December 3, 2003—After nearly six years, Lucent Technologies (LU) has finally given in to one of the company's most persistent critics. In its proxy filed yesterday, the company recommended that shareholders vote for a proposal that would require Lucent directors to stand for re-election every year. It's a 180-degree turn for the company. Since ...

November 26, 2003—Normally, I don't spend a lot of time looking at pink-sheet stocks. But a proxy filed yesterday by MotorCar Parts and Accessories (MPAA.PK) caught my attention because it's a sweet old-fashioned tale of a father helping out his son -- a good pre-Thanksgiving yarn. Not to mention the fact that the stock ...

November 24, 2003—Helping out your child isn't necessarily a bad thing. But when you're a public company and that help starts to approach the high six figures (or seven figures depending on whether you're reading the 10-K or the proxy), investors deserve a bit more information. On Friday, Net2Phone (NTOP) filed its proxy and noted that ...

November 17, 2003—On Friday, Clean Harbors (CLHB) , a company that specializes in environmental and waste-management services, was the best performing Nasdaq stock, climbing a whopping 46 percent in one day. That was primarily due to some strong third quarter numbers that the company reported on Friday. But you have to wonder how many investors ...

October 22, 2003—Up until yesterday, I had never heard of Pumatech (PUMA) , a San Jose software company that primarily focuses on the wireless market. But the company caught my attention when I noticed that they had filed a 200-page plus 10-K yesterday. So I decided to take a closer look, figuring there had to ...

October 13, 2003—You have to wonder if while the SEC is poking around at Cardinal Health and taking a closer look at a $22 million litigation settlement as the company announced last week, regulators find other things worth paying closer attention to. In its proxy filed late last week, Cardinal (CAH) ...

October 3, 2003—It seems as if Sun Microsystem's (SUNW) board of directors has found religion as far as it's audit committee is concerned. According to the proxy statement filed on Thursday, the audit committee met 12 times last year -- more than twice as many times as they met in fiscal 2002. Of course, ...

September 19, 2003—When a stock's done as well as Krispy Kreme (KKD) has been doing, few investors bother to ask questions. But there were some interesting disclosures in the company's recent 10-Q regarding some of the company's joint-ventures. Among them was that the company paid $67.5 million to a partnership owned by former CEO Joseph ...

August 22, 2003—Americans may be fatter than ever, but the Chairman of the Board for the company that makes Twinkies and Wonder bread is looking pretty slim, at least when it comes to his stock holdings. Interstate Bakeries' proxy statement, filed today, shows that Charles Sullivan reduced his stock holdings to 264,169 shares as of Aug. ...

August 20, 2003—Many savvy investors already know that pensions are one of the best earnings sweeteners around (for a more in-depth discussion of pensions, see Chapter 7, Pensions in Wonderland). But a new study by two Federal Reserve Board economists shows just how sweet pension profits can be. The economists found that some stocks were inflated ...