I worked in that building for just over 3 years (9 months in the old building at Frenchs Forest).
I was happy as Larry when they laid me off. Only thing that pissed me off (with hindsight) was that I wasn't smart enough to use my retrenchment money and buy Altium shares at 10-15 cents. I'd be sitting on close to $1M now 
But knowing what you knew then would it have been a sensible idea? They weren't laying people off because business was thriving. You were smart to not buy shares in fact.
Apart from a change of management what did they ever do that was smart? Not much from judging from past comments you've made.
You have probably followed the share price more closely than me (ie not at all) so what did they do that would explain the change in fortunes?
Correct, it did not look promising at the time with Nick Martin still at the helm. He drove the company into the ground financially with his stupid ideas.
BUT the company had zero debt (always has) and had enough cash in the bank almost equal to the worth of all the shares, i.e. the shares could not go any lower really, being at cash value, so it was either up, or bust.
Given $50m turnover or whatever it was, and it's always loyal user base, the odds of then actually going bust was quite low.
But it did look like they would stay at that price forever, as they had for many years, because Martin did not care about profitability of the company.
I also knew the move to china and losing half the staff would cut back on costs, making the numbers more attractive, but that alone wouldn't have raised the price by a huge amount.
But you are right, the change of management was the golden ticket I didn't see coming. Martin had ruled the company with a iron first for it's entire life, but he didn't count on his buddy Aram from Morfik who he saved from oblivion actually turning on him in a coup with the board. Ironically the 15% of Altium Martin gave to Aram when he bought Morfik gave him the votes needed to side with the board and boot Martin out. (Aram already had a lot of shares being a former early Protel guy)
It was one of the best corporate plays of all time by Aram
and the dumbest move ever by Martin
The rest is history. The board started to run Altium like a real profit focussed company, and once they started paying a dividend again, bam, there it went, 10 cents to $5 in 3-4 years.
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