If you need to give them a call so they might clarify that issue--instead of posting what you have which is not all the story.. I will only say Wall Street came calling..Otten and others did what Wall Street said to do, then the market took a dive/ the crash and Wall Street came back and said you are not worth what you were..(doing a brief synopsis here from Otten, he will explain in detail). Les did not agree with the other "chiefs" that had settled into the running of the business. Les wanted what the shareholders wanted to bring it back (stay whole or divide), it could not be agreed upon so he left mutual agreement--and those left in charge thought they were right and were wrong. He then put his investments elsewhere. The Red Sox, then the energy business of wood pellet furnaces. More jobs.
However who really buys a ski stock? I didn't. An IPO is not a good investment for the most part unless you have stock beforehand. No one that is a serious investor would buy a ski stock that cannot afford a loss.[but then you get to write off a loss]. Stocks going public in those times all shot out of the gate..those were fun times, but not smart times in trading decision..caught up in the euphoria of it all. I even bought some small stock in Alaska, had no history was JUST a new hyped Internet stock- bought on Friday for $2 play and by Tues the next was $22. I was lucky, not smart. Just played the game like everyone else.
Otten himself did not cause the stock to plummet. The company owned mountains all over the country so jobs were made across the country. The ski business is risky. Weather is of course a factor no matter if you have the best technology in snow making. If there is no snow in Boston then people just don't flock to the mountains "in the groove", that is why they take the snow to the city to advertise.
Should they have stayed small? When you get too many chiefs, conflict is bound to arise. I don't have to go and research, I know first hand. Plus that quote I took was also reported in the Lewiston paper which took the other candidate on for lack of facts... a candidate in the single digits. Otten has done so much more than Sunday River. You would be impressed with the family history as well on his father who VERY wealthy stell industrialist was imprisoned by Hitler (would not play ball with Hitler)-his family did escape Nazi Germany-Switzerland ( I believe ) and wound up in upstate NY with very little money. Amazing stories to be told. He knows what it is to be rich, down and rebuild again--he attributes that work ethic to his father.
Give his office a call or ask for Edie Smith. He's approachable. He is not egotistical. Quiet man really. He did try to buy SR back, as you know; but I assumed that would be too big a slap in the face of the ones that decided they knew better than Les. It was his baby--the Internet/telecom debacle effected all stocks. I did enjoy when he thumbed his nose upon leaving and built the restaurant across from the Base Lodge.
Baldacci will soon be gone!! we can agree on that!! We need someone who has contacts all over this country, not just in Maine to bring business to Maine. I am also for Dean Scontras as well. Scontras has a great future, I feel.
Some above is my take on it, so to verify go to the source Les Otten. Think I am pretty on target. Long time ago now it seems... Sorry if fragmented..but there is always more to a story and when you are in the lead those at the bottom are desperate, knowing people believe what they want to believe..dam the truth be told in its entirety. I knew all what you had written and Otten was prepared for it all.
I really don’t think that asking Les Otten for his spin is going to get the truth. I just posted one of many articles detailing various elements of the history of American Skiing.
It did well, then it did poorly. He was on the Board until recently. The company ended up selling off most if not all of its properties.
It was a valuable company with many ski resorts, and then it became a company with almost no value. Its investors, who you seem to think of as gamblers, lost their money.
I don’t need to know every last detail of Les Ottens personal history to know that the collapse, or near collapse, of the company he built cannot be seen as a wonderful success story.
Les Otten might be pretty good at building a business. But the failure of American Skiing shows that he’s not very good at running, or managing, a large business. Since running a large organization is exactly what a Governor does, and Otten failed at doing exactly that, I can’t really think of a reason to vote for him. If he was the nominee, I would, but hopefully that doesn’t happen.
Will “American Skiing took on too much debt and then American Skiing had to sell most if not all of its ski resorts. Vote Les Otten, he’ll do the same to Maine.” be the Otten slogan?
Vote Otten - First Crushing Debt - Then Maine For Sale!
No. Otten seems to be a gambler who got lucky until he was not lucky. That is not what we want for a Governor.
We want a responsible manager with experience. Someone with a proven record of cuts. I think that’s LePage, but nothing in Otten’s record indicates that he’s anything like that.
Otten - he’s gonna take the tax receipts, go to Vegas, and put it all on red.