Corrections Corporation of America Message Board

ahhhh, nostalgia!

just revisit message
#1501 from 'way back on 5/18/1999

(here's the
same link, but with a _v_e_r_y_ different slant
now...)

http://equities.barchart.com/cgi-bin/stocks/expert.exe?sym=pzn&code=0041

"that PZN would raise capital at the end of May
of 400 million by issuing high yield bonds. Have a
commitment letter for additional one billion. This will fund
current and new unnamed projects. Won't have to issue any
more stock except the DRIP's."

Where is the 400
million and who do they have a commitment letter for 1
billion with?

Semantics aside Crants has not
delivered! Call it a lie or deception, this guy is full of
shit.

> With 44000 beds and 114,000,000 shares o/s
2,591 shares buys a >bed. At $11 per
share*2,591=$28,500.
>So right now you can pay $28,500 to by a bed that
will produce
>revenue of
(39,000*.2)=$7,900.

Doc can have one of my $28,500 beds, esp. if it's
sitting empty just now...but he should make jr. sleep on
the floor...

this stock is a steal. With 44000 beds and
114,000,000 shares o/s 2,591 shares buys a bed. At $11 per
share*2,591=$28,500.
So right now you can pay $28,500 to by a bed that
will produce
revenue of (39,000*.2)=$7,900. The
adm cost was 1.5% in 1st qtr
of 99 which comes to
$120 so you net $7,720 on $28,500 thats 27.2%. This
company will survive and prosper no matter how
much
Wall Street dislikes Doc. An they are certainly making
it difficult at the moment. I don't believe they
could not have
gotten the $250 million if they had
wanted it. I think they decided to wait for better rates
but took the 100 million because
they were afraid
of the reaction if they did raise some money.
As
it was the reaction was very bad away. Even at 12%
if you pay
$39,000 for a bed the cost is $4,680
plus adm of 120 for cost of
$4,800. So $7,800
revenue less $4,800 expense and you net $3,000.
You
have to believe that the revenue is there ot it will
not work. But noone on this board has said anything
to convince me
that there is not demand for
these beds or that they do not have economic value.

To answer your question; I'd make no form of drug
illegal, although I would leave in place systems to
protect the underage.

But I'd let anyone stupid
enough to kill themselves do so.

Rather than
spend a billion dollars in a futile and
counterproductive effort at interdiction, I'd take the billion and
buy drugs and give them away. Then I'd film the dead
bodies and use them for education. Perhaps it'd save a
few at the margins.

Prohibition should have
taught us that you cannot legislate against supplying
commodities for which there is demand. It only raises the
price, and makes it worthwhile for criminals to invent
more effective ways to get around the laws.
Prohibition CREATED Al Capone, and today's war on drugs have
created cartels with more power than some governments.
The price of interdiction is too high, and it is paid
by all the innocents who want nothing to do with
drugs.

In a proper world, people pay the price for making
bad decisions in their lives. Others do not.

You don't have a problem until you try to rob Peter and Paul.

Bingo.

The debt issue is a short-term fix. I really
believe they could have gotten much better terms a week
ago, before the stock went totally into the toilet.
Maybe they will learn from this. They wound up
essentially negotiating from weakness, and that
procrastination is what undermined the stock price, together with
what Crants described as a vendetta by some parties
who wanted to see the deal fail (we all know who that
is, don't we folks?). If they could have done the
deal without so much fanfare, IMO, they could have
closed it earlier and on better terms and perhaps the
whole 300 mil. I don't know what their plan is, but I
believe they intend to finance the special dividend with
another trip to the credit trough -- so we can see more
borrowing, perhaps short-term. My key question (which I did
not ask) is to what extent the June dividend will be
from FFO. I agree that they have a major job of
rebuilding on their hands, and litigation may preoccupy them
for a while. Need major changes at the top, new
directors -- though they just got through stuffing the
board with big names (including a Tennessee banker), so
I don't know how you pull that off in the short
term. Transparency at OPCO would help, and I think
D.R.C. III should try his hand at something else, so Doc
could put someone at the helm with a big, no bullshit
reputation. With over 2 mil PZN shares, Doc could step down
and still be the elder statesman, though his ego may
get in the way. In short, we ain't out of the woods
yet, but we (PZN) have bought some time.

There is a real credibility issue with
management. But there is another very fundamental financial
problem. PACING! The company had a great business model
but it stressed its balance with overly rapid growth.
The idea was to finance all that construction with
equity at a significant premium to book. Surely the
miscalculation on the payments to OPCO hurt; but they never
would have arisen had the company grown at a more
digestible pace. Management should cut the building program
until it regains credibility. It's not about dividends;
its about the pace of growth.

Why do you waste your time debating with this
fool about legalizing drugs? He has had nothing
positive to say about PZN (although at the moment I can't
think of anything too positive myself). When this stock
recovers he will be nowhere to be found, and this board
will go back to being the same lazy old board it was
before. But I have to tell you, these idiots that come
out of the woodwork (that by the way, most likely
don't have the balls to invest either long or short)
are amazing and exhausting. As for me, I will stay
the course, believing that over the longer term this
company will not only survive but thrive. Yeah, maybe the
dips#@t bankers from tx & tn are right,we might see
single digits again, but NO WAY IN HELL IS THIS COMPANY
GOING BANKRUPT!!! If we have to give up the dividends
and be a growth company again so be it. Anyone here
remember Ascend Communications? I do, back when I bought
it at $23 a share.