Is Red Digital Cinema a publicly traded company?

[Sean Sweeney]

Not sure if this has been covered before, but I'm wondering if Red Digital Cinema is a publicly traded company. If not, are there ever plans to do so, or does the very idea of a board of directors and shareholders go against RED's innovative approach to quality cameras?

Thanks!

 

[Emery Wells]

Currently: No

Future: Unknown

 

[Noah Kadner]

I'd guess they'll go there at some point down the road when production is humming along smoothly and cameras deliver in a day. Right now I'd imagine being a public company would be too much of a distraction as they continue to develop products and production lines.

Noah

 

[Craig Bowman]

Jim has already stated Red will stay private. After his experience with Oakley he has strongly reiterated he would never want to go through that headache again.

I can see his point. With public companies the push is for profits for the shareholders and the freedom to do things the way he wants to must fall by the wayside. Keep the share price of the company up becomes the focus of the CEO.

Jim is in the perfect spot. He has access to all kinds of capital for growth without the need to go public.

 

[Sean Sweeney]

Good to know! Thanks guys.

 

[Robert P. Hogue]

I wouldn't want to see RED go public either. RED would be too vulnerable to a hostile takeover bid by a company like Sony, who would want nothing more than to spill the blood of RED. Instead it should stay the other way around - RED continuing to turn the industry upside down, by forcing manufactures of overpriced, underperforming camera gear into oblivion. Jim and his team have the final solution with the RED one, and soon to be Scarlet and EPIC.

 

[Francis Kenny]

I agree. Red should remain private. I bought Panavison stock years ago at $19 when it went public. It sold at around $3 a year later, then was purchased by a private group. It was a disaster. Someone made a lot of money but it wasn't me. You are so right about a CEO's priorities being profits and being accountable to a Board.

 

[Jeff Coatney]

It's extremely rare to get the level of innovation that Red represents within the strangling bureaucracy of a publicly traded company. Very few CEO's are able to wield the power of a Steve Jobs or... or... (help me out, here). Uh... anyway, when it comes to having vision or exercising real innovative thinking, private enterprise is the way to go. Ford and GM are great examples of what can happen when stock price and earnings per share replaces core product thinking and positioning your product line to meet market conditions.

 

[Craig Swanson]

Jim has already stated Red will stay private. After his experience with Oakley he has strongly reiterated he would never want to go through that headache again.

Steve Wynn had said the same thing about going public...but things change.