Saturday, August 22, 2009

Anyone know the ticker symbol for Vertis? They should be in my printernet portfolio.

Since the beginning of the year I've slowly assembled a group of companies that I bet are going to do be very well going forward. You can check the list in the sidebar. In the aggregate they've gone up about 37% since February.

If you look a little more closely, you'll see a couple of really big winners. McClatchey and Gannett.
MNI was .53 as late as May. At yesterday's close it was 2.08. GCI was 4.20 in May. It closed at 8.16. My bet was that the End of Newspapers was blabla. So far, so good.

My theory is that a printernet is starting to form. I keep looking for the backbone companies and the globals that supply them. Given the silliness of the end of print meme, there are some nice opportunities.

I have to believe that Vertis Communications, with Quincey Allen and most recently Michael Kurchasky, are just the right dna to get them into the game big time going forward. But, I searched Schwab for the symbol. Nada. Then I searched Seeking Alpha. Nada. So then I read about the 2008 bankruptcy. But still no ticker symbol.

I can call my broker on Monday, but he's always so busy. Perhaps a visitor could explain what I'm missing.

2 comments:

  1. Vertis is not a publicly traded company. Also, Vertis has emerged from bankruptcy after merging with American Color Graphics.

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  2. Dear Anon,
    Thanks. That's pretty much what I thought might be true. But I was thrown off because the "investor" link is still on their website.

    Here's why I think they are so interesting:

    "The new combined company, headquartered in Baltimore and unified under the Vertis Communications brand, has 100 locations worldwide and nearly 8,000 employees."

    "The merger integrates American Color's 15 production facilities, including offset and flexographic print facilities,"

    and
    "Our clients include more than 3,000 grocery stores, drug stores and other retail chains, general merchandise producers and manufacturers, financial and insurance service providers, newspapers, and advertising agencies."

    Frankly I don't buy the integrated targeted marketing solution blabla. But the production infrastructure they have in place could make them the UUnet of the Printernet.

    If anyone knows who the big money who is behind this after the bankruptcy. Please chime in. Meanwhile I'll search around and see what I can find.

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