I am a trader as well as an investor and hopefully this thread will reflect both aspects ....

We should start by saying this is a highly speculative share and the market takes no prisoners.

Over the last 18 months I made lots twice in the early days - then lost it back - bought a million at 2.6p average - founded the TAG - bought another half a million or so at sub 1p - sold most at average 4.25 - bought back at 2.2p and less - sold most at 3.5p and now buying back - overall a good net profit at this time.

I think the d4e will happen (say 90% chance) and the 3% currently talked about will give or should give a price equating to say 3/5p. Longer term on succcess of d4e and progress in the sales market the shares should move to around 10p - assumming markets are not in freefall.

I am looking to buy at any time and hoping for a war generated dip - when I do I will let you know.

The TAG site is a great place for catching up on the TWT news and I will post here as well.

Currently trading on TWT is light (1.7 million traded) and the price is down a littlw with a wide spread (2.01/2.35p). This is a sets share and you must expect a crtain amount of manipulation in these troubled times - FTSE down over 4% intraday

I have a core holding of at least half a million shares and intend to be a long term investor at this time.


ainsoph


http://www.investoraction.co.uk - currently we have 804 registered members holding around 100 million shares in total

Nobody shagged TAG then,
died of onanism I guess or a fit of hacking

Don't often post on this side of moneyam, its really a time issue in keeping up with various threads on the other side here, and at advfn. However twt continues to survive.

Re the comments about TAG, we came into existance to attempt to prevent an Energis style colapse. By and large that looks like being achieved. It was never the committees intention to stay around for years and years. Any action group tends to be limited in focus and duration, it was never our intention to act as unpaid investment advisors to twt shareholders long term.

If the 3% equity deal is threatened then I am sure TAG would reactivate.

Finally I made my position clear to Ainsoph last year, I would remain active with TAG until the end of last year. But at that point, (and if the 3% deal seemed resonably certain) I would then depart. We all need to move on in life.

However I still hold an interest in twt and wish all shareholders well

PAUL
I thought that ainsoph was the instigator and leader of TAG, not you?See his quote below, but there was a John someone too from the PBB on the other side before either of you, who drummed up support also.


Over the last 18 months I made lots twice in the early days - then lost it back - bought a million at 2.6p average - founded the TAG



(ainsoph from the header)

May 02, 2003

Telewest seeks boardroom recruits
By Dan Sabbagh TIMES



TELEWEST, the troubled telecoms group, admitted yesterday that the company is looking for independent non-executive directors, including candidates who may eventually be asked to succeed Cob Stenham as chairman.
The search follows an agreement between the companys major investors, who include vulture investor Bill Huff, John Malones Liberty Media and Deutsche Telekom. Each is understood to have accepted that they will not seek to elect their own representatives to the board when the companys 3.5 billion financial rescue is concluded.

Charles Burdick, the managing director, said he hoped that Mr Stenham would remain while the new recruits were sought, adding: There is a lot to be said for continuity. I hope that the chairman will stay on, at least on an interim basis.

However, Mr Stenhams age he is 71 and long association with the company mean that speculation about his future is inevitable. A former Unilever director, he has served on the board since 1994 and been chairman since 1999, during which time Telewest has had four chief executives.

Mr Burdick was speaking as first-quarter results showed the company generating its first cash profit. However, Mr Burdick conceded that seasonally low capital expenditure meant the company would not match the 7 million profit until the fourth quarter at the earliest.Revenues were 335 million, up just 1 million on the year, as a 64 per cent increase in broadband internet revenues to 26 million was offset by a loss of customers and sales in the companys core television and telephone businesses.

Telewests board has previously been dominated by executives from its former major shareholders, Microsoft and Liberty Media. Old shareholders are being significantly diluted in the financial rescue.

Certainly experienced some delays yesterday and spam now way exceeds the norm mail



Telewest email halted under massive spam attack
By Tim Richardson
Posted: 30/04/2003 at 14:05 GMT


Telewest has been hit by a massive spam attack that has resulted in as many as 200,000 of its punters being without email for a couple of days at the beginning of the week.

Normal service was resumed last night although the cableco is still ploughing through a backlog of 1.2 million emails it quarantined immediately after the attack.

Chad Raube, director of internet services at Telewest Broadband, said: "We experienced a major dictionary-style spam attack at the beginning of this week, which flooded our mail server and resulted in a large backlog of emails, around 80 per cent of which was spam.

"We have cleared the main server and new emails have been delivered as normal since yesterday evening. We are now in the process of filtering the backlog to remove spam and deliver the genuine emails as quickly as possible, which we hope to complete today."

Telewest has apologised to blueyonder punters who experience problems with their email and has assured them that it is taking steps to guard against similar attacks in the future.

Paulismyname

This is the John bloke I mentioned, is he still involved in TAG?is TAG still extant?


johnmp - 01 Aug'02 - 20:48


We the shareholders need to form an Action Group to counter Bondholders, otherwise the games over for us the present shareholders.---------
------------------
ent. TWT shareholders what do you have to loose, we will loose 80 to 95% if we do nothing.

Telewest refinancing on course as losses grow
By Lachlan Johnston (Filed: 02/05/2003) Telegraph


The refinancing of debt-stricken cable TV group Telewest has "no major obstacles left", managing director Charles Burdick said yesterday, despite it posting an expanded 186m net loss for the first quarter.

The loss again stemmed from the heavy interest burden on Telewest's 5.3 billion debt, which dwarfed an impressive cost-cutting effort during the quarter. However, Mr Burdick insisted that the refinancing, which will see the debt turned into a 97pc equity stake in the business, was close to being finalised.

"I think it is fair to say that I'm highly confident about the refinancing, but I am not going to give a timetable, because I have done that before and missed it," Mr Burdick said.

Excluding the protracted debt negotiations, Telewest enjoyed a rosier quarter, posting earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of 105m, a 15pc rise on the first quarter last year. A 90pc slashing of capital expenditure, to just 65m, drove the improved earnings, as revenues remained flat at 335m over the quarter.

The results slightly exceeded the forecasts of analysts still covering the stock, though Telewest's share price nudged forward just 0.2p to 2.35p. The cost-cutting helped Telewest post its first quarter of positive cashflow, collecting 7m more in receipts than it paid out.

Mr Burdick, however, warned that the positive cashflow would not last, with the group slipping back into the red in the second and third quarters as IT and marketing spending was lifted. Revenues and customer numbers at its flagship cable TV and telephone business fell 7pc during the quarter, as Telewest raised its price for the service.

The brightest spot remained its broadband internet business, Blueyonder, which increased revenues 69pc, though still suffered a worrying increase in churn - the rate at which customers leave the service - to 12.8pc. The broadband business has now experienced rises in churn for five consecutive quarters.

Mr Burdick also played down speculation that Telewest would soon merge with its UK cable TV counterpart NTL, saying he had not spoken to executives there "in recent times".

We have ticked up a little again .... volumes back to normal. Generally the press was positive and clearly the D4E will go ahead ..... one day


ains


Telewest and BSkyB in fee deal

John Cassy
Friday May 2, 2003
The Guardian

Cable operator Telewest yesterday claimed to have reached a new agreement with BSkyB over the rate at which it can sell the satellite operator's premium

sports and movie channels.

The office of fair trading is examining the proposal and could give approval within the next month, Telewest managing director Charles Burdick said.

"It's a win-win deal for both sides. It contains the necessary incentives for us to market Sky's channels and will be valuable to them."

Only 300,000 of Telewest's 1.3m cable television customers take Sky Sports or Sky movie channels but the deal will allow them to be sold at a discount and the cable firm to make a healthy profit.

Mr Burdick said the extra demand generated would lift the average amount spent each month by a Telewest customer from 42 to 47.

Regulators had warned BSkyB that it "abused its dominant position" in setting prices paid by other pay-television operators for its premium channels but backtracked following a lengthy investigation.

According to results released yesterday, Telewest lost 20,000 television and 13,000 telephony customers in the three months to March 31 as the effect of the group's ongoing financial restructuring weighed on its ability to hold on to subscribers. Broadband internet customer numbers rose to 310,000.

The group is attempting to eradicate 3.5bn of its 5.3bn debt by handing control of 97% of the company to lenders, but it will not comment on the likely completion date of a deal that could drag on until late summer.

Lower spending on cable investment and interest payments, aligned with job cuts, enabled Telewest to generate positive cash flow for the first time.

Pre-exceptional core earnings climbed 15% to 105m, while turnover was flat at 335m. Net losses increased by 13% to 187m.

Must admit I cut out the movie channels as we still had to go to blockbusters to get the latest films and at 20 a month or so extra - it wasn't worth the money ..... might change my mind at a somewhat lower rate.


ains

I cut out the digital tv service at an extra couple of quid a month when they pushed the price up because I felt it wasn't worth paying for a couple of channels that I didn't watch anyway.

Still have the broadband and telephone service but the crafty buggers at telewest are now charging for local cable to cable offpeak calls which used to be one of the usp's of the service.

I got an extra 20/30 channels for the upgrade to digital and not over concerned at the 2 cost albeit we do not not use interactive very often.

Personally I think their telephone service is relatively expensive unless you do their all-in monthly deal but clearly it helps the bottom line at TWT


ains

Very negative expressed views in todays Torygraph on TWT, no mention of TAG either strangely enough, wonder where they went to?

LOL!!!!!!

The Telegraph article was posted above - early this morning ollie and doesn't seem especially negative. I wonder why you are wondering where TAG went to?



ains

Not especially negative?, must be reading a different edition
"losses grow---posting an expanded net 186m loss for the first quarter----
positive cash flow will not last------slipping back into the red in the second/ third quarter---- worrying increase in churn for 5 consecutive quarters----"
and finally playing down speculation on a merger, that helped the share price.

Sounds like a catalogue of negativety to me.
Why should I not enquire of TAG?, I am a holder of TWT and a subsciber to TAG.

ps Kay
TWT share price moribund,in the Doldrums even!!

pps er thats down -2%, negative enough?

LOL!!!!

Negative comment appears to have worked through to the shares, a little boxing for position by the mm`s shows a tiny rise on the mid- price.
Sells approx.6m buys 1m, very negative.

Ainsoph,

Went long Telewest TWT on Friday @ 2.38p on Wave 3 break of 2.35p res liked MACD Zero break



Cheers

Ash

Morning Ashley

good to see you aboard. The D4E situations always take longer than people anticipate but everything points to them going ahead with the minimum 3% previosly talked about.

The BB off is perceived as the best currently available in the UK and they continue to take market share in an expanding market. Telephones are expensive unless you take the monthly all-in tariff but the new deal with Sky on the film channels gives TWT the opportunity for more flexibility.

Not been looking at the longer term charts recently - but you have jogged my memory and note they are above all my indicators including the triangular MA I use. Volumes have been higher than usual since the results and statement.


ains

I can confirm how irritating this is getting :-( ...... fortunately I have other back up ISP's.


ains



Telewest email hit by spam attack - again
By Tim Richardson
Posted: 08/05/2003 at 11:00 GMT


Telewest has been hit by yet another spam attack leading to delays in its email service.

The attack happened at around 8.00am (BST) this morning and means punters could have to wait up to two hours to receive their email.

According to Telewest, the attack isn't as bad as one a week or so ago which led to the cableco's customers being without email for a couple of days.

It seems action taken then to install new kit helped take some of the sting out of the latest spam onslaught.

In a statement, Chad Raube, director of internet services at Telewest Broadband, said: "Our blueyonder customers may be experiencing a delay, of up to two hours, in receiving their emails at the moment. We experienced a spam attack this morning that generated a backlog of emails on our servers.

"It follows hot on the heels of a relatively major spam attack, last week, and hardware we implemented to help tackle that incident has helped us proactively manage the situation this morning."

The service is expected to be back on its feet again later today.

UPDATE: Since posting the story a number of readers have told us that some of their email is taking up to five hours to get through. A spokesman for Telewest confirmed this saying that delays up to five hours were only affecting a small proportion of punters. The average delay in getting email is between one and two hours, we been told.