Monthly Archives: October 2006

The Story Of Stockaroo

By | October 27, 2006

… in which the Inelegant Investor tries his hand with Google’s new custom search engine feature. Earlier this week, Google(GOOG) announced the availability of a new feature which allows users to build custom search engines. While this isn’t likely to have any immediate material impact on the business, it fits perfectly into Google’s paradigm of providing free tools… Read More »

Armstrong World Industries(AWI) Emerges From Bankruptcy

By | October 22, 2006

Almost 6 years after filing for bankruptcy under the weight of mounting asbestos liability lawsuits, Armstrong World Industries(AWI) emerged from bankrupty last week and was largely ignored. The manufacturer of flooring, cabinets and other building products averaged volume of only 60,000 shares per day in its first 3 days of trading, and very little has been written about… Read More »

Santarus(SNTS) licenses Heartburn Drug to Schering-Plough(SGP) For OTC Use

By | October 18, 2006

Santarus(SNTS) announced today that it had licensed Zegerid, a proton pump inhibitor(PPI) used for treating heartburn and related GI issues, to Schering-Plough(SGP). Schering Plough will develop and release a 20 mg version of Zegerid as an over the counter medication. Santarus will continue to promote and sell the existing prescription version in its various formulations. Currently, Prilosec OTC… Read More »

Can Online Brokers Compete With Free?

By | October 11, 2006

Bank of America(BAC)’s announcement today(10/11) that it would offer 30 free trades per month to customers with combined balances of $25,000 or more was greeted by investors in online brokers with a stampede for the exits. E*Trade(ET) and TD Ameritrade(AMTD) were both trading down around 10%, and Charles Schwab(SCHW) was down more than 5%. Bank of America’s announcement… Read More »

Warren Buffett’s Five Most Dangerous Words in Business

By | October 11, 2006

“Everybody else is doing it.” Inspired by recent option backdating scandals, and the criminal leak investigation at Hewlett Packard(HPQ), Warren Buffett sent out a memo to his top managers at Berkshire Hathaway(BRKA), reminding them of the importance of ethical behavior. Buffett said that while bad behavior is inevitable, we can have a huge effect in minimising such activities… Read More »

Basket of Biotech

By | October 5, 2006

Investing in development stage biotech companies is risky business. We’re talking about companies with no material product revenues, high cash burn rates and fairly high failure rates. At the same time, successful drugs can generate huge returns. And if you can find a stock that gives you a 500% return, that supports a lot of failures. An effective… Read More »