Datapulse's shareholders should press for answers

BETWEEN Dec 12 and 17, Datapulse Technology issued several announcements on the acquisition of a subsidiary in a new business, provided updates of the company's business plans and its proposed purchase of a Toa Payoh property, and responded to my letters in The Business Times ("Datapulse Technology's disclosures about its operations throw up more questions than answers", Dec 8; "Datapulse Tech: More questions about disclosures, corporate governance", Dec 13).

Datapulse said that "it is not the case" that the new independent directors "were effectively appointed by the new controlling shareholder " and/or that "the new independent directors have been deemed independent without any proper assessment". Rather, the appointment and assessment were done by "the then board".

Let's look at the timeline surrounding the appointment of the new directors. On Friday, Dec 8, "the then board" announced that the new controlling shareholder, Ng Siew Hong, had conveyed by e-mail her view that the company should diversify the business to include multi-industry investments. Ms Ng was not present at the board meeting that ended at 7pm that day and the board was not able to obtain further information. Nothing was said about any proposals for new directors.