It cannot be mere coincidence that the Kirbys have chosen this...

It cannot be mere coincidence that the Kirbys have chosen this week to make this shocking announcement. We have seen the ordinary and the prefernce shares surge due to the inmpending release of The Matrix Reloaded. From all accounts, there is little doubt the Matrix will make close if not more than US$100 million this coming weekend in the United States. Most analyst expect the movie to make at least US$300 million in the US and another $300 million + worldwide. In Australia, most theatres have nearly sold out tickets to most seessions for this weekend. There is no denying this movie will be huge in the box office and even more lucrative in the high margin DVD market. The first Matrix had sold more than 35 million DVDs and videos . Upon it's re-release 2 weeks ago, it is again in the top 10 dvd sales charts. That is amazing given the dvd has been on the charts for over 120 weeks. Using an estimated price of US$20, Reloaded could sell another 30 million which could equaed to gross sales of $600 million. Mark my words, The Matrix profits will not only offset the losses for Pluto Nash and Dreamcatcher, but it will severly impact the shareprice of a company that has a market cap of only US$200 million.

Once the box office figures are released next week, there is little doubt the share-price of the ords and prefs would surge. However, the Kirbys have chosen this week of all weeks to deliver us with write-downs and SARS warnings and profit-downgrades and doom and gloom.
At this time!
What the f##l!!!
What a way to destroy the preference share price which the Kirbys have little stake in so that they can eventually buy it all back at a substantial discount. How can they do this to the preference share-holders?
Let's just hope the instituional fund managers make good with their words and stick up for minority shareholders.

I feel sorry for those shareholders who have been holding on for dear life waiting for the release of the Matrix to boost the flagging share-price so that they can exit their positions. The Kirbys will not allow this to happen. They will continue to beat down the price of the prefs until all pref holders give up.