The Pink Panther Strikes Again

Allright, this is gonna be a fairy tale. Any similarities with reality are merely accidental and by no means intentional.

Once there was a major German company... - let's assume out of the telecommunications branch - calling itself The Pink Panther. It was market leader and by far the biggest competitor in the market.

As the internet became more and more important, there was a huge internet bubble building up. Nobody knew exactly that it was a bubble at that time, however... it was.

So, one fine day the managers of The Pink Panther sat all together, warming themselves at the big open fireplace in their huge conference hall and the idea came up: "Why not go public with our internet activities... let's collect some money. "

"Oh yeah... great idea boy !! Let's collect some big big mo mo moneeeey !!!" the fellow managers joined in.

All eyes were glowing, gleaming and beaming happily.

Having said is having done. Short time later, let's say in the magical year 2000, Little Panther was released into life. Stocks of Little Panther were sold for, well... let's say 27 EUR.

Ok... you guys out there certainly wonna hear something motivating, something emotionally positive here now, don't you ?? Something like: "Little Panther was developing great", or such ?

However, the continuation of this story is a sad one: Stocks developed pretty bad in the time that followed. Little Panther was the market leader but stocks dropped to - let's say - about 9 EUR. Everyone at The Pink Panther was pretty sad about this development. Some people at headquarters even feared that they could be held responsible for this unsuccessful business development of Little Panther.

At least, some years later (without gains), suddenly there was light at the end of the tunnel: Gains were showing up. All little stockholders didn't know and also didn't realize this too well as it was not communicated loudly in the news. Maybe Little Panther was afraid of his own shadow ?

At least it was communicated in a way that nobody seemed to trust Little Panther well enough for to invest his money into his stocks.

And then - on a cold and sunny day - a bright young manager of The Pink Panther had a great idea. Shyly he uttered to his older collegues:

"What... if we just buy back the stocks of Little Panther now. Would be a great deal, wouldn't it ?? Shares are still very low now and gains are showing up too, finally. Wouldn't it be a nice thing to kick out all small stock suckers and get the full monty... cheap stocks, present gains and future gains ? I mean: After all, we know that Little Panther will do good now.... ?!"

His collegues looked at him arcanely and their faces lit up: "Boy... you've earned your wings today. Gosh... that's it !! YOU MAYBE SAVED OUR ASSES BOY !!" And one slightly unfriendly looking guy added: "Fooling those dumb stock suckers of Little Panther gives me a real kick, our stock holders will be pretty happy about that deal."

All cheered at their young collegue benevolently and faces were beaming happily.

After thought: It seems that nobody - especially not the little stockholders - found anything strange about the sudden trust of The Pink Panther into Little Panther.

In other words: I think this fairy tale is a total crap as it is just unbelievable. Am I right or what?