(PHRM) Phorm

http://www.jb.com.br/ciencia-e-tecnologia/noticias/2013/05/17/pai-da-web-elogia-marco-civil-e-diz-que-brasil-lidera-movimento/

The Marco Civil, who is awaiting vote in Congress, also provides privacy for users and freedom of expression online.

http://computerworld.uol.com.br/tecnologia/2013/05/15/ministro-raupp-manifesta-apoio-ao-marco-civil-da-internet/

Marco Antonio Raupp, Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation (MCTI), said on Wednesday (15/05) the federal government support the Marco Civil Internet. The statement came during the opening ceremony of the WWW 2013 world conference on Web that occurs in Rio de Janeiro until Friday.

"Today the Internet is so popular in Brazil as football or carnival. The number of users is growing at a rapid pace, exceeding the U.S. and major European countries, "said Almeida. He also declared his support for the principles of the Marco Civil Internet. "Brazil is a country that supports freedom and privacy of the Internet."

http://www.btk.gov.tr/mevzuat/kurul_kararlari/kk.php?ID=599
http://www.btk.gov.tr/mevzuat/kurul_kararlari/dosyalar/2013%20DK-SDD-228.pdf

0.05% of income for 2011

£569,366

http://www.revista.espiritolivre.org/yahoo-publica-nota-de-apoio-ao-marco-civil

This, if you did not know by know, is the legislation that in part will render Phorms operations in Brasil illegal.

http://factsheets.financialexpress.net/scow/PXB.pdf

"Mood Media and Phorm also fell, however we exited these positions over the month."

I get the impression that the fund was managed by Blackrock on behalf of Scottish Widows.

I wonder if this [ex]holding was in anyway related to,

http://whl.financialexpress.net/investegate/articlePrint.aspx?id=200911041418229523B

I'll rate Phorm a strong Sell on the basis of the above. Scottish Widows agrees with me.

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=oix.net+site%3Awww.reclameaqui.com.br&btnG=Search&hl=en-GB&biw=&bih=&gbv=1

Let the lies and discontent continue.

Perhaps Kent can RNS, lie to, us how many 'happy bunnies' he presently has in Brasil..?

Source.. Response from BTK to questions asked.

I'd reproduce it here but III would barf on the character set. I suppose you will just have to trust me.

I would assume that given the lack of an announcement from Mr Ertugruls replacement, perhaps they should announce who the replacement is, that Phorm is still not self supporting in Turkey.

On the subject of the replacement I might assume that they have not been named because 'Eric Spong', or some such, would indicate to the markets that the Chinese are now in control.

Buys Meditor and Viollette,

http://www.phorm.com/sites/default/files/23.04.13%20April%20Placing%20Announcement%20(FOR%20RELEASE)_0.pdf

an update for,

http://gezinti.com

Wooooo. Now they scroll their rubbish.

http://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/client_reports.php?id=D000055419&year=2013

http://soprweb.senate.gov/index.cfm?event=getFilingDetails&filingID=68DB3958-68CF-4430-8013-E408ADC059AA&filingTypeID=51

Another $50,000 down the tubes. Must be part of the cost cutting exercise... Oh?

Just seen the share price, having followed this stock a few years ago - seems the dream has eventually run out of supporters? This is a shame, as others are now being successful in the area where Phorm was the pioneer -but you cannot grow a company properly on the back of one autocratic dreamer!

Does anyone out there have any suggestion why Phorm might survive any longer?

It must be an absolute joke that supposedly well regarded City institutions supported the management so far.

http://img705.imageshack.us/img705/7294/screenshot55mp.png

Other profiles from the Brasilian division show similar activity.

https://twitter.com/KeithMallen/status/327792470173818880

Previously in this and in other cases the site logo, in this case Haber365, would have appeared alongside pt and TTNET in the bottom right of the 'invite' picture. Now they have been removed.

Initial launch 9th July 2012.
Claimed users 2nd Aug 2012 1.0 miilion
Claimed users end Aug 2012 3.3 million
Claimed users 20th Sept 2012 3.9 million
Claimed users 28th Sept 2012 4.2 million

Bear in mind that this was apparently achieved by the use of a 'fraudulent' invite process delivered during a connection to 'any' website. They were shut down and these users supposedly removed from the system.

Now,

http://www.phorm.com/sites/default/files/23.04.13%20April%20Placing%20Announcement%20(FOR%20RELEASE)_0.pdf

We are asked to believe that in 23 days with a 'non-fraudulent', I use the term loosely, invite process which is apparently restricted to operation on selected and as a result a restricted number of websites which defaults people to 'opted_out' and furthermore whereby the Country is already forewarned and aware of Phorm.... they have generated 1.7 million 'opted_in' users.

Sorry... don't believe you.

BTK previously shut Phorm down and had them release their claimed 4.2 million 'victims' because of the nature in which the invite was offered. Phorm claim to have changed this in order to comply with recommendations from BTK.

As we have seen,

http://img507.imageshack.us/img507/9678/screenshot10jw.png
http://img547.imageshack.us/img547/5840/screenshot12qi.png

just last week they were apparently forced to change the invite page again. I would have expected that as a result they would have been required, once again, to release any 'victims' that have resulted from what has been determined to be a 'flawed invite'.

It also does not remove the, now confirmed, fact that a user is unable to check or change their status,

https://twitter.com/KeithMallen/status/326448441075044352
https://twitter.com/KeithMallen/status/327133557036298240

http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.org.user-groups.linux.turkey.sohbet/5627
http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.org.user-groups.linux.turkey.sohbet/5628

There is the possibility that they are going to be forced to start over.. assuming the Turkish authorities are prepared to give them a 'third' chance.

Phorm is prone to offering themselves options based on dreams that they will be worth 'Loads of Money' sometime.

What happened with...

http://www.phorm.com/sites/default/files/Phorm%20Inc%20YE2011%20Results.pdf

?

I mean Mr Schneider built up his 4.2 million 'opted_in' victims and did not realise his 'options' or at least was not offered them. Now we are apparently back up to 1.7 million and he has still not been offered those options.

Mr Schneider should be rolling in options. Either that or the numbers floated are meaningless.

Glad to be of help. I would not like to cast doubt on the actual figure presented by the company,

http://www.iii.co.uk/investment/detail/?display=news&code=cotn:PHRM.L&action=article&articleid=8948635

"The Company is continuing to make good progress in Turkey. The invitation process has been improved to take into account the new guidelines issued by the BTK in December 2012. The Company is very pleased with the response to the invitation, over 1.7m users have opted in since the beginning of April and numbers are continuing to grow in line with expectations. The Company expects to start showing advertising on a commercial basis in the next few weeks."

.... well actually I would.

From 14/04/13

http://img507.imageshack.us/img507/9678/screenshot10jw.png

From 18/04/13

http://img547.imageshack.us/img547/5840/screenshot12qi.png

It strikes me as being a bit strange that Phorm claim to have complied with the requirements set out by BTK in respect of the invite page and have managed to get 1.7 million people to 'opt_in' and yet on the basis of the previous two images during last week they were apparently forced to change the invite page... again.

And of course once again,

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BIfHIKhCEAA1eGy.png

they still appear to have no functioning 'status check' in place.

Oops, I take it back. 1.7M is less than 4.2M.

>I must have 'opted_in' to the 'new' system myself about 75 times already
Keith, you're Phorm's keenest user, well done.

AZ

http://www.phorm.com/sites/default/files/2012.09.28%20Phorm%20Interim%20Results_0.pdf

Of course BTK shut them down and had those removed.

I must have 'opted_in' to the 'new' system myself about 75 times already. Problem is there is apparently no valid 'opt_out' or 'status checking' mechanism in place,

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BIfHIKhCEAA1eGy.png

You are just told words to the effect that the 'service is not available'.

Looks like they have exhausted their authorised share allocation, not raised the required £10 million and will therefore have to pay back, plus interest, the previous £1.5 million in cash. Excluding costs they might net £5 million.

I'm wondering if we will get a re-run of 20th/21st March..

Although given the bargain basement nature of the latest round of fund raising, the opt-in ratio might be slightly irrelevant at this point.
AZ

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't this the first time that Phorm have disclosed how many users have opted-in for any market?

If 1.7 million opt-ins have happened, it would be interesting to know how many invitations were sent in total.

AZ

Delays in the report from BTK

http://haber.sol.org.tr/bilim-teknoloji/turk-telekomun-interneti-derin-inceleme-faaliyetleri-haberi-71651

Answers to questions about network security, surveillance and... Phorm

http://www.haber3.com/tibin-dinleme-talepleri-turk-telekom--yasal-dinlemeye-iliskin-tib-uzerin-haberi-1913756h.htm

Questions from Erdal Aksunger

http://www.chp.org.tr/?p=110952

Tick Tock....

http://www.phorm.com/sites/default/files/Financing_Update_20-Mar-2013.pdf

Time is about to run out for the hunt for £10 million. Mr Shark is keeping watch in preparation for liquidation with extreme prejudice.

http://www.dephormation.org.uk/countdown/reaper2013.php

My what nice multiple rows of sharp serrated teeth you have Mr Shark. NomNomNom.

Mr Wolfram Alpha says Payback day arrives..

http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=14+March+2013+%2B+42+days

Thursday 25th April 2013. 5 days or 3 working days from now.

This is going to be a hard decision for the holder of those loan notes...

1) Convert £1.5 million into used sheets of IZAL, present price 5p and soon to go lower. Yours for the bargain price of 20p.

2) Take over the company.

Of course if Mr Shark chooses Option 2) then once again we will witness the sorry old often repeated tale of an AIM listed company being forced into administration with no return to the 'shareholders'.

I wonder why the 'usual suspects',

http://www.phorm.com/aim-rule-26-compliance-information#securities

Viollette Company Limited 14.81%
BlackRock Investment Management 14.31%
Meditor European Master Fund Limited 12.30%
Capital Group International 8.00%
Fidelity Investments 5.42%
Woo Foong Hong Limited 5.24%

Have not stepped up to the plate?

After all they are in the position of being about to lose the remainder of their 'investors' cash/pension funds. Perhaps there are 'deals within wheels'. Phorm de-lists from AIM and re-appears on a Stock Market somewhere in Singapore in preparation to conquer China, and, surprisingly, 'the usual suspects' maintain an equivalent holding..... whilst everyone else ends up with zip.

https://nodpi.org/forum/index.php/topic,3387.msg49998.html#msg49998

The example given is from but not specific to Brasil.

Sorry... A couple of other points.

You will notice from the screenshot that in the bottom right hand corner Phorm carries the DivXPlanet logo. Presumably they wish to infer that some sort of 'approval' has been given for this or there is some sort of partnership involved. Of course if the host site is not aware that they are going to be 'outed' in this manner there that is likely to re-enforce the level of ill-feeling.

Finally, for the moment, in order to in part confirm that the new invite relies on being offered via 'partner sites' then referring to,

http://www.gezinti.com/sss#faq7

In translation,

"Navigation from the websites which are involved in?

Navigation component of the internet sites which pages will be announced in the future."

or

"What are the internet sites that are included in the navigation?

In later times will be announced on internet sites with Navigation on the pages of the component."

I will interpret the above as meaning 'partner' websites upon which Phorm will, as we have seen, embed their 'invite' page. They have not named any because the problem would be that if they were to give such a list people would avoid visiting those sites.

As we know Haber7 ended up carrying Phorms 'advertising' which resulted in their sites throwing Phorm's interstitial invite page in their users faces,

http://www.teakolik.com/dikkat-gezinti-geri-geldi/

the above indicates that Haber7 removed the offending content.

Another example has been found. This time DivXPlanet,

http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/7780/screenshot10x.png

http://forum.divxplanet.com/index.php?showtopic=196912&st=75#

The forum administrator states that this resulted from them placing advertising code on their website whereby they were unaware that this interstitial invite page would be a result of carrying that code.

DivXPlanet is part of the Reklamz network,

http://www.reklamz.com/Reklamz-Network

The company provides for its own and presumably others advertising which may have included Phorm until...

It is my guess that BTK have permitted Phorm to continue operations in part on the provision that they do not arbitrarily hi-jack visits to websites to present their 'invite'. They are being forced to operate with 'partner' sites. Unfortunately, other than AdMost, it would appear that Phorm has failed to gain permission for or perhaps even reveal that hosting their advertising code will result in the injection of Phorms interstitial 'invite' page to other possible or prospective clients.

This seems to be yet another example of Phorms, forced, 'arrogance'. Like as not if the host site were aware that hosting Phorms code would result in their users being bothered by Phorms 'in your face invite' being smeared on top of their content they would not accept it. So Phorm just do it and do not tell them. Instant loss of client when the client sees this happening.

I have just revisited DixXPlanet and looked through a number of pages. The site now appears to be free of Phorm. My suggestion would be that this is exactly what has happened. Phorm tried to put their foot in the door and now having been found out the door has been comprehensively slammed in their faces.

As an aside to this the interstitial 'invite' page is now written to immediately set normal and flash 'opted-out' cookies on the visitors computer. If you remember previously people were assumed to be 'opted-in' if they took no action and navigated away from the page. This was considered by BTK to be 'fraudulent' and is why Phorm were forced to remove their previous 4.2 million victims from the service and start again.

As things now stand, and there have still been complaints, if the user clicks on the grey button or navigates away from the page they are properly 'opted-out'. This, especially given the awareness in Turkey about Phorm and their previous ham fisted efforts, is going to cripple their efforts to get anyone to accept the system.

http://www.scmp.com/business/china-business/article/1216275/guidelines-help-china-take-step-forward-data-privacy

http://www.haberler.com/btk-nin-phorm-sorusturmasindan-haber-yok-4531366-haberi/

The same article is being repeated over various sites.

Amongst other sites that appear to be involved in Phorms new operations a recent one has been DivXPlanet,

https://twitter.com/mserdark/status/323434773320196096/photo/1/large

From their forums,

http://forum.divxplanet.com/index.php?showtopic=196912&st=75#

The implication is that the inclusion of the sites logo in the bottom right hand corner of the interstitial is not indicative of a partnership existing between the site and Phorm. The interstitial actually piggy backs in on advertising code used by the sites authors without any knowledge that this would be the result.

Similar has happened to Haber7 as described here,

http://www.teakolik.com/dikkat-gezinti-geri-geldi/

In which Haber7 acted to remove the offending code.

If this is correct then be aware that Phorm may be claiming partnerships that simply do not exist.

maybe some folk are buying

https://register.epo.org/espacenet/application?number=EP07870928&lng=en&tab=doclist
https://register.epo.org/espacenet/application?number=EP07853466&lng=en&tab=doclist
https://register.epo.org/espacenet/application?number=EP08831114&lng=en&tab=doclist

Don't forget now folks... The first two are under a deadline which runs out in June. Either they pay the renewal fee plus 50% for being late, 6 months, and/or submit a response, 4 months, to,

https://register.epo.org/espacenet/application?documentId=ET8ZKB623059FI4&appnumber=EP07853466&showPdfPage=all

Toot Toot Mr Roslov. Fools invested on the basis of your Patent Failing expertise. Please do hurry up and justify the waste of other peoples pension money.

http://direitorio.fgv.br/seminario-marco-civil-da-internet

10h20 - Equality and non-discrimination
The net neutrality as a principle guaranteeing the free circulation of ideas and competition

Olavo Chinaglia
Former Director of CADE (Speaker)
Carlos Affonso
Professor at FGV DIREITO RIO (Speaker)
Daniel Slaviero
President of Abert (moderator)
Señor Gonzalo Arenas
Mr Chilean (Speaker)

Of course, as we know, Phorm have decided to focus on Turkey and China... because they got fined and shut down in Romania and Marco Civil is on the agenda in Brasil. Elsewhere indicators suggest Phorm have, as yet, not shut up shop in Brasil......

Perhaps, until they are finally told to 'get lost', they are going to desperately hang on. After all it's not their money they are burning.

Olavo Chinaglia was with CADE during both the debate about the partnership between Phorm and Oi and that between Phorm and Telefonica. It might be interesting to know what his opinions are in respect of Network Neutrality, Competition and Phorm.

http://www.businessinsider.com/the-chinese-just-discovered-advertisers-track-you-on-the-internetand-they-hate-it-2013-4

http://haber.sol.org.tr/bilim-teknoloji/btk-phorm-sorusturmasini-unuttu-mu-haberi-71266

Personally speaking I am surprised that Phorm would try to pull such a stunt. [NOT]

"As any fule kno" 'revenue' does not transfer directly to the bottom line. There are operating costs..

Ipads and Macs for all.
Lunch for the Police.
Lobbying Expenses in America.
Paying tax in Turkey.
Not paying tax in Delaware.
Partying on down in Brasil.
Getting fined in Romania.
Employing legal council to argue as to legality.
Employing agents for PR.
Employing agents for Crisis and Issue Management.
Employing legal rottweilers to threaten all and sundry.
etc
etc

Other Stuff that actually might have something to do with running a legitimate business.

thing to remember is out of that $1-$2 phorm only get a small percentage

they have to give the website, channel creator, ISP their cuts and leaving them only about 20% of the income according to the information they published when they tried BT in the UK

so if they got all the users opted in (correctly) out of the $50m (approx) they might see $10m if they are lucky

DYOR

you will have to dig back to the days of the BT trials, it was on phorms own website under how it works to see all the people involved, and i think the percentages were in the first buy note

III appears to be slightly touchy about such matters so it is time for you to do a bit of your own research on LinkedIn. There have recently been a number of people in that side of the operation who have updated their profiles with extensive information about their roles at Phorm along with statements about skills and attitudes. At least three have stated words to the effect that they are looking for new jobs.

Go have a look,

http://www.linkedin.com/company/phorm/followers

I am the eternal optimist.. err pessimist. If we go glass half full and double the 4.2 million to 8.4 million then effectively Phorm will have captured 100% of the Display Advertising Market in Turkey. There is such a thing as a finite resource and whilst advertising spend might not strictly adhere to such constraints it will still be constrained. Effectively the suggestion is that the competitors operating in the same market will just dry up and blow away. It is not a realistic proposition.

A loose analogy might be if I had £50 million in my back pocket then I would have £50 million in my back pocket. I'd be inclined to ask if the £50 million is there and if not how is it going to get there. In order for me to believe it is going to happen I would expect something more substantive than 'ooh-err.' especially if there were constraints already in place... something like there is only £25 million in the world.

In respect of China you can't just equate figures plucked out of the ether for one country and translate them to prospects in another. This might not be strictly correct but if I remember income per capita in China was running at 1/8th of that in, for example, the UK. Phorm have repeatedly stated as much themselves.

The argument goes that since 'foreign people' are cheaper to employ then the companies operating costs will be reduced. Unfortunately those cheap 'foreign people' are also your target market so the corollary is that your profits will be similarly reduced.

GD

That certianly is a glass half empty view. On the glass half full view they 4.2M figure could be increased and also there could be up to 10M+ opt in clients from China soon too. Which if so, then based on your assumption could equate to a low figure of £15M per annum or potentially a figure of £150-£200M per annum on my figures. Not bad for a £5M mcap.

I'm a glass half empty sort of person, not that you would have guessed. If you take the mid, as it seems you have done, then the claim is that they will take 37.5% of the display advertising market in Turkey. You have to ask yourself is that realistic or is it just wishful thinking?

Then you have to go the extra mile and realise that the figures quoted from IAB are 'spend' or otherwise represent Gross revenue. Wishful thinking and they might realise 20% Net, 10% might be more realistic, which would drop them down to £10 million.

Then ask.. is that $1 - $2 money in Phorms pocket or do they have to split it with the ISP? Say it is a 50-50 split and now their net is down at £5 million.

Again that's my interpretation of the numbers and, as per the above, it assumes they will take 37.5% of their target market.

4.2M customers at say ($1-$2) £1 per customer per month would give a revenue of £50 Million to Phorm per year.

If true then quite significant revenue with a current mcap of £5M.

http://sosyalmedya.co/iab-turkiye-yariyil-raporu/

These are figures published by IAB Turkey for the first half of 2012. Spend on Display Advertising, the area where Phorm will be operating, was TL169 million or US$95 million. Double that for the full year and you get US$190 million.

Phorm suggests $1 - $2 per opted-in user per month. At their peak Phorm claimed 4.2 million 'opted-in' users,

http://www.phorm.com/sites/default/files/2012.09.28%20Phorm%20Interim%20Results_0.pdf

So they are estimating yearly 'revenues' based on that user base of US$50 million - US$100 million. They are effectively claiming 25% - 50% of the Display Advertising Revenue in Turkey will be theirs.

I'm not saying I have interpreted those figures correctly but that's how I see things and to me the numbers do not add up.

Thanks Dicko

Any more news on the funding?