Troubled Photon company Future House axes jobs

Partying since 1999. I agree. They had a $1m chrissy party last year but they only made $10m so go figure! they obviously don’t understand the “figures”. most of those execs only care about the major shareholders which is them, but when it comes to the minority person who wants to pop in a few bob because they “respect their people” and then they sack those same shareholders, then you do your job and your dough as well. They can talk the talk…..

It’s a merry-go-round at the door of (edited by Mumbrella for legal reasons) with clients and staff ditching them every week. Not a good place to work especially as their attitude to business is ‘we will take whatever we can get’. Where’s the specialism? There’s no management and morale is at an all time low. For every new client win they lose another with (edited by Mumbrella for legal reasons) and other major brands dropping the agency like a hot stone. I hear rumours their biggest account – (edited by Mumbrella for legal reasons) – is poking around looking into alternatives

Partying since 1999, maybe. A case of indigestion, definitely. A $1M Christmas party? Well it was a great party but it wasn’t $2,000 per head. And being a shareholder doesn’t entitle you to work for the company, unless you can afford to buy enough shares that you don’t have to work anyway.

It is unfortunate when ambitious people get caught in the cross-fire. At least these cast-offs will receive their pay, leave and superannuation entitlements, unlike the dispossessed employees of basket-case companies left to run into the ground until there is nothing left but stationery and dust.

All of these communication networks have major structural problems. They load up the Debt, claim high EBIT and then have a low Net profit to show for large market caps. When you read balance sheets, like Photon, STW and others, you can’t really get any clear idea what the future liabilities are ‘pay outs’ for acquisitions, most of there cap its based on massive ‘Intangible assets’…

Blue Freeway, Comquest, now Photon, who’s next?

Tiffany,

Not sure who you are or what your gripe is with our agency, but for the record I would like to respond to your post and set a few things straight.

Many of the clients you mention in your rant, including Nestle and Bega, remain clients of ours to this day. They have always been clients on a project basis and we are currently working on campaigns for both of them. We have worked with Jenny Craig for almost three years now and have celebrated a record publicity year with our Magda Szubanski campaign. JC is staying put.

Other clients you mention are those that we have stopped working with over the last 18 months – and as a percentage of our 30-some stable of clients, I would beg to say that is not so unusual. It is a known fact within PR agencies that things change and I would challenge you to find an agency without staff and business fluctuation.

We are happy to report recent wins including the CSIRO, CHOICE and Nintendo.

Try and have a happy day.

Sorry Tim, didn’t realise this was in the works. Thanks for stepping in so swiftly.

M

There seems to be a lot of “Photon beating” at the moment, and although some of the shareholders/board members might not be the brightest sparks there is still a lot of telent in some of the Photon companies that don’t deserve the bad press they are getting by virtue of being in the group – and no i don’t work for one of them

yes, agree, there is a lot of photon bashing for the wrong reason, but my gripe is that I bought shares at one amount and they are now worth another, so at the end of the day, while I accept responsibility for a bad investment, the directors of the company have to accept responsibility for the the bad share price, the bad profit performance, the over borrowing of debt and giving themselves payrises. When you read last year’s and the year before reports, you are seeing directors getting huge payrises, bonuses on divisional performance, share options and the like while the company reports a fall in net profit after tax of 39% and sacking a lot of people. Then you read that they spent $1m on a lavish christmas party with the most expensive DJ in australia and another well known (and probably expensive) band and then find out this party alone wiped out 10% of their 1st half earnings. I understand people work hard and play hard, but my problem with Photon is not the people working there, it’s the way it has been run, so so poorly. I think that the new CEO hit the nail on the head. The accounting and corporate governance and communication practices have been diabolical and they can’t even get forecasts right.

I have never worked there but I put in $20k that’s now worth $3k and no end in sight of how I can recover anything at all, so surely someone has to feel the heat so while I can’t believe everything I read, the press hasn’t been too kind either.

What also astounds me is that Photon appears to own public relations firms, yet none of them seem to be out there pro bono helping their parent company actually put some positive press out there and talk the company UP at all, they continue to allow themselves to get beat up. Oh well, it’s always the plumber with the leaky tap.

I should have bought fairfax

Any agency that sold to Photon deserves all the bad press they get (even if it might be a bit harsh on their staff). It was never a sustainable model as no thought has ever been given to succession planning, vendors have no incentive to invest in the long term future of their businesses (beyond earn out) & they bought & borrowed recklessly without proper due diligence. Their current predicament really shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone!

As a shareholder of Photon I am bitterly disappointed by the performance of the company, but more importantly the management team. Disclosure of performance has been disgraceful IMO. Last years Cap raising, followed by a profit downgrade is the perfect example. I can’t see how management didn’t know of the downgrade/performance issues before the raising, yet things seemed rosy when asking for more shareholder’s capital.

We wait an eternity to hear hopefully positive results and yet again we hear bad news of poor performance and more capital raisings.

I’m still trying to decide our next move, do we trust our new CEO?…at least reading the above we know cost cutting is underway (sorry to those affected).

These things can be expected from cyclical companies…but an upfront management team goes a long way to earning respect from investors and the public.

Agree with David. Honestly they stick their hand out for more dosh knowing that the numbers were getting worse. Glad I didn’t tip in any more cash. The old CEO leaves and dumps a heap of shares after he left. Tells me that he didn’t think much of it either. Oh well, as long as he drives a fash flashy car then that’s all that matters, get a payrise, a flashy car and more options, ask other people to put their hands in their pockets and then do a runner.

Put all shareholders out of their misery and take the company private – if there is anyone willing to fund it that is………… and those wonderful EARN OUTS that are still to come ! Hooray !

photon’s not doing as well as people thought they were. whats happening with imega group? its another photon’s company that slashed all the employees and focused on geekdom/sitely. imega is merging with another company?