18 Comments

Why is the stock price not converging with the takeover bid price? Does nobody take the offer seriously?

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"unsolicited, preliminary, non-binding proposal letter, dated September 27, 2024, from TTEC founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Kenneth Tuchman" (from the 10-Q)

So, it's not completely insane not to take it seriously.

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I agree that it's not insane to not take it seriously, but the 58% owner could easily use that as collateral to buy the other 42%. A lot of private equity firms or investment banks would make that deal happen. It's more about whether or not the CEO was trying to get a short term reaction out of the market. I find the TTEC buyout offer much more credible than the $7 RILY offer, and even then, TTEC is trading lower than RILY is relative to the offer price. Sometimes I just throw up my hand and think that small caps are mostly mispriced.

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I’ll put this comment here in case anyone else is following this stock. In your most recent post, you mentioned you had a feeling the privatisation deal might be announced soon. What makes you think that? I emailed IR at the company to ask where it was at. They had formed whatever advisory committees they are required to, so they should be able to tell us something about when they expect them to report.

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Usually these things are figured out within three months, plus a month for Christmas / New Year, so that's any day now. The situation might be unusual, so it's a guess

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this is a great idea, ty....i tried my luck with teleperformance a bit ago, as i agree with the overall thesis that AI will harmonize rather than destroy the sector at least until the medium term. When looking at your comparisons though, id say that on EV/sales, there seems to be a reasonably proportionate scale ... the higher the gearing the lower the ratio. which seems appropriate since solvency is much more of an issue here. having said that with the boss potentially buying out, id agree the odds tilt in your favor, more of an M&A thing than anything else.

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Happy to be turning over rocks and finding interesting things

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so it sounds like either the ceo will buy it, or the board will entertain other offers?

it's been 3 months since the offer...any insights or updates?

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No, last earnings call management refused to discuss it. It is possible that the deal was insincere, but if so, I still think the company will rebound on economic activity. Not sure when this "year of efficiency" will be over, it's been two years already.

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yeah...year(s) of efficiency or age of ai productivity?

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The falling off of revenue across TTEC and all of their peers was about a year before the AI narrative. On earnings calls, management claimed that customers care more about cost savings than quality improvements from AI right now.

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You buying any, Steve?

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Update, I bought a little, 0.3% of the portfolio as a placeholder.

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I might on Monday, I need to see how much money I raise from rolling puts. Also, I've been considering selling $SDGR, a small position I bought after the writeup. If I buy some, it would be less than a 0.5% position, because I'm focusing on buying more MMY.V before earnings.

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MMY.V is up about 30% since your article, maybe more. Do you think it's still a buy here?

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There's really no way to know in advance just how much antimony will be processed. But 180,000 tons of ore with even a 5% concentration would be a huge deal. Plus the gold price is up as well. I've been fooled by "buy the rumor, sell the new" before.

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Is there a timeline for it to be taken private?

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There is no timeline, the board is deliberating it. There is a legal precedent, the board can't say no without a good reason. At best they can try to find a white knight to bid higher.

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