Seeing that a mere retention of some profits, which is expected to happen regularly, is causing so many worries, I would suggest friedcat to retain all profits from now on and release quarterly dividends, announcing the exact amount one week in advance.
What sense would this make? If asicminer would have to overtake other companies or would have other investing opportunities then i would say that makes sense. But till now the needed money for investment is only a small part of the created money. So it would be useless to stockpile huge amounts of bitcoins laying around. Thats fully different to other companies that could use this money for something.
Yes, preserving the money is added risk. However, if what the shareholders want is predictability and accurate accounting, then I don't think that can work in weekly intervals. You need to pick one or the other. People are talking about Apple, as if what Apple is doing is transparently available to the shareholders in real-time.
Having said that, I'm sure we will receive a satisfactory post from friedcat when this phase of deployment is over. They have an insane amount of workload now.
A funding need of ฿20K over the next 12 months, for example, would mean something like 30% off the current share prices at the level of dividends we receive now. That's why it's vital to understand whether that level is sustainable without further investment or if we've already acquired the necessary hardware or contracts to keep us hashing for the next few months.
Good point. Not sure if even they know it yet though. Since the pass-through share price has increased so much, people are wondering whether they should sell or not. I understand the worry, but friedcat might not have the remedy yet. It's better to wait a few weeks more to start pestering.