Weekly Wrap

Hello from the windy city! I flew to Chicago this weekend to see my husband. I think one weekend a month is more than any husband and wife needs to spend with each other, don't you? Actually, we worried about "our situation" this year as he has had to live in Chicago (he plays hockey for the Blackhawks) and we decided it was best for the kids if I stayed in Minnesota and set up roots. Our oldest daughter is in the ninth grade and has been in nine different schools since kindergarten due to Phil's career. It was time to stop the insanity, so the kids and I retired before he did. Anyway, long story short, it does a marriage good. Everyone knows how busy life is with kids and their schedules; if you could spend one romantic weekend a month, alone with your husband, there's no need to see each other much more. Quality for outweighs quantity, in our case.

Enough about my dysfunctional marriage when there's the stock market to gossip about. Just what happened this week?

A couple of things that were of interest to me, only because I use both of them, were the news reports coming out of ExciteAtHome and AT&T Broadband. I think I told you before that ExciteAtHome is in deep financial trouble (not to be confused with the Enron In Your Home energy company which filed for Chapter 11 this week). ExciteAtHome is bankrupt, but had to scramble this week to keep more than half a million accounts (including myself) up and running with their fast cable internet service. They severed all ties with AT&T Broadband customers after the two companies failed to reach an agreement. ExciteAtHome still has 3.7 million customers in North America, and is scuttling to keep afloat. Stay tuned to see if there will be Excite in your home next week.

Three of the largest cable companies in the U.S. lined up to buy AT&T Broadband this past week. Comcast Corp has forced AT&T to sell off their business and interested parties are Cox Communications, AOL Time Warner (AOL) and Microsoft (MSFT).

Speaking of AOL, its CEO, Gerald Levin, announced this week that he will retire next year from the world's largest media company. He will be replaced by Richard Parsons, the current chief operating officer. It was somewhat of a surprise, but according to insiders, it was not due to any friction between the executives. Levin simply said that he has accomplished what he had set out to do at AOL, and is ready to leave the corporate world. (I really tried to find some gossip, but couldn't. It's true, but at 62, I'd think he's making the right decision.)

Oh, did I tell you the Chicks decided to re-invest in General Electric (GE) on Sunday night at our meeting? We did. It came down to GE, Medtronic (MD), Pfizer (PFE), Oracle (ORCL) and Nokia (NOK) as our reinvestment choices. If we would have known the news out of Medtronic - that they will be buying yet another health care company - we might have changed our mind. On Thursday MDT announced that they would be paying $326 million for VidaMed, a company that has a system for treating large prostates, a common disease among older men. You see, having a lot of cash on your balance sheet allows you do to this. (See Chicks Dozen Step #6.) I'm finding it very interesting how Medtronic is expanding its business from a heart technology company to a complete health care business.

That's it. The week in review. Kind of a lame one, but the Dow did jump over 10,000 on Wednesday, the first time since the Sept 11 attacks! Speaking of attacks, I should really devote some time to my husband. After all, we aren't going to see each other again until Christmas Eve.

Have a great weekend! I know I will. dysfunctional and all.

Chick Karin