One year ago, the surfer dudes who founded SurfStitch - Justin Cameron and Lex Pedersen - sold a small stake in the surfwear retailer for $27 million.
For a few million more they could now buy back what remains of the business.
It has been a pretty special kind of surfing disaster with the company now unstitching some of the acquisitions which left it with no coherent strategy and a $155 million loss for the year just ended.
And the new boss, Mike Sonand, has forecast that the red ink will continue into this year. Not even its former parent, Billabong, managed such a speedy descent into wipeout territory.
SurfStitch shares halved on Tuesday to a low of 11.5 cents, so maybe it is time for Cameron to wade back in with that private equity bid he has been hatching since he quit as CEO back in March.
SurfStitch swears it has not heard from Cameron since he emailed his chairman at the time, Howard McDonald, with the news this whole public company thing wasn't working for him.
Shares were trading around the $1.40 mark. Talk was it would take a bid of around $500 million to buy back his company.
At 11.5c on Tuesday, the whole company is now worth less than $32 million.
Keep in mind that the sell down of a 5.4 per cent stake in the company by Cameron and Pedersen this time last year - to "meet increasing demand for liquidity" - netted the duo $27 million.
At least the liquidity problem has been fixed.
Shared pain
Of course, Justin Cameron has not cut all ties with SurfStitch.
According to SurfStitch's annual report it still uses the services of Streamline - a private company majority-owned by Cameron and Pedersen - "to manage all technical requirements of its VRP software and to provide dedicated support resources that manage the helpdesk as well as providing ongoing software development".
The value of SurfStitch's dealings with Streamline more than doubled last financial year to more than $1 million.
But don't for a second think that everything is hunky dory between Cameron and his old team.
Cameron was granted 800,000 shares pre-IPO as a one-off "sign-on bonus" subject to escrow arrangements which have now been lifted.
"Justin Cameron's 800,000 shares have since been forfeited at the discretion of the board," said the group.
The company has also taken a hit, though. It loaned Cameron $380,000 each for the acquisition of 400,000 shares in November 2014 with an "interest free, non-recourse loan from the group".
These "loan shares" were also forfeited by Cameron "in full satisfaction" of the loan balance on June 20 this year. The stock was worth $300,000 less than the shares by that date.
Bruce all media
Meanwhile, news has drifted in from the tax friendly Bahamas reporting that local billionaire Bruce Gordon has upped his stake in the Ten Network to 14.96 per cent last week using his weapon of choice - a "cash settled share swap".
This is the most shares he is allowed given he also owns Ten's regional affiliate WIN, and is the largest shareholder in rival, Nine Entertainment, with a 14.96 per cent stake.
You get the feeling someone is maximising their space at the table for when Malcolm Turnbull finally changes media ownership laws. Which assumes Turnbull's power within the party extends beyond changing the light bulbs in his office.
In other media news, Nine's embattled boss Hugh Marks has splashed out and tripled his stake in the company to just over 300,000 shares.
He picked up 200,000 shares for just over $200,000 - which is a bargain considering he picked up 75,000 shares this time last year at $1.64 each.
Things must be going well.
What Marks really needs of course is some uncontroversial ratings fodder to feed to the public.
Maybe he can call on his current chairman, Peter Costello, to step out from behind the boardroom table and do his bit to lift the network's ratings. Would you believe that Sunday marked the 20th anniversary of Costello's famous Macarena dance with Kerri-Anne Kennerley on Nine's Midday Show.
Got a tip? ckruger@fairfaxmedia.com.au
