First Active Sucks!

Hi - Shane Hogan here - I'm a thirty-something Dublin guy working in the Internet business. I've setup this page to create a sense of community for the many disgruntled shareholders of First Active plc who are frustrated at the abysmal performance of First Active since their flotation in September 1998.

I propose that the forthcoming AGM of First Active on 16th May 2000 is an opportunity to display a bit of 'people power'. Over 94% of First Active shares are held by small shareholders (1000 shares or less). I expect that like me, many other shareholders are furious at the manner in which our investments in FA have been losing value at a rapid rate since flotation.

Examples of the disastrous performance by First Active in the last 18 months would be;

• Constantly dropping share price for 16 of those 18 months - Click here to see a graph of the share performance, courtesy of Sharewatch. 

• Failure to do anything useful with the pile of cash that they took in during the flotation.

• Failure to act on the dubious leadership of John Smyth until far too late. Remember this is the guy who stated on 25th August 1999 that 'First Active is not getting "overly excited" by new entrants [Bank of Scotland] into the Irish market'. On 24th September 1999, he informed us that 'the rate cut [in response to Bank Of Scotland rates] will reduce the bank's pre-tax profit by as much as £15 million in a full year'. Perhaps the reason he didn't get 'overly excited' was because it was OUR money that he was losing!

• The Board agreement to pay-off of over £¾ million to Smith to hasten his departure in January 2000.

Following some discussions with Senator Shane Ross (Business Editor - Sunday Independent), Eamonn Dunphy (Presenter - Last Word on Today FM) has agreed to attend this AGM to represent disgruntled shareholders. To do this, he needs you to appoint him as your 'proxy'. See Shane Ross's Sunday Independent article for further details.

• Nominate Eamonn Dunphy to attend the AGM as your 'proxy'. Sign your 'attendance card' and post it to Eamonn at Today FM, Lower Abbey St, Dublin 2.

• Sign our 'protestors' guest book to indicate your dissatisfaction. This will also act as a log of those giving their proxies to Eamonn, in case of dispute. Those whose shares are held in Nominee accounts should give their nominee account number. Those who hold their own share certificates should give their certificate numbers.

This page has been visited by people since 29th April 2000.