Saturday, October 15, 2011 – Chicago, IL
Wednesday, October 26, 2011 – Hartford, CT
Saturday, November 5, 2011 – Milwaukee, WI
Wednesday, November 9, 2011 – Columbus, OH
Thursday, November 10, 2011 – Rochester, NY
Thursday, December 1, 2011 – Chattanooga, TN
Saturday, November 12, 2011 – Wichita, KS
Wednesday, November 16, 2011 – Denver, CO
Sunday, November 20, 2011 – Santa Clara, CA
Sunday, December 4, 2011 – Santa Rosa, CA
Sunday, December 4, 2011 – New York City/Long Island, NY
Thursday, December 8, 2011 – Las Vegas, NV

The company, which presently serves more than 23,000 cardholders in fifty-one existing markets, hopes the new franchising division will enable it to introduce the IMS barter network to thousands of additional businesses across North America in cities where there currently is no IMS presence.

IMS’ CEO, John Strabley, stated, “Until now, all of our offices have been corporate-owned. Yet, in the current economic climate, all progressive companies that have a strong foundation are looking for additional ways to grow. We believe that offering IMS barter franchise opportunities to creative-minded entrepreneurs will add another dimension to our expansion efforts. Furthermore, we have been receiving frequent unsolicited requests to purchase a franchise from business people interested in bringing the IMS business model to their markets.”

Mr. Strabley also announced that Richard Harris, the former owner of National Commercial Exchange in St. Louis, MO, will oversee the IMS franchise division.

As one of the oldest trade exchanges in North America, NCE is the leading barter network in the St. Louis marketplace.

IMS Chairman, Don Mardak, stated, “We are extremely pleased to announce this acquisition of National Commercial Exchange. As founders of NCE, Richard Harris and his late brother Bruce created one of America’s finest trading systems with a strong barter currency. Richard is a past president of NATE, the National Association of Trade Exchanges and served several years on the association’s board of directors. He will be joining IMS to oversee the St. Louis operation and to help us develop a program for entering new markets.”

Richard Harris commented, “Don Mardak and the members of the IMS management team have been my friends for many years. We have been active reciprocal trading partners and have shared numerous enlightening and profitable experiences throughout our long relationship. This merger of our two fine companies should enable us to take barter to a new, higher level of excellence.”

Since January 1st of this year, the company has repurchased 769,016 shares of its outstanding stock. The buyback plan was expanded because the board and management believe the stock continues to present an attractive investment and is extremely undervalued.

After cancelling and retiring its outstanding treasury shares, and doing the recent buybacks, IMS has reduced its issued and outstanding share count from 10,559,800 shares on May 2, 2011 to 8,911,736 today.

The share buybacks have been done in block transactions with a major shareholder, in repurchases under contractual obligations with former trade exchange owners, and in open market transactions.

Founder Donald F. Mardak, 74, who had held both titles, will continue as chairman of the board. Strabley, 47, had been executive vice president at the firm. Mardak, 51, was senior vice president.

Shareholders of record on May 2, 2011 will be eligible to re-elect three directors, to ratify LBB & Associates Ltd., LLP as the Company’s auditors of its 2011 financial statements, and to vote on any other business that may be presented.

Attending shareholders will learn about various strategic operational initiatives that are planned for the coming year and will be given an update on the company’s recently announced stock buyback program.

• The Company completed the purchase of a trade exchange in Peterborough Ontario, adding approximately 450 members. It is expected that the added office will be immediately accretive.
• Selling, general and administrative costs were reduced by $292,588, or 25.3%. This decrease includes the $57,001 of unusual legal costs as well as lower occupancy costs and other professional fees incurred in 2010, which did not recur in 2011.
• At its February 10, 2011 meeting, the board of directors approved the repurchase of an additional 4% of the company’s outstanding shares.
• 57,467 shares of the Company’s stock were repurchased during the quarter and placed in treasury.
• A number of markets, including New York City, Wichita Kansas, and Columbus, Ohio, have shown double-digit percentage growth in cash fee revenue so far in 2011.
• Since December 31, 2010, total liabilities were reduced by $440, 476.

company

The buyback plan was approved because the board and management believe the stock presents an attractive investment and is extremely undervalued.

International Monetary Systems’ CEO, Don Mardak, stated: “Our current stock price fails to reflect the value of our company, and the repurchase program is a very attractive use of company resources. At current prices, IMS shares are trading substantially under our book value and at about one-half of net revenue. This announcement illustrates our confidence in the long-term growth of the company and our commitment to returning capital to our shareholders.”

During the past eighteen months, IMS has repurchased almost 3% of its outstanding stock. Under this new plan, the company will buy back shares through both public and private channels at prices believed to be appropriate and in the best interest of its shareholders. The repurchased shares will be held as treasury stock.

It’s not that the site isn’t better than their old site, because it is. It’s not that it doesn’t move, because it does. It’s not that it doesn’t have enough important information, because it does. I guess my problem with the site is that it’s just ok. Whoever designed it has a good grasp of concepts, for sure, but not a great implementation. I mean, from a programming standpoint, they didn’t even create a custom favicon? Even an entry level designer would put that in. Also, whoever designed it didn’t check for alternative browsers. Check this out (click to see the full size image):

This is a screenshot of Flock, a little used browser, but it’s based on Mozilla which is the engine for the popular Firefox browser. There’s no excuse for these kinds of issues in a website for one of the two publicly traded barter exchanges in America. No excuse.

So, overall, meh. It’s just not very sexy and it doesn’t work really well for me. I would have expected better from IMS. I mean, even a little independent like Saturn Barter has a better site still. BizX has a clean, beautiful site too. And neither of them have the resources of an IMS.