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  "documentTitle": "Stroer SE & Co. KGaA (SAX)",
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  "authorName": "Carson C. Block",
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      "text": "In our opinion, Ströer not disclosing the failure of this pillar of its digital strategy, and not impairing Ballroom is egregiously misleading.",
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      "text": "Against the backdrop of our belief that (i) Ströer overstated its Digital organic growth, and then still did not get the calculation right; (ii) Ströer disguised the true costs of its acquisitions in its cash flow statement; (iii) Ströer appears to have capitalized costs that should be expensed in order to inflate EBITDA; (iv) Ströer failed to impair at least one acquisition that went poorly; (v) Ströer insiders have engaged in significant amounts of self dealing; and (vi) Ströer’s corporate governance is lacking...Schmalzl’s speech seems stunning. Here are some pertinent excerpts:",
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      "text": "In late February Ströer COO Christian Schmalzl gave a keynote at an event called Online Marketing Rock Stars. A trade publication article summarized his talk in an article titled “The Entire Online Marketing Industry is Talking about this Keynote”. We believe that the investment industry needs to have a conversation about this speech as well, focusing on the following issues:",
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      "text": "In our opinion, Ströer not disclosing the failure of this pillar of its digital strategy, and not impairing Ballroom is egregiously misleading. In fact, COO Christian Schmalzl evidently forgot about Ballroom when recently asked which acquisition was the best one Ströer has made in digital. He replied “Well, in a way they were all really great...” Indeed.",
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      "text": "“And I think in the context of traditional media companies there is very, very often also talk about digital transformations. If I were to try and describe our approach - I think it is not so much transformation, but transaction. You just have to do something, get",
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      "text": "“And our CEO and company founder Udo Müller is someone who started to consolidate the outdoor advertising market - I think it was 25 years ago. He is an exceptionally gifted deal-maker and for him, every week that goes by without him buying a company or closing a deal, is a week wasted.”",
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      "text": "“We are often asked the question, ‘If you take over so many companies, how do you deal with issues of integration?’...It is actually not that complex, unless you try to arrange post-merger integrations with consultants, complex structures and processes; but if you simply focus on the best way to help out new companies, and come up with good solutions to get them developed accordingly, it can work.”",
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      "text": "“As Phillip has pointed out - you have the balls, you can make an impact on the online field, even as an outdoor advertiser. And we believe there may also be other areas in the market, where historical expertise is not primarily important, but rather the ability to detect change, to be set up dynamically as a company, and to be in a position where you can allow yourself to take risks.”",
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      "text": "\"And our CEO and company founder Udo Müller is someone who started to consolidate the outdoor advertising market – I think it was 25 years ago. He is an exceptionally gifted deal-maker and for him, every week that goes by without him buying a company or closing a deal, is a week wasted.\" — Christian Schmalzl",
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      "text": "132 See Appendix 1: Christian Schmalzl Keynote Address at Online Marketing Rockstars event in Hamburg. 133 The speech (in German) is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYkr8n0-O1I 134 http://www.onlinemarketingrockstars.de/christian-schmalzl-keynote-stroeer-omr16/",
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      "text": "XII. Cavalier About Capital Allocation",
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