Pied Piper of Wall Street

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Lofty Predictions. Insiders had already begun selling off. In mid-December, the company and 16 of its officers and shareholders sold 316,585 shares of letter stock at about $43 to banks, mutual funds and insurance companies. Randell made a number of sales of his shares. Over the objections of his top aides, Randell continued to play the Pied Piper through January, predicting to securities salesmen across the country that N.S.M. sales would nearly double in 1970 and that profits would rise from 11¢ to $2 a share.

Far from making a profit, the company lost $859,889 during this year's first quarter. Official explanation: "a mechanical error" in shifting figures from one set of books to another had cut sales by more than $4,000,000. In addition, campus representatives were deluged with more posters and samples than they could tack up or give out; many items were simply dumped.

Randell left N.S.M. under pressure in February. The new president, Roger W. Walther, 34, is reorganizing and changing the auditing practices. The headquarters staff has been cut from 160 to 18 in an effort to stop the slide. With whatever he managed to save from the debacle, Randell and his wife have withdrawn to his mock-Tudor Virginia estate. "You can't take anything for granted," says he, "even success."