Emmis Stock How much money was lost by employees?

[ChiefEngineer]

I haven't researched and don't know the answer. Someone does. I have many friends that bought Emmis Stock for retirement.

If they had 10,000 shares at $50 a share price paid this is $500,000. This is now worth $25,000. Say there were 10 Emmis employees that had the same number of shares. 5 million paid, now worth $250,000. 100 employees? You do the math.

The cash paid for stock was used to build the stations and make them what they are. How much was paid in real cash money for stock and what was "lost" in the stock price crash? Obviously money was spent on things other than salary that is tangible and still exists and has increased in value.

IPL was vilified for their stock crashing and company execs cashing out. I know most of those who invested heavily are now looking for work. The new Emmis empire might make note not to plan on retiring with Smu Bucks. Wait, Smu Bucks have more value than Emmis Stock.

Has anyone charted this mess and how much investors and employees have lost? A link? Just wondering.

 

[BobOnTheJob]

I keep waiting for Jeff to at least buy back all the shares that we bought at the same price we paid for them. IMHO, that would be the "right" thing to do. But another day passes by & my phone hasn't rang. I bought 10,000 shares for anywhere from $7 to $22 each. Do the math...my trust in Emmis stock was probably one of the un-wisest decisions I ever made. Jeff's fault? Partially...every time he bought a TV station, the stock dropped farther--he should have stopped that ill-fated course in it's tracks. My fault as well? You bet...I could have sold at a much higher price than this, but didn't. My poor judgment I could have controlled--but didn't. Bad choice on my part.

 

[Kent]

Something I'll say in your defense, Bob, is that stocks in general aren't worth what they were three years ago. You may have gotten shafted, but every single one of us did. It wasn't too long ago when most of us could've gotten a better return on our investments by buying beer and soda in a can and taking the cans in to be recycled!

 

[ChiefEngineer]

$7 a share for 10,000 shares is $70,000. Now worth $20,000. That means that those who bought and were never paid a dividend gave Jeff in this case $50,000.

$20 a share for $10,000 shares $200,00. Still worth 20,000. That means that those who bought and were never paid a dividend gave Jeff in this case $180,000.

In looking at the departure of long term employees who were all long term investors one needs to see that Emmis was heavily invested in by employees. These employees were to be the workforce who would invest in the company and the company in them. The large numer of employee changes might provide a whole new investor group.

Possibly not the level of Marcus Schrenker who took money from people he didn't know. This is clearly different because Emmis took money from people that knew them. (Take being used in the meaning of taking money for shares of stock) Some might say the buyout that keeps coming back is an effort to get stock at levels before they would increase giving take a new meaning.

At some point someone asked me to relate the meaning of the word Emmis.

Being deeply religious and Jewish Jeff Smulyan dictated a name was to be picked to be in essence the meaning of Emmis. It would embody the ethic and radiance of what was done within the company. This is the Hebrew word for "truth." Word up?