There is a story about a man who, on starting a new job, goes to his office and finds nothing there except two envelopes, labeled "one" and "two," in a desk drawer. There is an attached instruction sheet that says, "Open letter one when you get into your first office crisis and letter two when you have your second." Sure enough time goes by and he gets into a big mess. He opens the first envelope and it says, "Blame everything on your predecessor." And so he does and all his problems magically disappear. Months go by and he gets into an even bigger mess than the first time. In a panic he remembers to open the second envelope. It says, "Make two envelopes..."

Mr. Hobbs, it’s time to make two envelopes.

You came into PTEC with arrogance and contempt for the employees of the company (many of whom are now ex-employees and are vocal detractors on this very chat board). You and Mr. Arnold were sure that you knew better and could do better than the previous administration. For a time fortune smiled on you, and the stock price benefited from momentum and hedge fund interest. You let it go to your head. You thought the good times would never end. You rashly used scarce company resources to make ill conceived acquisitions and to pay yourself and your cronies undeserved bonuses. You trusted all engineering decisions to an unproven neophyte whose breathtaking overconfidence in his own ability was even greater than yours.

Now look where you are and what you have done to your shareholders:
• A desperate and dilutive equity issuance (that is already underwater) for operating capital.
• Poor quarterly results, again -- do you really think you can blame macroeconomic conditions when other Tech companies are beating expectations?
• A core business in shambles – decreasing market share, commodity pricing, and cash flow negative operations.
• New products that are irrelevant to the market.
• Several failed acquisitions.
• And let’s not forget about a demoralized workforce – the whooshing sound you hear is the resumes flying out of PTEC.

It’s time.