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The Everton Board Thread 2015/16 [ Not takeover related ]

Is it time for change?

  • I'm happy with the way thing are. Kenwright and the Board should stay.

    Votes: 75 10.2%

  • Kenwright and the board need to go. We need change.

    Votes: 558 76.2%

  • I'm indifferent. Can't decide.

    Votes: 99 13.5%
  • Total voters
    732
Status
Not open for further replies.

http://www.bloomberg.com/bw/stories/2002-10-13/just-how-much-did-john-moores-know

This makes for some shady reading. In the 90's he was the chairman of Peregrine Systems Inc., he oversaw a period of aggressive expansion snapping up other software companies. Before the company went public in 1997 he had bought up over 60% of the company. Between 1999-2001 the company overstated revenue by $250 million. Moores was chairman and a board member for half of the time before cashing out to the tune of $630 million before news of the overstated revenue hit the markets. Then he gets reinstated as chairman and hires a new CEO.


Just How Much Did John Moores Know?
October 13, 2002

Larry Garlick says he distrusted venture capitalist John J. Moores from the moment they met in 1991. Garlick was founder of Remedy Corp., a hot Silicon Valley software startup. Moores, a big-shot tech entrepreneur who had launched BMC Software Inc. (BMC) and chaired Peregrine Systems Inc. (PRGNE), swaggered into Garlick's office and made an offer to invest in Remedy, Garlick recalls. Put off by behavior that he felt was overbearing, Garlick turned down the offer.

Last year, Garlick changed his mind--with reservations--after Peregrine made him a generous offer to buy Remedy for $1.2 billion in cash and stock. He wondered how Peregrine's core computer-support software business could grow at a peppy 25% per year while many other software companies were faltering. Peregrine execs credited their products and crack sales team. Still, Garlick adds: "I was skeptical."

Turns out his gut was right. In the past six months, San Diego-based Peregrine has warned that it may have to restate $250 million of the $1.3 billion in revenues it posted from 1999 to 2001. Two top executives have resigned, and the company has sued accountant Arthur Andersen LLP. It's also under investigation by the Securities & Exchange Commission. Moores, who was Peregrine's chairman during half of the questionable period and a regular board member during the rest, finds that his role is coming under attack.

Moores's critics, who have filed dozens of shareholder suits, note that he and entities associated with him sold some 14 million Peregrine shares from 1999 to 2001. That netted more than $630 million. A spokeswoman for Moores, best known as the owner of the San Diego Padres baseball team, says a large portion of the profits went to charities and trusts for nonfamily members. But other investors didn't do so well. After peaking at $79.50 in 2000, the stock was delisted in August. "He reaped a huge prize supported by false financials," says Michael J. Aguirre, a San Diego lawyer pressing a shareholder suit against Peregrine and Moores. "There's no way he wasn't paying attention."

Moores declined to comment. But Peregrine lawyer Charles G. LaBella contends that since Moores was an outside board member without operational responsibilities, he had no way of knowing what was behind Peregrine's impressive sales results and no reason to question them.

Still, Moores's reputation is under assault--quite the comedown for a guy who is a hometown hero in both San Diego and Houston. Back in 1980, Moores, 58, started BMC, a Houston maker of corporate software that now boasts $1.3 billion a year in sales. He has donated more than $200 million to charities in Houston and San Diego. In 1994, Moores bought the struggling Padres for $85 million and invested in hiring star players and boosting attendance. "He built support for the team," says Padres CEO Bob Vizas.

But it is Moores's support of Peregrine that has furious investors looking for answers. Peregrine's problems first came to light in April, when BMC, in which Moores is no longer involved, nearly acquired Peregrine for about $1.6 billion. An audit ordered by Peregrine uncovered numerous potential accounting violations. For example, the report cited irregularities in the way Peregrine booked sales to distributors. Then-chairman and CEO Stephen P. Gardner soon resigned. On Sept. 22, Peregrine filed for bankruptcy protection. Gardner could not be reached for comment.

So what did Moores know? So far, the evidence is only circumstantial. Former employees say it was impossible to miss disturbing signs right under Moores's nose. They say the constant pressure to hit astronomical sales targets was so oppressive that it defined the culture of Peregrine and forced the staff to do things they weren't comfortable with. Former employees say Gardner pressured the sales staff to boost revenues by pushing distributors to buy more Peregrine software than they could ever unload on their customers.

Critics complain that Peregrine's board has been dominated by insiders who didn't question the company's methods. For instance, the board in 2000 and 2001 was predominately made up of company executives, one of its founders, an in-law of Gardner's, Moores, and two of Moores's employees. The chairman of the audit committee now is Charles E. Noell III, CEO of JMI Services Inc., Moores's investment management firm. Noell and other board members would not comment on the matter.

Moores first got involved with Peregrine as an investor in 1989. He was named chairman in 1990, a role he played for 10 years straight. He boosted his total stake in the company to 62.8% by the time the company went public in 1997. Under his watch, Peregrine launched an aggressive expansion strategy in the late 1990s by acquiring more than a dozen software companies. Most of the deals were engineered by Gardner. Originally hired in 1997 as vice- president of strategic acquisitions, he was promoted by Moores and the board to CEO in 1998 and chairman in 2000.

Moores was reappointed chairman immediately after the scandal erupted last spring, but he's taking a backseat now. He quickly hired a new CEO, Gary G. Greenfield, and returned to focusing on the Padres and venture capital. But his ties to Peregrine could haunt him for years to come.
By Arlene Weintraub in Los Angeles
Click to expand...
 
Think it's an elaborate scheme by the happy clappers to highlight the shady sharks looking to rip their teeth into our club
 
Efcjake said:
For a supposed Billionaire he must have crap PR people because one google search gives you angry Padres fans and a bloomberg article about connection to financial fraud in 2001.
Click to expand...

Honestly, if he gives us a stadium and helps us win a pot I'll overlook the one pissed off baseball fan on some blog and a story from 15 years ago.
 
AaronTheBlue said:
Is there any positive articles...
Click to expand...

Yes. Take a look at some of the links posted previously. It seems this Moores feller was good for the San Diego Padres baseball team, he brought them some limited success, and moved them to a new stadium that was heavily subsidised by the tax payer.

But worryingly, he was willing to sell the baseball club to a dodgy player agent named Moorad, who bought 49% of the Padres baseball team through leveraged finance (I think), but the deal was blocked because this Moorad guy was dodgy and failed a 'fit and proper person' test. Moores then sold the Padres baseball team a few years later at a massive profit on the back of a new TV deal. The new owners of the Padres baseball team sound really bad, and I think their fans would much prefer Moores was still in charge? I have yet to see anything saying that Moores used leveraged finance to buy the Padres in the first place?

It seems he also might have a reputation for paying low wages, and he was reportedly an opponent of lucrative new TV deals as he felt it would lead to a rise in player wages, which is ironic because it was a big TV deal that played a massive part in him making a HUGE profit when he sold the Padres baseball team.

http://escondidograpevine.com/2015/10/02/saying-goodbye-to-all-that-at-petco-park-escondido-style/

http://www.foxsports.com/mlb/story/...igns-dodgers-bidders-may-show-interest-032212

http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/2015/nov/25/john-moores-backs-nfl-stadium-initiative/

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/baseball-team-owners-allow-murdoch-to-join-their-club-1151235.html

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=Hnt4QftsnMgC&pg=PT284&lpg=PT284&dq=john+moores+san+diego+padres+leverage&source=bl&ots=eB3HHBhrqZ&sig=VoDxqIlwQb_Y3nyNQyckwgohKUc&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiM6snb_fDJAhXGyRQKHSxwA2sQ6AEIPTAF#v=onepage&q=john moores san diego padres leverage&f=false
 

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AaronTheBlue said:
Interested to hear about the other guy as well maybe he is completely different to moores so will be well balanced team.
Click to expand...

Agreed. But look at the comments detailed below this article. The more I read about this Moores feller, the more he sounds like a dodgier American version of Kenwright. However, it seems people are having a go at him for being extremely successful in business, without really acknowledging that making "A ton of money off of downtown development and then leaving town" would have also presumably resulted in the neighbourhood benefiting from the 'downtown development'.

http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/2015/nov/25/john-moores-backs-nfl-stadium-initiative/
 
Caught between a rock and a hard place. I desperately want Everton to move on and have investment we've sorely been lacking but the more you read about this bidder the more he just doesn't seem what we need. More like clear as day carpet baggers.

Not that I've got any right to know as I hold no shares in Everton, but still. Wasn't there meant to be more than one interested party at the table?
 

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