Not all CEOs should be allowed near a telephone when members of the press call.
An excerpt from the Jan. 11, 2000 issue of CTI News illustrates the point:
... Companies like Mountain View, Calif.-based Blue Pumpkin Software
anticipate riding the next IPO wave of riches ... But that doesn't mean Blue
Pumpkin CEO Doron Aspitz doesn't get tangled up in the endless regulations,
recommendations and requirements the SEC demands from prospective public companies.
In a recent interview with CTI News, Aspitz tried to err on the side
of caution when commenting about his privately held company's financials. The
only problem is that a year earlier in a story published in the San Francisco
Business Times and posted on Blue Pumpkin's Web site, it was written that
"Blue Pumpkin founders anticipate revenues at $15 million by 1999 and plan to
go public by the millennium."
Aspitz, who admittedly is much more comfortable running his company than doing
interviews, found himself trying to respect "quiet period" guidelines for information
already disclosed:
CTI News: An article about Blue Pumpkin stated you anticipated $15 million
in revenue for 1999. Have you met that goal?
Aspitz: We are doing great on our goals. We are not at the point where
we are exposing revenues, but from a goal perspective we are doing great.
CTI News: But the article was accurate when describing your goal?
Aspitz: I'm trying to avoid figures ... It's a difficult dance, but
I think it's people guessing, frankly. You have to understand the position we're
in. It's difficult for us to give numbers, the board doesn't allow us to do
that.
CTI News: I understand, but I'm trying to determine if the information
I got was accurate.
Aspitz: I don't know where you got the information, but you definitely
didn't get it from me as far as numbers.
CTI News: It's on your Web site.
Aspitz: It's on my Web site? The $15 million? I'll check it.
(Deborah L. Henken, Blue Pumpkin's VP of marketing, later confirmed the
company's estimated revenues for 1999 will be approximately $12 million.)
Evan Bass
Editor, Fiber Optics News and former editor of CTI News