Windstream does not do it Again (Iowa Telecommunications Services)

November 24, 2009

Windstream has announced their fourth acquisition since they started, this time for  Iowa Telecommunications Services for 1.1 billion, consisting of 26.5 million shares of stock, $260 million in cash, and assuming $600 million of debt. The target firm has 256,000 access lines, 95,000 high speed Internet customers, and 26,000 digital TV customers, which the article […]

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Junk bonds: Not always junk, but pretty often (Callon Petroleum)

November 19, 2009

If you have been following this blog for some time, you may recall the first move I recommended was the bonds of Bon-Ton Department Stores, which I suggested could be hedged by shorting an equivalent dollar value of the stock. At the time the bonds were at 46 and the stock was at $4. Now, […]

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Congress has Agoraphobia

November 16, 2009

The Greek word for marketplace is “agora,” so the word “agoraphobia” literally means “fear of the marketplace,” and Congress seems to be suffering terribly from it lately. Given what has happened over the last couple of years their reaction is unsurprising. Indexing, long touted as the safe long-term option for the passive investor, has shown […]

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Coinstar, Still Worth Shorting

November 9, 2009

As some of you may recall, I called Coinstar an attractive short target some months ago, and it didn’t exactly go so well. In fact, it did go exactly as high as $38.28, when I called for the short at $25.91. Of course, that was during a massive stock market rally; one of the purposes […]

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Windstream does it again.

November 3, 2009

Windstream (WIN) has just announced that they are acquiring yet another phone company, NuVox, for 280 million in cash, about 180 million in stock, and 180 million in assumed debt, total 640 million.  NuVox focuses specifically on business, which makes it a desirable fit with Windstream’s plan to offset landline loss with high revenue customers. […]

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