MICROSOFT MEDIA EMBLAZED

Arty,

I'm afraid we're back to facing forward or back.

A stagnant business which fails to evolve with the times is doomed - and to do this, sometimes one must eat ones own words.

If we want to see another company which appears to reverse it's decisions, look to Siemens which stated quite clearly a year ago that it was getting out of handsets - a year later........

We must move away from BLZ 'do this' and 'that' - BLZ is a holding company with 'a shareholding' in other companies. There is no doubt Emblaze Mobile is being 'groomed' for floatation and my interest is whether it will be strong enough to swim with the other fish when it is set free.

In terms of investments, BLZ is doing quite well and Mobile should be seen as a potential cash windfall from a future floatation, after which breakeven is really sufficient (if you see where I'm going) - although I believe Mobile is a sustainable business with the apparent calibre of those hired to run it.

After the floatation of Mobile, BLZ should look to other companies to invest in (this is where the BLZ team seems to excel and do act as White Knight to struggling enterprises). Could BLZ generate £100M in profits each year from floatations - potentially. Would I be happy with that business - most certainly - especially with modest running costs, a large proportion could be repaid in dividends.

So really we're down to whether one is looking at BLZ trying to get into the handset market - or assisting another company get into the handset market, for a stake in the company.

As soon as the markets realise they are dealing with 'an incubator' (and a successful one at that) and move from looking at the business of the bit parts as being the direction BLZ is taking - then we will see a marked change in why/how and who invests in BLZ.

As an incubator - BLZ has been successful year on year.

M