Our New McCarthy Era; Two Very Different Stocks

The direct link between Joe McCarthy and Donald Trump — in case you missed it in the Washington Post.  Worth reading.

Matt: “Your current opinion on BOREF and SPRT, please?”

These two could hardly be more different — and, for different reasons, I remain heavily invested in both.

At latest report, Support.com (SPRT) had $51.7 million in cash, up slightly since I first suggested it here and then again here.  That’s significant for two reasons:

First, with 18.6 million shares outstanding, that works out to $2.78 each — trading Friday at $2.38.  Buying $2.78 of cash for $2.38 is the sort of thing I like to do — especially when you get, also,  your share of a business that might someday be worth something (and that will not have any tax due on its first $120 million in profits, because it lost so much money in the years before new management took it over).  The company has no debt, so trades at about 85% of its cash in the bank.

Second, the fact that cash is up slightly suggests new management has stopped the bleeding.  Which suggests that the underlying business may have a chance to earn profits.  Which suggests that the highly incentivized CEO, a summa cum laude Wharton grad, might be able to make all this work, as hoped.

There’s more to say, but it’s not hard to imagine this stock doubling in the next year or two; and — at least in a rational market — hard to see it trading for much less than its cash on hand if its not losing money.

So as speculations go, this one strikes me as quite conservative.  Hardly a sure thing, but — to me — a lot more interesting than keeping that same $2.38 in the bank, if you can afford the risk.

BOREF is a completely different kind of speculation . . . one that long-time readers know would test any investor’s patience.  Unlike SPRT, Borealis has no cash cushion.  What it has are some patents in a variety of fields, and — mainly — a controlling interest in a privately-held company called WheelTug, whose system, if it flies, should delight passengers and save airlines (and airports) tens of billions of dollars. (Watch!)

The stock currently trades around $5.50, so about $40 million for the whole company. Three years ago I suggested it could be worth anywhere from $2.79 to $338.  Twelve years ago, I made the case for its trading at $100.

Long-time readers will remember one rationale I’ve used over the years to try to retain my patience: Television was invented in 1926.  No one made a dime from it until 1950 or so.  But ultimately, it did catch on.  Another analogy: not a single TV set was ever sold with a remote control — until remote controls were invented.  Within a few years, not a single TV set was ever sold without a remote control.

Why would anyone buy a TV without remote control?  Why would anyone want a commercial jet that can’t back out from the gate on its own?  That can’t twist around to park parallel to the gate to allow boarding and deplaning from both front AND rear doors?

The FAA approval process is underway.  Normally, it takes about two years.

Will our Borealis lottery ticket ever hit, as hoped?  I clearly don’t know.  But if it does, it should be worth many, many times what it sells for today.