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of May 2, 1998, TPC appeared to be well situated on the Internet,
and TPC’s future as to its Internet operations appeared good, if
not, in the words of TPC’s president, “great”. As stated in the
estate’s experts’ report, as of May of 1998, TPC “appears to be
in a strong overall financial position when compared to the
industry. [TPC] has more liquidity, no leverage, and operates
more profitably than the median industry. Based on the financial
analyses of [TPC], the business has less financial risk than does
the median company in the same industry.”
The use by the estate’s experts of a 12-percent technology-
related risk factor, particularly in light of their failure to
project any additional income to be produced from technology-
related expenditures, seems to us inappropriate and unjustified.
Supporting our conclusion that TPC’s risks relating to the
Internet and technology do not support a 12-percent risk factor,
we note that, during its 1998 fiscal year, TPC paid out cash
dividends to its stockholders in excess of $7 million, a
significant increase over total cash dividends paid out to
stockholders in prior years and inconsistent with any management
perception that, as of May of 1998, or in the near future, TPC
faced extraordinarily risky additional Internet- and technology-
related expenditures.
TPC’s 1998 cash dividends, particularly in light of the
lower level of stockholder dividends that had been paid in prior
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