Weekly Wrap

The other night I came home from dinner with my girlfriend to my girls sitting on the front steps. They said, "Mom, you're not going to be happy with Wilson. Maybe you should go back out for a little while at least until he goes to bed. Would you like something to drink, Mom? A glass of wine or something? Reide, go get Mom a glass of wine."  Perplexed, I came inside, and passed on the wine. I knew I'd need to be thinking on this one. I asked where my son was and they replied, "Wilson's locked himself in the bathroom." I walked upstairs. Sure enough, he was locked in. He didn't want to come out because I was going to be soooo mad at him. Thinking the worst Lorena case scenario I begged him to come out. OHMYGAWD, he had cut something off... but it wasn't his Bobbitt; it was his hair!! He didn't only cut off his hair, he shaved his whole head!!

Where in the world does as nine-year-old get in his head that it's cool to shave his whole head? I didn't even ask. Matter of fact, I didn't even punish him. I told him all the stares and laughs that he was going to get the next day in school were going to be torture enough. Then I sent him to his room. 

When the girls got home the next day they filled me in on Wilson's supposed embarrassment. Turns out, he was a hero. He concocted some story that he shaved his head for cancer victims. He said that his grandmother died of cancer and he wanted to do this for the cancer victims to see what they have to go through. By the end of the day, the whole school was talking about Wilson, the cool kid with the baldhead. My plan backfired. (He swears his story is true he was just too afraid to tell me.)

So that was my week. Dealing with a kid who is so proud of himself that he can't even remember why he locked himself in the bathroom, and a mother who was not able to predict her son's ingenuity and the public's response. This week the Chicks have been busy researching companies for our next stock buy on Monday. Our meeting is Sunday night and we are supposed to voted for our favorite. How the heck am I supposed to know what a stock is going to do after we purchase it when I can't even predict my own son? The moral, "You just never know." Ugh, kids and the market... always a roller coaster.

So it's true, this is the big week... the Big Chick Voting Week. We've got our buy narrowed down to 26 companies. Look back here on Monday to see what we chose. We also had some great articles in the Chicks Eye View this week; Chick Megan looked at her new favorite low price home improvement store Lowe's. Look out Home Depot!

And Chick Cheryl explains another one of those often used and overused words - DRIPS. Finally, someone strips all those letters down to what I need to know, and she's not talking about her ninth grade boyfriend! Chick Kristin also ran Coca-Cola through the Chicks Dozen.

For the Chicks benefit, I'm going to highlight some news happening this week with the companies that we are considering for the buy.

In their quest to continue to be the leader in medical devices, Medtronic (MDT) is buying MiniMed (MNMD) and Medical Research Group for $3.28 billion in cash and 420 million respectively. This is all in cash. Remember what we said about having a lot of cash? Many a Monopoly game has been won by being a cash hog. These two new companies specialize in diabetes devices including pumps and sensors.  MiniMed owns 80% of the insulin pump market, mostly through their wearable insulin pump (in a belt), and Medical Research Group is developing an implantable monitor. Chick Lynn has been pushing this company for the past year for the Chicks to buy. This only strengthens her case. I wonder if she reads this?

Chick Jana is pushing for discount retailer, Costco (COST) for our next buy.  She and Chick Kristin did a book signing there two weeks ago and she's been chirping about them ever since. Well Jana... your beloved Discount retailer Costco announced their third quarter earnings this week. They came in below last year's but met Wall Street's reduced expectations of $0.22 a share. They came in a penny over it! But, last year they were at $0.26 per share. The bulk of their numbers showed some concerns, as their sales increased but so did their expenses, and the expenses grew faster than the sales. They plan on opening five new stores by September and twenty more before the end of December. My question for them is... how fast can you grow, when your expenses keep getting greater and greater? When do you say when?

One more company that I'm curious about for this buy is conglomerate Tyco Int'l Ltd. (TYC). Their news of the week was pretty impressive. They acquired the commercial finance company CIT Group Inc. (CIT) for almost 10 billion. This company is supposed to immediately add to earnings. Bonus. Tyco also has agreed to buy medical products maker C.R. Bard Inc. (BCR) for about $3.2 billion and the electronic-security systems business of closely held Cambridge Protection Industries LLC for about $1 billion. Looks like Tyco is making a run around the board without passing Go because they really don't need the money. For more info on Tyco, read our summary from yesterday.

Other company news happening this week...

Our member exciter Pfizer (PFE) is going to have some competition into its erectile dysfunction Viagra market. (Still thanking God that Wilson only shaved his head.)  Lilly ICOS LLC, a joint venture between ICOS (ICOS) and Lilly (LLY), posted clinical results of its Cialis drug for erectile dysfunction. A new study shows that 85 percent of men taking 20 mg of Cialis had improved erections. (First, isn't it just black and white... erection or no erection? It's like a stock analyst upgrading a stock from an "accumulate" to a "purchase" rating. I don't get it.) I guess they are able to keep the erection longer and the drug helps you achieve an erection any time within a twenty-four hour period.

Quickly changing subjects...

Yahoo! rose 7.5% on Friday after they announced that their auction business is far from dead! The company has been charging customers for the past five months to list their items. The average selling price of an item has risen from $40 to $62 since they've been offering the service. They still aren't doing the business that eBay is, but they're giving them a run for their money as the percentage of listed merchandise being sold increased along with the bidding activity.

Thank goodness Yahoo wasn't selling any fake Rolexes this week or they too would be in trouble. Ebay said on Friday its European subsidiaries have been sued by Rolex watchmaker Montres Rolex SA alleging the Rolex trademark was infringed when counterfeit Rolexes were sold on eBay's German Web site. The suit was filed at the end of April in Cologne, Germany... and no... even though I was there, it wasn't me.

I'm off to study all the Chicks reports for our big meeting. Talk about needing a glass of wine:  http://www.screamingguts.com/

Chick Karin

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