AremisSoft to Media: It's All in the Translation

AremisSoft(AREM - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr) Tuesday issued a press release regarding the dispute over the size of its contract with Bulgaria's National Health Insurance Fund. The company said its comments were an attempt "to instill more rationality and objectiveness into the analysis and quell emotional responses to misinformation" the company claims was in my columns. It then blames "irresponsible journalism aided and abetted by a concerted effort by short-sellers to unjustifiably depress the price of the company's common stock."

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AremisSoft to Media: It's All in the Translation

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But the more important part of the press release was this: "The Company believes that the journalists who are contacting these persons are asking the wrong questions." (Gee, thanks guys! I can only imagine the questions they would rather I had asked.) AremisSoft goes on to offer an explanation for the controversy: "It is extremely dangerous to attempt to apply American business concepts and the meaning of English words used in the interview process when the person being interviewed is from another country, where English is not the native language and where legal concepts and systems differ from the American system." (Well, gee, did it ever occur to anybody that some folks in Bulgaria went to English-speaking schools and speak English well?)

And forget about the interview process. What about the NHIF's own press release, which I reprinted here Monday and which is available to almost anybody who asks? It plainly says (plain to anybody in any language) that part of what AremisSoft was including in its interpretation of the contract no longer applies. (I know that AremisSoft received a copy because it was among the recipients on the email, containing the release, that I received. And AremisSoft President Roys Poyiadjis told me the company had received it and was reviewing it when I called Monday.)

And what about the NHIF's claim, in its press release, that it has paid out only $1.7 million, not the $7 million AremisSoft claims it has received? A small matter, perhaps, but, hey, not to worry: AremisSoft says its revenue recognition is in accordance with GAAP, generally accepted accounting principles. And this note: Don't expect the company to answer any more questions raised by this column's questions about the Bulgarian contract because AremisSoft says it won't. (That's a first, folks! The first public No-Greenberg policy. At least they're upfront about it.)