google+ this week - its interesting to see market react to all this.

Market analysts want to hype up the stocks. And any amount of introspection on the company's sides negates their efforts. Thats why they are pissed when somebody stops shoveling the crap.

But markets themselves don't really care - if a company does good - it WILL reflect on its stock price.

link