Growing up in a seaport town you learn early that when rats are leaving the ship it means it’s going to sink.

Following the stock market meltdown I’d hope corporate America would change how they view and treat the stockholders. That is a hope we will never realize. This next story made me wince at the thought of how naïve some boards and CEO’s see the shareholders. Let me set this one up with a short explanation. Normally when a company issues stock the board approves the offering for the purpose of growing the company and increasing the value to shareholders. So if you were to issue $10,000,000 of new stock and not use that money to grow the business you would essentially be taking $10,000,000 of value from the shareholders. It's referred to as dilution. With a company having a market capitalization of $691 million dollars that’s a significant dilution to the shareholders. Now read this article that was in the Iowa business newspaper.

Dice Holdings to use stock offering to buy back shares

Dice Holdings Inc. this morning announced a public offering of 10 million shares of common stock. The New York City-based provider of career websites, which has its primary operations in Urbandale, said it will use the proceeds to purchase an equal number of common shares from current and former senior management and board members. The majority of the shares sold are being offered by certain shareholders, including affiliates of General Atlantic LLC, Quadrangle Group LLC and a member of Dice Holdings' board of directors, while the remainder is being offered by the company. In the offering, certain of the selling stockholders have granted to the underwriters an option to purchase up to 1.5 million additional shares. 

What message does this send to shareholders of record?

Get out now! On the date of the announccement the stock was down 6% and trade was halted. Gee I wonder why? Were they hoping stockholders wouldn’t read the company’s SEC filings? Or were they assuming shareholders can’t read and are illiterate?

I sent this news story to a friend in Chicago and asked him what message the board sent to its shareholders and his answer was:

“Things aren’t looking good in Urbandale.  Rats are leaving the ship.”

And they wonder why we taxpayers are mad and investors think the stock market is rigged? Here is the information on this company. Hopefully the current CEO and Board members can use DHX to find new jobs.

Dice Holdings [DHX]

Dice Holdings (DHX) Resumes Trading, Shares Down 6%

10:49 am ET 12/03/2010- StreetInsider

Dice Holdings (NYSE: DHX) has resumed trading after announcing plans to offer 10 million shares. Share are down 6%

Here is how Charles Schwab describes the company.

Business Summary

http://www.diceholdingsinc.com/

Dice Holdings, Inc. (DHI) is a provider of career Websites for select professional communities. The Company focuses on employment categories, in which there is a scarcity of skilled and qualified professionals relative to market demand. Its career Websites serves as online marketplaces where employers and recruiters find and recruit prospective employees, and where professionals find relevant job opportunities and information to further their careers. Each of its career Websites offers job postings, content, career development and recruiting services tailored to the needs of the professional community that it serves. The Websites operated by DHI includes Dice.com, eFinancialCareers.com, ClearanceJobs.com and AllHealthcareJobs.com. On June 10, 2009, the Company completed the acquisition of all of the assets of AllHealthcareJobs.com, an online career site dedicated to matching healthcare professionals

Investor Contact	Office	Phone	Fax
Don Tomoff	1040 Avenue of the Americas New York, NY 1018	212-725-6550	212-725-6559