On the Rediff conference call held last week, Rediff Chairman and CEO Ajit Balakrishnan twice told Rajeev Arora, an investor, that he's free to sell his shares and move on. Balakrishnan was responding to a desperate query from Arora regarding Rediff's cash situation: the company has $12.5 million in cash and has reported losses of over $3 million in its last three quarters. Arora, who said he had been invested in Rediff for five years, pointed out that addressing the cash situation is a current (and) immediate need, questioned Rediff's ethical responsibility to shareholders, and whether a 10 year period isn't enough for the company to increase revenues. This was the third time on the conference call that the Rediff management was being asked about its cash situation: the first two times, MediaNama had asked the company about its plans, and how it intends to reduce operational expenditure and increase revenue, apart from questions about why its advertising revenues have declined year on year to $1.46 million from $1.88 million for the same quarter. Note that Rediff's fee based revenues, via its e-commerce marketplace Rediff Shopping, increased to $1.71 million, up from $1.31 million for the same quarter last year. The Q&A with MediaNama, followed by the Q&A with Rajiv Arora: MediaNama: You've got $12.5 million in cash, and your net loss is $3 million, so you've got about four quarters of money left. How does this play out? Would you need to raise funds again? Ajit Balakrishnan: We can't discuss future plans on this…
