Sunday, December 20, 2009

Bacterin: I Will Survive?

I could hear the old Disco Diva Gloria Gaynor, singing in the deep recesses of my brain, "first I was afraid I was petrified," word on the Street is that potentially Bacterin could be showing some chinks in its armor. There have been many rumors swirling around the current solvency of this organization. TSB has received many e-mail from anonymous readers asking what have we heard?

Having reached out to various sources, and they are not disgruntled employees, TSB has heard that there is a definite cash flow problem at this company. Everything from farming out receivables, bounced checks, to delinquent expense checks, to a confused management team that is causing consternation between independent distributors and direct sales people. Having a plausible distribution strategy usually helps the business model.

When a company starts having these types of issues, "Sirens" have to start going off for the employees. Though the Bacterin Sponge has had a good reception in the market place (n0 this is not an endorsement) there's a difference between having a viable product and having a strong management team in place. TSB wants to know what its readers have heard?


14 comments:

  1. Heard they were selling receivables as well. Their business model seems to be collapsing as they are allowing their direct reps to go in and undercut their own distributors!

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  2. Exceptionqal business model

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  3. I had a direct rep undercut me and I dropped the line as soon as it happened. They never even told me there were direct reps in my area. What goes around comes around.

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  4. Another Bacterin trick is when they receive the patient registration cards from grafts that their distributors sell they to have their customer service call the account and offer the hospital a cheaper price if they order direct. Stay away from these guys they have been dirty players for years.

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  5. I had heard they are also being sued by Alphatec. Something regarding there CEO posting messages on a financial website chat/board. Not sure of it's validity, but usually smoke equates to fire.

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  6. I have also witnessed distributors being undercut by direct representatives. I have also heard of bacterin executives being terminated in the states and across the pond. The technology is not unique and is available through other allograft/tissue providers.

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  7. Their reps now consist of c.s. ladies doing what flhr stated.
    They lost their largest and best customer out of Alabama by copying their implants Bacterin was milling for them. Multiple law suits. We also got shortchanged on our commissions as one of their CS ladies, I mean reps, undercut our pricing. They said it was their duty to provide the best price to their customers. Funny. Wonder if they even have any acutal field managers left.

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  8. Seems to be a business model based on the parasite.

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  9. TSB - All of the above is accurate. I have seen and heard the discussions first hand. When your a company in trouble, you try to throw as much as you can at raising revenue and then rationalize backing out of honoring commitments like commisions, surgeon honorariums, expense checks, and territory security. The CEO, CFO and internal managemnet team are utterly clueless in building and respecting a real sales team which leads me to believe the idea of raising capital and going public inside a shell company could be a smoke screen to keep their employees in hope of a payday. I was told that they had multiple offers to acquire the business, but the CEO turned it down. Another lie in a series of mistruths at Bacterin.

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  10. I drove to Belgrade, MT in 2006 to talk with Guy about becoming their VP of Sales. After chatting with Cook, who informed me that he was going to hire 20 direct reps and manage them himself, to cut executive costs, I chuckled to myself, and left, knowing that this dude was clueless, and destined to fail. Looks as if I was correct.

    I liked Molly. She is one classy lady!

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  11. I think Bacterin is a great company specially in Biologic department.

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  12. maybe they shaped up their dealings with distributors, but the directs are struggling to make cash with this product.

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  13. very particular that 2 distributors would post positive comments the same day just minutes apart?! Bacterin is a bunch of clowns ... they just need the red nose and floppy shoes.

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  14. Correct about a bunch of clowns...Molly Classy.....Once you get to know her you'll understand the phrase "she could make a freight train take a dirt road"....

    Good luck Bacterin....You'll need it!

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