Posted on 03/11/2012 4:06:57 AM PDT by PJ-Comix
One week agao, on Saturday night, March 3, 2012, Carbonite announced its decision to break off relations with its key radio endorser. It appears to have been a fateful decision.
From Chuck Jaffe at MarketWatch, Don’t ‘rush’ to Carbonite shares (h/t commenter Eliot Ness):
When Carbonite Inc. stock took a quick plunge this week, there was an obvious consensus about what caused the move: The company pulled advertising from Rush Limbaugh’s talk-radio program after the controversial host made inflammatory remarks about a Georgetown University law student.
Yes, the market could have feared that Limbaugh’s fans would cancel Carbonite’s service, an online back-up solution for consumers and businesses, or mount their own boycott. Or maybe investors assumed Carbonite will suffer because it will no longer have access to Limbaugh’s audience.
Jaffe goes on to point out that Carbonite has underlying business problems which are driving the long term decline in the stock price, but quotes another analyst as pointing out that the result drop likely is attributable to the Rush controversy:
“There is no way Carbonite’s underlying business is changing as much as the stock trading says it is on a daily basis,” said David Trainer, president of New Constructs Inc., a research firm based in Nashville. “That says there is a lot of excessive trading going on; maybe it’s the Rush thing or maybe not. … For the average investor, a stock this young being pushed around by like this traders is a wing and a prayer.”
Reader Zane makes a related point at his blog:
However, the reality is, with the exception of a zealous few, there will be likely little customers to be had amongst the activists – certainly not the amount of customers that were reached by the Limbaugh show. By the time next Valentines day rolls around will the money spent by the activist come close to money spent by listeners of Rush- likely not even close.That being said,
One more thing : I don’t know if boycotting Limbaugh was a good business choice and I think, no one else knows either. What I do know is: making decisions based on the loudest screamers of the moment, does not usually bring about good business results.
That was my first reaction when Carbonite dropped Rush. How many of the DailyKos and Media Matters screamers actually used or were considering using Carbonite. Probably few.
Why did Carbonite make such a precipitous decision?
There are few things that cannot wait for Monday morning, yet Carbonite issued its statement on a Saturday night, in what appears to be a matter of executives’ personal and political opinions outweighing shareholder interests.
Shareholder are getting massacred as a result.
My Carbonite is still working, but I informed them that
I would never renew.
My prepaid subscription expires in 81 days.
I will advise on FR if the backup quits prior to my remaining
subscription.
A corporation whose executives make monumental (possibly fatal) business decisions based on the political squawking of the moment.
Not one in which I care to ever invest.
Enjoy liquidation, Carbonite.
I wonder if the Carbonite CEO made his fatal decision on Saturday night while under the influence of way too many adult beverages.
No one can say with any authority how many folks were both Rush listeners and Carbonite-users. My humble guess is that somewhere around thirty percent of the Carbonite user base were Rush fans. Toss in another twenty-five percent of the user base who might be Republican. So there might be a trend started, with several thousand folks indicating that they will be quitting. By summer, they may have lost half their base.
You could make up the situation by advertising....but where do you cast your limited advertising dollars? Common sense says you run right back to Conservative-talk radio, but another front person....I doubt if they’d let you in the front door. So you start looking....maybe over at the OWN-network, but they have lousy numbers and are mostly women. Then you start to look at reality TV shows...just to get some kind of attention.
What they eventually discover is that they are now labeled a anti-conservative company, and people won’t even listen to them because of that label.
If you ask me...it’s a spiral trend for the stock, and some company...probably Google....makes a minor attempt to buy Carbonite by this fall. Whatever they offer....if I were Carbonite, I’d accept. It just won’t get any better. With the name change....business might improve.
A book will eventually be written by the Carbonite CEO, explaining that they never dreamed of the day when a stumble by Rush....would bring down their business. They could back-up everything else in life....but they could not back-up their own basic operation.
A rush to judgement
Randi Rhodes?
Funny how this is parallel to ‘actors and singers’ ..[singing]. When will they ever learn? When will they ever learn?
This stock was dying to begin with. This has nothing to do with Limbaugh, but with management most likely.
Carbonite IPO’d in August of last year. After IPO, the share price settled at around $15 and has been dropping in a linear fashin since then to $8.71 as of this week.
Go to stockcharts and type in CARB for Carbonite.
http://stockcharts.com/h-sc/ui
When an executive hangs around with and supports extremist causes they are subject to those causes.
I would not be surprised if one were to map out Media Matters contact tree, the groups that the executives support were loud and numerous. Yet, they are not the demographic of Carbonite.
So how does one do business in this type of atmosphere?
But recently I have seen several instances now of liberal/progressive attacks on businesses. Both businesses were subject to wild claims and no amount of reasoning would stop the taunting / harassment.
And while Carbonite many will say is a dog with fleas, it does bring to light a very dangerous business atmosphere. And that progressives not only rule their own with the iron fist, but have actively started hunting and stalking small business owners as well. Seeking out the political and even religious beliefs of business owners.
This is very troublesome in the arena of social media, where marketing your company is now pushed as a relationship building tool. As several colleagues discussed recent events, I reminded them that members of the regime now work for Google and FB. I believe these relationship building tools are being manipulated and page owners who think their personal page is separate are sadly mistaken with the advent of the FB timeline.
I think a few of the companies, including Carbonite, were in on the Fluke conspiracy from the start.
They just thought they could get away with it.
CarboSnapple.
Hey, Carbonite...no soup for you!
I just shut mine down. I’m out the yearly fee. Live and learn I suppose. Why would anyone trust them with their ties and funding going to Soros groups?
...”Carbonite issued its statement on a Saturday night, in what appears to be a matter of executives’ personal and political opinions outweighing shareholder interests.
Shareholder are getting massacred as a result”...
It surely would be nice to be able to “vet” the political views of the top executives of any company. In my opinion, that information would tell me a lot about whether I would want to buy that product.
Top down, bottom up, inside out.
It's how they roll.
Astute observations and ones that, if pursued and exposed, will bring a whole new level of understanding to the mess we live under.
I hope your post, and the ideas/points within it, are spread far and wide.
“I just shut mine down.”
_______________________________
I could shut mine down and just forfeit what I have left in credit, but that would be more in THEIR favor.
I have already told them why I will not renew.
> Why would anyone trust them with their ties and funding going to Soros groups?
Why would anyone trust any online backup service?
If your files are important to you, then back them up yourself.
Does anyone know if any of the other conservative talk-show hosts are dropping Carbonite as an advertiser? I know Mark Levin had them.
Yes, my carbonite is still working, too. I’m fixin’ to write them a letter. A week prior to this brouhaha I subscribed for a year’s service. Then, this happened and I cancelled on Monday.
It will be April 2013 before my subscription would have expired. Is it going to run until then?
“However, a beautiful, LIBERAL, brainless, socialite wife ... would definitely make his world rise, or fall ...
Therein lies what probably happened ... “
Exactly!
BLBSW says to hubby, “It’s Saturday night. You don’t get your weekly ration until you call and cancel Rush!”
Because its CEO is a leftist moron who like all leftists put his own ego above that of his company.
“It will be April 2013 before my subscription would have expired. Is it going to run until then?”
____________________________________________
Too bad that you have that much time left.
I have only two months left.
I msgd them through the Carbonite control panel.
Right click on the icon, then open the “information center”.
I told them that I would not renew, and why.
Once I have another backup system, I will just delete everything connected with them.
It had a little to do with Limbaugh I am sure. Maybe not as much as most perceive. However, pulling their advertisement off Limbaugh’s network (the way they did it) has doomed their company and will hasten the decline. It drove a stake in the heart of the wounded beast.
If they would have removed their advertisement quietly and for financial reasons they would not have lost millions of dollars of revenue. It was a bone headed, knee jerk reaction that cost them tens of thousands of subscribers.
Try a charge back on your credit card, even if you already paid for it. Just tell your credit card company the service didn’t work as promised and they wouldn’t give your money back. Too slow,etc.
Here is an earlier article....I see a doomed company...
http://legalinsurrection.com/2012/03/carbonite-shoots-its-business-model-in-the-foot/
“We generate substantially all of our revenue from the sale of subscriptions to our solutions. In order to grow, we must continue to attract a large number of customers on a cost-effective basis, many of whom have not previously used online backup solutions…. Currently, we rely significantly on advertising endorsements by certain radio personalities. The loss of one or more of these endorsement arrangements or our inability to obtain additional effective endorsements could adversely affect our advertising and customer acquisition efforts and our operating results.”
Maybe they are looking for a gov’t bailout.
“You could make up the situation by advertising....but where do you cast your limited advertising dollars?”
Carbonite is now running commercials on HGTV - I just saw one about 30 minutes ago. Not saying they didn’t - but I’ve never noticed any Carbonite TV ads before.
I doubt that they are spending more on an HGTV ad than they did on a radio spot with Rush. Whether or not it will work is the question.
what killed them in the end was that by leaving Rush we found out they were a lefty operation and everyone fled I used them once, but turn on Rush, and you are not worthy
Maybe they'll get it. sad really.
They do need to be pursued and exposed, but within the context of history and the understanding of the 'viral' social media network. One colleague ended up canceling a fund raising event for a local shelter as one of the sponsoring companies was a makeup company selling product in China(China still requires animal testing to sell product there, not make...sell). Nothing the company representative said or documentation produced that they were leading the cause to change China's laws was sufficient. The whole event was canceled.
The other colleague was stalked on Facebook to her personal account. Her information is "public" and she lists herself as conservative and christian. Her posts are inspirational etc. The stalker came back to her business page and posted how this business owner is the type of business out to destroy America and she couldn't continue to be part of a business "relationship" like this.
And for FReepers who say to stay away from the likes of FB or the new Google +1, well any marketing guru will tell you otherwise. But there are inherent risks and they are increasing.
You see I am starting to view this whole matter of social media as the means of the 'boycott.' It is a viral marketplace, Managing social media complaints before they explode into Tweets, YouTube videos and Facebook shares
For well under $100 you can buy a USB hard drive with plenty of space to back up one - if not two - computers. No paid subscriptions, no hassle, you can set your computer to automatically backup on whatever schedule suits you. I have two at 320Gb each, that cost around $69 each.
I would recommend keeping one at a location other than your home, such as at work, a relatives house, or at a friends house.
That way a fire or theft doesn’t negate your effort. I keep a backup drive at work and bring it home about once a month, backup everything, and take it back to work the next day.
A week ago, in one of the post-announcement threads, was a post quoting management about the extremely high customer acquisition cost, and how renewals were the key to profitability.
The company's knee-jerk reaction to the mau-mauing by the cultural Marxists may get some of management invited to the next cocktail party.
However, I daresay that by "insulting by association" the conservative leaning customer base as targeted and developed by advertising on Limbaugh probably wasn't the best business move, especially by a company with such razor thin margins and more highly rated competitors.
In other posts, I've seen that they rank something around #9 in the backup biz.
EBH....here you go...you hit the nail on the head...check this article. Basically social media has turned activism into a hyper drive mode
http://www.venturingcapital.com/
A book will eventually be written by the Carbonite CEO, explaining that they never dreamed of the day when a stumble by Rush......
I don’t think it was a stumble by Rush. It was a piss-poor business decision by the CEO. Just like that mattress joint, ?-Train.
With all the posts on how lousy Carbonite is and Citrix also. And now that Carbonite is a leftist company. Makes me wonder how Rush and other conservative talk shows have pushed these products for years and years.
Rush is smarter than the Carbonite CEO. He made business decisions. They did not.
The only direct experience with that type of lib ‘social engineering’ was minimal in effect. in the late 90s/early 2000s I was involved with an off-road motorsports publication that was regularly attacked by the greenies and threatened (to ZERO effect) with boycotts and threats to advertizes. But that was SOP for green groups then and now.
The thing you are getting at is only counterable IMO, by a clean split. ‘Our side’ has to do business all but exclusively with our side, and that goes for hiring/employment as well as other economic decisions. Not all businesses would survive that, but the left will ‘end them’ eventually anyway. The recent Rush flap is proof positive.
As for FB/Social Media, same thing. we either unite and work together with each other and blacklist the left/leftists from all aspects of our lives or we lose. And yes I understand the deeper implications that has on friends/family. But it’s more obvious by the day that there’s no compromise with evil people and evil philosophy. It simply cannot happen and to accommodate it in business or personal issues is to give in to that evil.
IMO/FWIW.
Incorrect. While it is true that Limbaugh is not the majority reason for Carbonite's imminent demise, the addition of the Limbaugh factor DOES make a difference.
My favorite line:
making decisions based on the loudest screamers of the moment, does not usually bring about good business results.
A day or two after they pulled out of Rush’s show, I heard them prominently proclaimed on NPR. NPR really doesn’t need taxpayer money to operate, does it?
Absolutely. Plus one must consider the fallout going forward...fallout that has yet to ‘chart’.
I also back up the real important stuff on a flash drive. Also, I have a separate backup for the applications I’ve purchased along the way (along with a spreadsheet of their registration numbers). I have a number of contingency plans.
“Why would anyone trust them....”
Why would you store your files on the internet anyway. A 2 gigabyte external hard drive costs under $200. And you can carry it away! Wait for the law suits about missing or stolen files. That one is coming soon! n/s
You think the guys who made this decision aren’t getting much eye contact or lunch invitations in the office right now?
They are advertising on Fox News channel. First ad I have seen for them last night. Still wanting the conservative leaning audience...wonder why? ;)
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