Stranger to Himself

You just got snookered

OOH …Here’s One Thing 

by Jim Johnsen,
Managing Director, Johnsen, Fretty & Company

 

Struggling with confusion, disillusionment, too
Can turn a man into a shadow, crying out from pain

Through his nightmare vision, he sees nothing, only well
Blind with the beggar’s mind, he’s but a stranger
He’s but a stranger to himself

Suspended from a rope inside a bucket down a hole
His hands are torn and bloodied from the scratching at his soul

Through his nightmare vision, he sees nothing, only well
Blind with the beggar’s mind, he’s but a stranger
He’s but a stranger to himself

Through his nightmare vision, he sees nothing, only well
Blind with the beggar’s mind, he’s but a stranger
He’s but a stranger to himself    “Traffic”

“Is there anybody out there?”

As Pink Floyd once said, “Is there anybody out there?”  Geez Johnsen, this ought to be a good one, where you going with it this time?  Did Volta’s failure just go silently into the night like a fart in the cool breeze?   Rip Van Winkle, what galaxy are you on?  That is so yesterday’s news.  

I hear ya, but M&A has been pretty darn good and I am just coming up for air.  Besides, whether its Shell Oil, or its the Wall Streeters who took it public through a SPAC, or its the multiple rounds of hundreds of millions of dollars that got pumped into the Company, we can’t just let them sneak silently out the back down without putting them in the stocks and getting out some ripe tomatoes, right!

facts to wake you from the dream
Come on people, are we asleep?  A failure much larger than GE Capital’s purchase of Foster and Kleiser and nobody is talking about it?  I mean, aren’t we all a little culpable?  So here are a couple facts to wake you from the dream:

Volta raised $125MM in 2021.  At the time they said in total they had raised over $200MM.  


Volta raised about $600 million in net proceeds via its SPAC merger (with Tortoise Acquisition Corp II) including a $300 million PIPE.    


I think there was another round in there just before they went public, but I can not verify this, so lets ignore this.  Long short, before Shell Oil showed up to save the day, there was at least $800MM of investment in the Company.  

Shell Oil buys the whole Company for $169MM in 2022.  (Why $169 btw…why not just call it a day at $170MM?)  Sorry Mr. Investor, you just lost $631MM in a REALLY short period of time.
Oh well.  That’s the way the cookie crumbles.  

But Mr. Shell Oil, titan of the world and a brain trust the size of Montana?  Wow.  You got snookered.  
But Mr. Shell Oil, titan of the world and a brain trust the size of Montana?  Wow.  You got snookered. 
In my humble and childish opinion, why did Volta fail?
1.  Falling in love with the tech instead of understanding what sells. 
2.  Spending too much money and too much time (aka burn rate) on the tech. 
3.  Not separating the amenity from the media. 
4.  Placing the media where the landlord tells you to place it rather than where it should be placed for maximum impact. 
5. Opening up too many markets too soon with too little coverage. 
6.  Not appreciating how outdoor advertising has gotten bought and sold for a very long time (aka we can change that). 
7.  Not being realistic on how long it takes to walk through the Gobi desert before the nationals give you a drop of water. 
8.  Not knowing who you want to be when you grow up (aka am I a charging company or a media company?).
Volta said in 2020 that they would do over $500MM of media revenue by 2025.    As they said in Norbit, many times, “How you doin’?”
Anyone out there want to take the lead in writing the Harvard Business School case for this one?  Would make for a hell of a good read.  Still waiting for a chuckle on a Monday morning?  Volta said in 2020 that they would do over $500MM of media revenue by 2025.    As they said in Norbit, many times, “How you doin’?”
Volta said in 2020 that they would do over $500MM of media revenue by 2025.
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Here's One ThingJim JohnsenJohnsen Fretty & CoMobilyticsShell OilVolta
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