>Nice story.
>I understand that all you state here is true, but I hardly believe it.
>
>Igor

Igor;

Mr. Bramson is an interesting person. He has sold junk bonds against Ampex, and “oversubscribed”, that is he sold more than he originally stated would be available. I think the original amount was $200 million and he sold $250 million. The numbers could be off but are close. What is important is that upon maturity the bonds were worth .30 on the dollar or a loss of .70 for each dollar invested.

When the news was released that the value of the junk bonds was 30% of the original value, Mr. Bramson responded that he was going to sell more bonds and people would buy them because they trusted Ampex. He sold more bonds and the results were worse. He then sold off five of the six divisions and started a .COM company for Web Television which evaporated. Then the remaining land and properties and capital equipment were sold. There is not much left of a company that was a world leader. Ampex was one of the few American companies with the reputation of being a world leader.

Charlie Steinberg was the President of Ampex at the time it was last for sale. I asked Charlie how much the company was worth. Charlie stated to me, “$2.5 Billion, based upon land, buildings, capital equipment and last years sales”. The company sold for $450 million to Mr. Bramson, who borrowed $50 million against his other two companies and borrowed $400 million to complete the purchase. It is amazing how business works – you can buy something for a fraction of its value, sell it off and profit.

My previous manager told me he expected Ampex to no longer exist by January of 2003. I mentioned previously that we all lost our 401k’s as Ampex reinvested our money in Executive Life which went bankrupt. I lost over $30,000 in 1990 and a few months ago a company bought the remains of Executive Life so we all received a “pay out” to cancel our accounts. I received $9.92. Now the question is will I have a retirement from Ampex? I may know in a few years.

Wheeler dealers are in business for his/her own reasons.

Tom