Oblio Wins 2.5 Million Dollar Suit Against Clifton Prepaid

Well it seems as if the Oblio mess continues even long after this companies notorious collapse. Back in August 2007, Titan Global Holdings (Oblio's parent company) filed suit against Clifton Prepaid Communications Corp in Texas court for non-payment of invoices based on services rendered. They had successfully won a Motion for Writ of Garnishment which in essence froze Clifton Prepaid's bank accounts until the trial had concluded. Clifton Prepaid had offices both in Texas and NJ and Mr. Aref had been the former owner of another phone card distribution company called Clifton Digital pior to opening this business. It's interesting how this is the second phone card company located in Clifton NJ to make the headlines recently... Clifton Telecard was in the headlines earlier this year for it's alleged deceptive marketing practices by the FTC.

Well the trial is now over and Titan won a 2.5 million dollar judgement in their favor but Clifton Prepaid's owner, Aref Aref, had already filed for personal bankruptcy making any chance of Oblio recouping the full judgement near impossible. However, Titan will be able to unfreeze the bank account and seize any contents towards the judgement and they have vowed to pursue Mr Aref further which will include monitoring all recent transactions between the defendant and any known associates or businesses for any "concealed" monies.

While I'm sure not many distributors or service providers have anything for disdain towards Oblio for having left them holding the bag with worthless cards, this judgement will possibly open up some chances for Oblio to actually make things right with their distributors that did not "screw them." Unfortunately this is just a common example of what goes on in the prepaid business... it's the mind set of some distributors and service providers who say I need to screw them up before they screw me up!

I hope Oblio gets everything from Clifton Prepaid and then all of the other honest business men and women who we hurt by Oblio get their restitution.

A full link to the story: http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS182111+29-Sep-2008+BW20080929

Oblio Goes Back to SmartTalk for Calling Card Service

Oblio has come full circle, announcing that they will now be using Smartalk again for all of it's prepaid phone cards. Oblio had been with Smartalk for most of the first half of this decade but then left for Sprint, with whom they partnered to be able to expand their prepaid mobile business. While it is not clear if Sprint shut them down or that Oblio was just unhappy with the service, Smartalk will now be the provider of choice going forward.

If hindsight is 20/20 then they are probably thinking they should not have left for Sprint in the first place.

It looks as if Oblio and it's parent company Titan Global Holdings are at least trying to turn around the business and bring it back on course but unfortunately there has been too much damage to consumer confidence and distributor relationships to be able to solve the problems just by switching carriers... might be too little too late!

Titan Global Announces that Counterfeit Cards are in the Market

In what has seemingly been a long couple of months for Oblio distributors, Titan Global Holdings, in what appears to be a bold PR move, announced yesterday that there are a slew of counterfeit Oblio branded cards in the market and will be replacing any unused cards for all distributors or retailers with such cards. They also claim that they are pursuing legal action against the alleged counterfeiters in Texas courts. In a press release on the Center Dialy Times, they claim that a former employee of Oblio and several outside distributors worked on their own against the companies knowledge and as a result created these counterfit products. They are pursuing a Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (R.I.C.O.) Act case against these individuals.

While I have no way of verifying if Titan's claim is true or not, it just seems to me as if they are using this claim of counterfeiting to cover up some bad business practices on their end. Their cards have not been working properly for months now and only this week they announce it is because of counterfeit cards on the market????

Who knows it could very well be true and the courts will be deciding this some day soon but I just have my doubts!

To tell if your cards are possible counterfit they say... "Unless the customer service number is 800-394-4868, it is counterfeit, suspended, or expired."

**The views above are my own personal opinions...

Interesting Oblio Telecom Press Release

Titan Global Holdings issued a press release on Tuesday describing the problems they were having with their telecom division Oblio. It's interestting to see their take on why they think things are bad! Here is a quote from the press release that basically makes it look like their distributors are the ones who are screwing them not the other way around:

"Subsequent to the three months ended November 30, 2007, the Company's communications division experienced a significant decrease in sales and collections of outstanding accounts receivable. Many of the long-standing distributors of the Company's wholly owned subsidiary Oblio Telecom's products stopped placing orders for new product and stopped sending payments for previously placed orders. While we are vigorously pursuing legal action against many of these customers, the extended collection process has significantly disrupted the operating cash flow cycle of the prepaid international long distance portion of the Company's communication's division. These issues along with losses experienced in its network operations have resulted in the Company ceasing to do business as Oblio in the prepaid international long distance market. As such the Company evaluated the division's goodwill and other intangible assets for impairment based on changes in the business model. Based on the determination of management, the Company impaired the goodwill and certain intangible assets of Oblio."

So I guess they are trying to say that all of the distributors got together and just make a pact to not pay Oblio for their cards... yeah right! They also announced that they have given up the prepaid wireless business.

Read the full Titan Global Press Release

Company Profile: Oblio Telecom

Oblio Telecom

Founded: 1995
Ticker Symbol: N/A (now owned by Titan Global Holdings trading under symbol TTGLE.OB)
Employees: 40
Locations: Richardson, Texas

Timeline

1996: Sammy Jibrin and Radu Achiriloaie open the business
2000: Land deal with AT&T to provide their back end service for all of their phone cards via the Smartalk brand.
2005: Taken over by Titan Global Holdings, Inc in exchange for stock which was later returned to Titan since the taxes would have been more than the profits. A loan was later issued that was not required to be paid back... full story - Oblio also launches it's prepaid mobile product Bravo
2006: Oblio switches it's back end provider for their phone cards to Sprint and leaves long time provider Smartalk.
2007: Oblio Telecom is name to Intelecard's 10 to Watch list (everyone knows this is the kiss of death). Oblio receives 4 million dollars back from IRS for past Federal Excise Tax payments.
2008: Oblio Phone Cards start giving much lower than advertised minutes

Other Sources:
http://www.wirelessdealermagazine.com/spring07/Downloads/pdf64-65.pdf
http://www.obliotel.com/
http://www.herdonthestreet.com/protected/Research%20Reports/TTGL%20Initiation%20Report.pdf

Titan Global Holdings Restructures Phone Card and Wirless Groups

Titan Global Holdings, Inc., the parent company for Oblio Telecom Inc., announced yesterday that it was restructuring their Telecom units and getting out of the leased and owned network business and choosing instead to just focus on their core Distribution and Marketing strengths.

It has not been announced who will take over their switching operations (if anyone) or who Oblio will buy it's network services from instead, but it is certain that Oblio and Titan Wireless will now just go back to their original reseller business.

View full report

Titan Global Holdings to Try and get Listed on the NASDAQ

Titan Global Holdings, the parent company of Oblio Telecom, announced today their plans to get listed on the NASDAQ. While not a sure thing to be accepted it would be a good thing for those of us in the prepaid world as we would be able to see all of Oblio's actual financials and internal goings on and hence would be able to scrutinize as closely as we do IDT. Currently Titan is listed in the OTC Bulletin Board Market but they are not subject to the intense scrutiny like a NASDAQ member has to adhere to!

Titan is a very diverse company with prepaid Oblio only being one of many different lines of business (oil, detergents and more).

One thing of interest in the press release is that they reveal that their phone card services are provided by Sprint and Level 3. I know some of you probably knew this already but it was news to me! Last I remember they were using at&t.

Titan Wireless Lands Distribution Deal with Pilot Gas Station Chain

Looks like Ttitan Wireless (Our friends from Oblio) should get a big distribution boost with it's most recent deal that will put Titan brands like Bravo Mobile, Picante Movil, and Ready Mobile into the 281 Pilot travel centers nationwide.

Pilot operates travel centers accross the US on various interstate highways. Offering gas, food and convinience stores at each rest stop location.

Titan Global Holdings, Inc. Acquires Ready Mobile

Titan Global Holdings, Inc., the parent company of Oblio, announced that they have completed the acquisition of Ready Mobile, a prepaid wireless company with over 9 million dollars in revenue per year and 30,000 subscribers. Ready Mobile also operates under the brand name Mojo in some markets.

This acquisition is expected to help Boost the Oblio wireless brand and give them a greater share of the prepaid MVNO business.

To read more about Titan go to their web site: http://www.titanglobalholdings.com/

Oblio Telecom

I always new about Oblio Telecom but I never new they were a sub company within a larger corporation called Titan Global Holdings, Inc.

From what I can see Titan owns Oblio as well as StarTalk, Titan Wireless Communications, Pinless, and a circuit board manufacturing company, Titan TCB, that does work for the Military. They claim to be the second largest publicly traded prepaid company behind IDT and from my estimation they are probably the second or third major player in the phone card market behind IDT and maybe STI.

Also of note, their mobile offering has service provided by Sprint.

I know this is not really news but I thought I would share this information as it does not seem to be common knowledge.

Oblio Lands a Deal with Sprint

First it was At&T and now Oblio Telecom has landed Sprint as a carrier for just about their whole product line. They will launch 25 calling cards within the coming weeks and will no doubt cause quite a stir in the prepaid industry. I am not sure if they are going to port over their popular cards like Picante and others to Sprint or create all new ones, but I would imagine they are going to do both. I wonder which one of the two companies got the better deal? Hopeful Sprint learned from MCIs big mistake a few years back with 9278 and isn't giving away the kitchen sink!