Here’s a stock purchase opportunity. The sales volume is down 35% in the past 10 years. Projections are down another 25% in the next 4 years. The company has suffered losses every year for the past 6 years. Last year the loss was 15.9 billion. Cash available will be depleted by 2014.
The primary product, and biggest margin generator is being replaced by new technologies.
Does this look like a good investment? Are you buying? You already own stock. It’s the US Postal Service.
Perhaps having 635 members of the board hinders any efforts to save the company. Most board members have never run a business of any kind. Perhaps none have ever done a turnaround.
As a shareholder, how do you fix your investment? Obviously there is no hope for growth. The Internet will continue to siphon off more volume. We, meaning my household, pay zero bills by mail. We scan and e-mail everything. We buy nothing from the hundreds of catalogs we receive. We buy on line. I read none of the political crap I receive. All my investment data and decisions are on line. Over 90% of what I receive, I trash.
All of us are delusional about this business.
If we were realistic as investors, we would sell the company. The buyer would be contractually obligated to provide an acceptable and realistic level of service to customers. Realistic does not mean every hamlet in the country gets a post office. Realistic doesn’t mean politicians get free usage. Nor does it mean the lobbyists for bulk mailers get price breaks. The buyer can tailor the payroll to current levels of service, not keep them at year 2000 levels. The buyer can sell surplus assets, like prime properties that can be replaced. In other words it can be run by a board of directors who know how to run a business. Not political clowns who pimp for votes and kowtow to special interests.
The result would be only one loss. The billions in taxpayers dollars lost. Service would improve. Profits would be made.
I’d tell you you might even keep your beloved postman, like Obama told you you can keep your doctor, but that would be a lie. Obama can lie, but I was taught better. The truth is your postman is under worked, like mine. I like my guy, but he only works 50% of the year. On disability the other 50% of the time.
Watch the pace your UPS driver and Fed Ex drivers keep. Then match that to your postman. Most live in their vehicle.
So who loses if you sell your stock to UPS or Fed Ex?
Nobody you should care about.
