The Fat Lady Sings at Five

That’s not five o’clock in this case: it’s five years.

The first TRE auction to close was sold on November 24, 2008. So its 5th anniversary was just marked.

In the months following that first auction there were quite a few days on which no auctions were sold. It took some time for the exchange to gain any real momentum.

But the last day on which NO auctions were sold on the TRE platform (according to my records, in any case)was June 19, 2009.

Until today, that is.

I’m no longer an active TRE Buyer and so my information isn’t as good as it once was. But it’s good enough to know that no auctions are indicated to have been sold on the SMB platform today.

None.

And that’s not all. It appears that there are NO bids pending on any of the auctions that currently sit waiting on the platform for Buyer attention.

Which means, of course, that there IS no Buyer attention.

Volume on the SMB platform has been falling steadily over the past year. Over the past couple of months the volume numbers have been about 1/3 those recorded in the peak period prior to the management changes in 3Q 2012.

Does that suggest that there is also no management attention to the SMB business?

I suspect not. I suspect that the attention of management was acutely on the SMB platform – until it was not.

And why did that attention wane, and then apparently cease? Or did it just change form and focus? One can only speculate.

More on that later.