The Reports of MBC Buyout Have Been Greatly Exaggerated

On November 28th, 2008, private investor Sportsbet Writer made an announcement on the Metaverse Broadcasting Company(MBC : ACE) public forum stating that the firm was being bought out by a Real Life company.

Immediately, questions sprung up, as the company cited was Microsaft (SAFT : NASDAQ), an industrial and workplace safety company, instead of the much more likely Microsoft (SOFT : NASDAQ), the media, internet, and computing technology giant.

Along with the "news" that MBC(ACE) was going to be bought out for USD$13.50 a share, Writer stated, "No suprise because of such big news announcements since July2008 and strong financial reports of MBC over the last months."

Writer did not respond to requests to substanciate the claim over the weekend. Friday was part of the long Thanksgiving holiday in the USA, and representatives at both Microsaft and Microsoft were not available for comment.

Friday morning MBC(ACE) was trading at L$0.90 a share, but jumped to L$2.60 over the weekend as some investors increased their MBC stake in hopes of being the benefactors of such a heavily weighted buyout. There were approximately 60,000 shares on the open market when the "news" broke for a top price of L$3.25 a share, meaning that if all information had been accurate, someone could have profitted more than USD$625,000 on an approximate USD$200 investment.

Prior to Microsaft and Microsoft offices opening in the USA on Monday morning SLReports.net was able to get into contact with MBC(ACE) CEO Robustus Hax, who stated unequivocably, "Buyout rumors are completely fabricated."

And in response to the request for updates regarding MBC(ACE), which has not posted dividends or information via the ACE forums and press release system in quite some time, Hax stated "The reason there haven't been any reports is because the CFO had lost interest in Second Life and I've been unable to find a suitable replacement. The books are all recorded and everything needed to do them is here. No dividends have been paid, nor were promised to be paid, merely because of the nature of what we're doing costs a lot more money than most other SL Operations and any profits at the current moment must go back into developing better technology and software and into growing Metaverse TV beyond its current size. News regarding the station is always provided off our web site www.metaverse-tv.com and content is updated daily. Our sim Metaverse City is open to the public and anyone is welcome to come in and see what is going on with us, there's always something going on and content being provided and projects in development."

MBC(ACE) has a 30 day rolling share price average of L$2.19 with a 30 day rolling volume average of 1018 shares traded per day.

Whether Sportsbet Writer's ruse was a deliberate attempt to manipulate the market, or simply to shed light on the lack of shareholder communication put forth by MBC(ACE) management is not known.