Burning Man LLC Sold To Scientology?!

MoisturePup · Post by **MoisturePup** » Sat Apr 01, 2006 5:04 pm

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Burning Man LLC Sold To Scientology For Unstated Price
Chiot Moite Chronicle Staff Writer

04/01/2006
SF Chronicle: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi
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Two firms that evaluate merger and acquisition offers are giving Burning Man LLC Corp. ( http://www.burningman.com ) shareholders conflicting advice on the veteran event company's proposed purchase by Church of Scientology International INC. ( http://www.scientology.com/ ).

A leading and long-established firm in the field, Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) of Rockville, Md., is recommending that shareholders reject the religious institution's $5.1 billion offer in a voting process that concludes April 12 at Burning Man LLC's San Francisco headquarters. But a smaller advisory firm, Proxy Governance Inc. of Vienna, Va., is telling them to vote yes.

Church of Scientology International INC., which already owns nearly 44 percent of Burning Man LLC's common shares, has offered to pay $45 per share for the stock it doesn't already own in the adult themed event creation company, which puts on an annual event in Nevada. Burning Man LLC was recovering from a major setback -- the loss of its entire inventory of coffee ground supplies for their annual event due to contamination in 2004 -- when Church of Scientology International initiated takeover talks.

Proxy Governance did not respond to inquiries about its report recommending the Church of Scientology International INC. bid.

The negative report on the proposed deal sent by ISS to its 1,600 institutional and corporate clients echoes many of the objections made by major Burning Man LLC investors who have already announced they will vote no.

Chris Young, head of mergers and acquisitions research for ISS, said the offer price may not capture the increased value of Burning Man LLC since it overhauled its event infastructure in Gerlach, Nevada, and resumed sales of event tickets.

Young said Burning Man LLC executives gave an upbeat picture of the company's prospects when they released a positive earnings report in January, but they downplayed Burning Man LLC's strengths in a meeting with ISS in seeking support for the Church of Scientology International bid. Burning Man LLC management has been conducting a series of such meetings with investors.

"We were struck with how much the road show resembled a 'Bizarro World' version of the typical shareholder meeting,'' Young wrote. "Instead of promoting the value of the company (as is the usual case), ... directors and management have been placed in the uncomfortable position of talking down the firm's future prospects.''

On similar grounds, a major shareholder that opposes the deal, ValueAct Capital, said earlier this month it might call for the ouster of Burning Man LLC chief executive Larry Harvey if he campaigned for the Church of Scientology International offer.

Burning Man LLC spokesman Andie Grace said the company stands by its position that the Church of Scientology International offer is in the best interests of shareholders.

Burning Man LLC's independent directors rejected Church of Scientology International's first bid of $40 per share in August as too low. Church of Scientology International then raised its bid. But Young said investors are signaling that Church of Scientology International should up the offer again. Burning Man LLC shares have been trading between $45 and $46 since February. The shares gained 7 cents or 0.15 percent to close at $45.81 Friday.

Young said he subjected the Church of Scientology International offer to heavier scrutiny because the religious institution was in a strong position to influence events. As the largest shareholder, Church of Scientology International held seats on the Burning Man LLC board and had access to confidential information on the progress of Burning Man LLC's recovery, he said.

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Rockdad · Post by **Rockdad** » Sat Apr 01, 2006 5:17 pm

$45 per share? Mr. Larry sold me ten shares at $1000 a share? And told me he would eat his hat if they ever went down....And the only reason the coffee thing got screwed up was the coffee grounds from the previous year got moldy and they had to buy actual coffee...

geekster · Post by **geekster** » Sat Apr 01, 2006 6:28 pm

So I heard that CBS was going to be offering "Ember to ember" video streamcasting of Burning Man using the technology that was so successful for March Madness. Larry has said this would actually INCREASE the number of participants in the actual event. His plan is to "limit" the event at 70,000 tickets. The hope is that through advertizing deals during the event with a revenue share of 85% to CBS, 10% to Burning Man and 5% to Stetson, it will be both popular and profitable. The streamcast should allow Burning Man to raise the "cap" for next year's event to 100,000 according to quotes attributed to Larry, as more and more people want to be seen by the folks back home on the streamcast. I seem to have misplaced the link but you should all be reading about it over the next several months.

DVD Burner · Post by **DVD Burner** » Thu Jan 17, 2008 3:37 pm

another bump!

mereth · Post by **mereth** » Thu Jan 17, 2008 4:05 pm

A tale worthy of the Onion!

Toolmaker · Post by **Toolmaker** » Thu Jan 17, 2008 5:52 pm

Wahahaha.. I forgot all about this one. I knew there was a reason I liked MoistPuppy.

Glittering Clitoris · Post by **Glittering Clitoris** » Thu Jan 17, 2008 7:29 pm

Oh the rumors abound.

I heard in the grapevine that you will have to buy an extra ticket to go inside the man's pavillon. Cost $10,000!

AZ

Ugly Dougly · Post by **Ugly Dougly** » Fri Jan 18, 2008 10:27 am

It's true! I heard about this on the radio on the way to work.
I guess we'll all have to go have our memories deleted or whatever they do.

Simon of the Playa · Post by **Simon of the Playa** » Sat Jan 19, 2008 10:35 am

i myself bought 1000 tickets as a hedge against inflation...

also......not a rumor.......Tom Cruise, Jiffy Lube.....

BAS · Post by **BAS** » Sat Jan 19, 2008 11:20 am

Darn. My sources had told me it was Halliburton that bought Burning Man! I guess I will have to sneak off to the Nitty Gritty Bar and Grill and have a few words with my source tonight...!

Toolmaker · Post by **Toolmaker** » Sat Jan 19, 2008 12:55 pm

Halliburton bought Scientology who bought BM LLC. Kinda like GE.. they wanna own everything but keep it on the down low. Tom cruise wanted to buy it but ran out of money, guess he should have skipped that last audit.

Simon of the Playa · Post by **Simon of the Playa** » Sun Jan 20, 2008 11:06 am

after seeing the video of Tom at the recent "shareholders" meeting i immediately went out and bought myself a shitload of black turtlenecks.

i guess i'm a scientologist now...

Mr.MaskedDude · Post by **Mr.MaskedDude** » Mon Jan 28, 2008 11:06 pm

i didnt want to respond to this, i wanted to go to sleep, but as a Scientologist i had to. I felt compelled. I cant just sit here when messageboard posts cry out for a response. And i wont hesitate to execute ethics on Mr. Young if he doesnt clean up his act. I wonder....what are HIS crimes?

Ugly Dougly · Post by **Ugly Dougly** » Tue Jan 29, 2008 10:12 am

Mr.MaskedDude wrote:i didnt want to respond to this, i wanted to go to sleep, but as a Scientologist i had to. I felt compelled. I cant just sit here when messageboard posts cry out for a response. And i wont hesitate to execute ethics on Mr. Young if he doesnt clean up his act. I wonder....what are HIS crimes?

Whattaya got?

Simon of the Playa · Post by **Simon of the Playa** » Tue Jan 29, 2008 1:39 pm

now i'm curious too.....maybe it's the mask....

Mr.MaskedDude · Post by **Mr.MaskedDude** » Tue Jan 29, 2008 9:25 pm

Whatta i got? Whatta you got? What are you afraid of?

Simon of the Playa · Post by **Simon of the Playa** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 6:53 am

certainly not some dead crusty faggot like L.Ron Hubbard and his miscreant followers of bad sci-fi.

bring it on asswipe.

Mr.MaskedDude · Post by **Mr.MaskedDude** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 6:11 pm

Mayhap you've missed what im doing. Mayhap you are in fact the asswipe. Mayhap a lot of things.

See my first post was making fun of Tom Cruise's nigh-psychotic ramblings about Scientology. Since evidently you dont know what im talking about (or are just incredibly dense) he went on this long rant about how being in Scientology basically makes him superior to others and talked about a lot of acronyms specific to Scientology. He generally made an ass of himself.

My second was making fun of the Always on the Offensive tendencies of Scientologists...perhaps if you look at the link i posted rather than go off on some homophobic asshole rant you'd see what i was getting at.

You sure went nuts on me pretty quick huh? I dont like Scientology much either, but you dont have to be a dick.

Much love, and fuck you very much :-)

Sincerely,

MaskedDude

PS If you know anything about Scientology feel free to post some interesting thoughts or something, ive actually read a good deal about it. If your against it because a friend told you it was a cult, perhaps you should form your own opinions. Have a nice day.

Simon of the Playa · Post by **Simon of the Playa** » Thu Jan 31, 2008 5:13 am

so sorry to hit you with friendly fire....my bad...

but if you had read my other 500 posts, you would know that my monkeys do most of the typing, and they are HORRIBLE assholes, sometimes...

and no, i'm not homophobic, but one of my simians, Fritz, has an issue with gypsies, jews, catholics, intellectuals and Queers...

he must have been on the boards that day...

oh, i almost forgot, if you are a virgin, you must learn to sprinkle a little playa on it before eating or reading something...a splash of salty alkali irony.

in my case, vicious bitter irony, as i am from the east coast and we're generally fucking jerks...

see ya on the playa, Kimosabe.

Mr.MaskedDude · Post by **Mr.MaskedDude** » Thu Jan 31, 2008 5:48 pm

perhaps i have a bit of east coast (asshole) in me as well.

pretty sure there was no real irony involved at any point in this thread, perhaps thats more along the lines of salty alkaline sarcasm or something.

anyway, booga booga...haha i scared you. damn im coo

Simon of the Playa · Post by **Simon of the Playa** » Thu Jan 31, 2008 6:41 pm

i aint afraid of NO ONE!

except maybe lady bee...

theCryptofishist · Post by **theCryptofishist** » Thu Jan 31, 2008 8:45 pm

No irony. Plenty of ironing if you look in the folds.

Ugly Dougly · Post by **Ugly Dougly** » Fri Feb 01, 2008 10:40 am

Looks like the story is confirmed:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,327387,00.html

mereth · Post by **mereth** » Fri Feb 01, 2008 10:54 am

The link you posted confirms that Anonymous is attacking the church.
How does that confirm that the church supposedly bought BM? (I would think that such a purchase is something the church would be proud of and would publicize, yet no one from either camp says anything).
Again, a tale worthy of The Onion, I say.

Mr.MaskedDude · Post by **Mr.MaskedDude** » Mon Feb 04, 2008 1:24 pm

two things.

i dont think he was trying to say that the topic of this thread was proved, rather just that the whole Anonymous thing was playing out.

Honestly though i dont think Scientology would brag about buying out BM if they did. They have a lot of websites that arent outwardly Scientology...ie...as i discovered when writing about them. They have a lot of Front Groups if you will.

Ugly Dougly · Post by **Ugly Dougly** » Mon Feb 04, 2008 2:50 pm

mereth wrote:The link you posted confirms that Anonymous is attacking the church.
How does that confirm that the church supposedly bought BM? (I would think that such a purchase is something the church would be proud of and would publicize, yet no one from either camp says anything).
Again, a tale worthy of The Onion, I say.

You're so suspicious! You must have faith, my brother. Here, step into this room...