I know the feeling - still sitting on my block of TTK shares as well. Otherwise - not too worried about the short term share price (unless they want to raise more capital, in that case it becomes obviously very material). More worried about their debts (which will become an issue unless they get the cash flow picking up and getting better in predicting what might next bite Davids's most precious.
Still believe that the current environment should be good for them - everyone requesting these days better communication and faster broadband ... and they do have some (hard to replace) specialist skills related to connecting remote rural communities. As well - communication companies doing well these days (if you look e.g. at CNU, MSI). Obviously you need to balance the quality of the current board and SMT against the support of the environment. As I see it - they made now at least 3 cardinal mistakes over the last couple of years:
1) Farmside. While I think the purchase was rather complementary for their product spectrum, they obviously paid ways too much.
2) Picking the right (i.e. wrong) team and leader to pull Farmside out of the ditch: I suppose this is highlighting that a communication technology and mobile radio buff (David Ware) must not necessarily be as well a great recruiter and leader. While I believe that David Ware's skill set is quite important for the company, it would be as well important to supplement the board / SMT in the areas where he is clearly lacking.
3) Hire and Fire on SMT level ... their SMT has a quite high staff turnover - and at least 2 GM's left after less than one year (Peter Roborgh) or less than 2 years with the company (Peter Baines). Again - this looks like lacking recruitment skills (Why would you hire a guy you want to get rid off after such a short time?) and it more likely reflects on the working atmosphere in this company.
4) (Did I say three?) keep on paying a dividend despite a ridiculously high leverage ...
They say all bad things come in threes (or did I get that wrong?). So, lets see whether they learned from their mistakes, and whether the lot of new managers and board members are just another set of names you don't want to get attached to (because they will leave soon enough), or whether they can make a difference. Some of them seem have on face value considerable industry experience - lets hope, they are worth their salt and are able to work with David!
Personally - there have been times I thought better about the company, but on the other hand life taught me that to panic is not normally the best response to a crisis. And hey - there are as well some highlights: I believe that their decision to go with Motorola was a good one; It sounds as well the new projects (Chathams, Haast) are starting to deliver some revenue (though we don't know, how much) - and lets assume that they had more luck (or skills?) this time around in picking the latest lot of senior managers and board members.
I intend to hang in (at least at current SP) a bit longer - and will review the situation if & when the SP bounces. In my view the share should be at least good for a dead cat bounce, but hopefully there is still a bit more life in this animal.
Discl: holding (and wondering why I didn't sold out earlier) and as always - DYOR!