Sid_Vicious
01-29-2005, 09:41 AM
Read this, and maybe it will benefit you if you happened to be one who took the free shares. I did elect to get free shares from someone way back when, but I'll be danged if I can remember if it was these guys or what. If anyone does gain with this news, please let me know how you were able to piece together their proof of ownership. Btw, there is a real Yahoo news glib about this, so it is for real...sid
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Remember "free shares" in Travelzoo? Worth $$$ now!
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OK - I understand this deal won't work without some pretty strict prerequisites - but I suspect this is just the kind of place to find folks who would have, in 1998, signed up for the free shares giveaway of dot com wannabe travelzoo.com.
Apologies if it's already been posted somewhere, but a search on "travelzoo" doesn't find it - so here goes.
Back in '98, giving everyone 3 free shares was their gimmic - no questions asked, and all you really needed was an email addy. I signed up for them, got the email confirmations, and promptly forgot all about it.
Last month, a coworker said he'd seen TZOO as a stock on a tear - and I thought - naw, couldn't be. As it turns out, when travelzoo became a real company in the US with tradable shares - they had offered all their "former Bahamian shareholders" (us freebie folks) the opportunity to exchange the free ones 2 for 1 for real registered, tradeable shares. So the 3 free shares would have become 6. Since nobody (well very few) responded to this offer (hey, if you were like me, you don't still have an email addy from 1998) - it expired.
What happened next is priceless (well, actualy $544 for me). Travelzoo management got wind that there were folks finding out the "you're too late" story, so they put together a program to buy folks out - at the same price you would have gotten. They budgeted $220K for this in the 4th quarter last year - but apparently they paid out nearly a million - and this is one reason the stock is down in the 60s now rather than near $100 where it was when I submitted my claim.
So - if you're one of the folks who signed up - get the claim form at
http://www.corporate.travelzoo.com/2002/
I sent mine in in late december registered mail - reciept says they got it on the 22nd. My 6 shares would have been worth $544 by their formula, and damned if today I didn't get the check. I wanted to wait to make sure I got paid - since you have to send them in quite a bit of personal info if you're eligible.
Pass it on to the freebie addicts you know - we're bound to find some more takers. Post back to this thread if you're a winner!
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http://www.corporate.travelzoo.com/ir/services/recovery/
This is an account recovery for anyone who might have gotten this, and like me, lost all mail confirmation from back in that 1998 timeframe. I hope someone here gets lucky, some people have posted that they actually made between 500 and a thousand simply by surfacing proof of ownership. sv
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Remember "free shares" in Travelzoo? Worth $$$ now!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thread Rating:
OK - I understand this deal won't work without some pretty strict prerequisites - but I suspect this is just the kind of place to find folks who would have, in 1998, signed up for the free shares giveaway of dot com wannabe travelzoo.com.
Apologies if it's already been posted somewhere, but a search on "travelzoo" doesn't find it - so here goes.
Back in '98, giving everyone 3 free shares was their gimmic - no questions asked, and all you really needed was an email addy. I signed up for them, got the email confirmations, and promptly forgot all about it.
Last month, a coworker said he'd seen TZOO as a stock on a tear - and I thought - naw, couldn't be. As it turns out, when travelzoo became a real company in the US with tradable shares - they had offered all their "former Bahamian shareholders" (us freebie folks) the opportunity to exchange the free ones 2 for 1 for real registered, tradeable shares. So the 3 free shares would have become 6. Since nobody (well very few) responded to this offer (hey, if you were like me, you don't still have an email addy from 1998) - it expired.
What happened next is priceless (well, actualy $544 for me). Travelzoo management got wind that there were folks finding out the "you're too late" story, so they put together a program to buy folks out - at the same price you would have gotten. They budgeted $220K for this in the 4th quarter last year - but apparently they paid out nearly a million - and this is one reason the stock is down in the 60s now rather than near $100 where it was when I submitted my claim.
So - if you're one of the folks who signed up - get the claim form at
http://www.corporate.travelzoo.com/2002/
I sent mine in in late december registered mail - reciept says they got it on the 22nd. My 6 shares would have been worth $544 by their formula, and damned if today I didn't get the check. I wanted to wait to make sure I got paid - since you have to send them in quite a bit of personal info if you're eligible.
Pass it on to the freebie addicts you know - we're bound to find some more takers. Post back to this thread if you're a winner!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
http://www.corporate.travelzoo.com/ir/services/recovery/
This is an account recovery for anyone who might have gotten this, and like me, lost all mail confirmation from back in that 1998 timeframe. I hope someone here gets lucky, some people have posted that they actually made between 500 and a thousand simply by surfacing proof of ownership. sv