On May 10, 2010, Kistefos AS, the largest stockholder of Trico Marine Services, Inc. (NASDAQ:TRMA), sent a letter to Trico Lead Director Richard A. Bachmann today advising the Board that it intends to vote its 3,535,959 shares against the company’s three incumbent directors up for election at Trico’s 2010 Annual Meeting. Kistefos said it also intends to vote against Trico’s proposals to adopt an incentive plan, authorize additional shares of common stock and stagger and delay declassifying the Board.

In the letter to Mr. Bachmann, Kistefos Chairman Christen Sveaas said the decision to vote against the three directors – Edward C. Hutcheson, Jr., Myles W. Scoggins and Per Staehr – is a direct result of Kistefos having lost all confidence in Trico Chairman and CEO Joseph Compofelice.

Kistefos had expressly called on the Board last October to remove Mr. Compofelice from his executive positions, citing the overwhelming loss of stockholder value and enormous financial losses that have occurred on his watch. Given the Board’s continuing refusal to respond to the concerns of the stockholders and its continuing support for Mr. Compofelice and his failed strategy, Kistefos said it was left with no choice other than to vote for change in the Board’s composition. Kistefos said that it believes that much of the crisis which exists today could have been avoided had the Board listened to the stockholders last year when it had the opportunity.

Read the entire letter in Kistefos' 13D/A filing with the SEC.

Compellent Technologies, Inc. (CML) moved nearly 25% lower on Thursday after reducing its first quarter revenue guidance from $35-37 million to $31-32 million. The decrease was attributed to seasonality, which had more of an impact on the company this quarter than in previous quarters, as well as changes made to their sales organization and delayed orders.

Despite the sharp move downwards, CEO Phil Soran remains upbeat about the company’s continued growth. However, some analysts believe that its failure to meet guidance will damage its credibility for several quarters. This led to at least one downgrade from a Buy to a Neutral by Merriman analyst Alex Kurtz.

Still, some investors see the drop as a buying opportunity, as delays in Q1 could increase sales in Q2 higher than anticipated. After all, ThinkEquity upgraded the company to a Buy just a few days ago after its channel checks indicated the company’s “new customer wins are healthy and its pipeline is strong.”

In the end, this may be a company to watch going into the second quarter, especially after today’s large drop on the news.

Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.’s (LGF) Joe Feitheimer and Michael Burns are starring in their own drama taking place on Wall Street. The plot: Billionaire activist investor Carl Icahn is battling to take-over the company, which has produce mediocre returns in recent years.

The executives insist that the battle has been very time consuming and costly for management, and therefore asked shareholders to approve a poison pill that would make it more difficult for Icahn to take control of the company.

Currently, the billionaire investor owns 19% of Lions Gate and recently made an offer for $6 per share. But, with the share price trading over that premium in recent days, it is unlikely that shareholders will agree to the price.

Meanwhile, many shareholders question the problem with management in the first place. Over the past decade, annual revenues have grown from $100 million to $1.5 billion, as the company rolled out a very successful entry into the TV market.

At the same time, its feature film segment has also been performing very well. The company is best known for its Saw and Hostel films, as well as its more artistic films like Crash and more recently Precious. And, it also releases documentaries like Fahrenheit 9/11.

In the end, many shareholders remain confident in Lions Gate’s ability to perform. However, Carl Icahn has fought successfully against a friendly shareholder base before, and it would be unwise to count him out from any contest to take-over the company.

Spark Networks Inc. (LOV) is worth far more than the paltry $3.10 per share cash offer by Great Hills Partners, said one dissident activist shareholder. In fact, it could be worth between $6 and $7 per share in the event of a fair auction process.

Spark Networks Inc. (LOV) is still considering a $3.10 per share offer from Great Hills Partners that has been drawing criticism from many shareholders, including 6.1% owner Osmium Parnters, which sent a letter to the board of directors expressing its outrage. Shareholders seem to agree with this belief with shares trading above the offer price at $3.50 per share.

Osmium Partners urged the special committee appointed by the board of directors to evaluate the Great Hills Partners buyout proposal to reject the offer and instead hire an investment bank to undertake an open and fair process. If done, the 6.1% shareholder believes that the firm could fetch a $6 to $7 per share offer from a strategic buyer.

“When GHP invested 5 years ago, the valuation equated to $6.95 a share or 11.2x current EBITDA, and after growing EBITDA significantly over that time frame GHP now expects to buy out fellow investors at a multiple of 5.2 times adjusted EBITDA,” said Osmium Partners Managing Partner John Lewis in a letter to the board.

Osmium believes that Spark Networks could attract a superior offer from a strategic buyer due to potential synergies, strong affinity brands, and an ability to raise the average revenue per user by cross-promoting with a significant existing membership base. The hedge fund sees these buyers paying between 9.1x and 11.3x EBITDA, which is where public comparables trade.

Osmium further notes that the true value of Spark Networks is obscured by its Other Affinity segment and chronic mismanagement. The company’s iconic JDate segment has 92% contribution margins, while its Other Affinity division stands at just 33%. And while it generates 23% adjusted EBITDA margins, management could be doing a lot more to build value.

“All of the decline in total subscribers over the last three years can be attributed to a management ordered intentional run-off of the General Markets segment,” continued Mr. Lewis in his letter. “Other factors that have hurt the company’s ability to grow include a 14% price hike on JDate in April 2008, a 50% cut in JDate’s marketing budget, and a large investment in subscale brands with deteriorating economics.”

In the end, Osmium demanded that the board of directors reject the proposal and seek a more open and fair sale by hiring an investment bank to consider strategic offers. Whether or not this materializes remains to be seen, but shareholders are clearly expressing some bullishness, as shares are trading above the proposed buyout price of $3.10 per share.

Internet Brands, Inc. (INET), an internet media company similar to AOL, Inc. (AOL) or Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO), could see significant upside if online advertising continues to trend upward, while it relatively modest price-earnings ratio of 34.85x makes it worth a look for investors.

Internet Brands, Inc. (INET) is an internet media company that owns a valuable portfolio of more than 100 premium web portals that attract more than 55 million unique visitors per month. These web portals target a number of industries, ranging from automotive to travel and leisure, and everything in-between!

The internet media company primarily makes money by tuning its traffic, which is derived by 97% non-paid sources, into a growing network of more than 48,000 advertisers. However, it also generates revenues from its licensing certain technology products and services to major corporations and small businesses.

During 2009, Internet Brands experienced a 4.3% drop in its revenues to $99.8 million versus $104 million the year before. The drop comes after internet advertising revenues in the U.S. dropped 5.3% to $10.9 billion during the first half of 2009 versus the same period in 2008, according to the IAB Internet Advertising Revenue Report.

However, income from operations and other investments, combined with a reduction in income taxes, helped the company report a one cent improvement in earnings per share to $0.27 per diluted share, versus $0.26 the year before. While these may be one-time gains, they still helped to improve the company’s bottom-line during 2009.

Meanwhile, many analysts are predicting continued growth for online advertising as the economy begins to show signs of recovery. The secular advertising trend away from old media, like newspapers and classifieds, and into new media, like lead generation and search marketing, is expected to help the sector grow 12% per year through 2013, according to AMR International.

As a result, many investors are turning their attention to pure plays on the sector like Internet Brands. If the economy continues to turn and online advertising resumes its upward trajectory, this stock could pay handsome dividends down the road to investors willing to wait out the storm.

Take-Two Interactive (TTWO) may have more than its restructuring to deal with as billionaire activist investor Carl Icahn continues to amass a stake in the troubled gaming company. Mr. Icahn added more than 300,000 shares to his position throughout February and now owns nearly 11 million shares through his various investment vehicles.

“I’m a firm believer in the long-term potential of the company, and from a corporate governance point of view I applaud the current board for its responsiveness,” said Mr. Icahn in January when he was seeking board seats. However, the activist has yet to directly come out and detail its plans for the company, although some analysts expect him to push for a sale.

Carl Icahn is also actively pushing for changes in Lions Gate Entertainment (LGF) where he made a hostile bid to increase his stake in the firm. In an interview, the activist expressed concerns that the company would pay too much for acquiring a library like MGM or Miramax, especially in light of the decline in value of libraries as a whole.

Whether either of these bids prove to be successful in unlocking shareholder value remains to be seen, but many investors remain bullish on the activist’s success in the past.

Investment Partners Asset Management, which owns 86,845 Class A shares sent a letter to the company’s board of directors criticizing the company for not contacting shareholders over the past two years, since their third quarter 2007 results some 25 months ago. However, the firm believes that WNMLA may be trading at only a fraction of its tangible book value.

Here are some highlights from the letter:

“Unfortunately, as 2009 draws to a close, outside, minority shareholders of Winmill have not heard from you this year… or last year for that matter.  In fact, you have not updated your outside Class A shareholders with consolidated information since November of 2007 (25 months ago) when you released Winmill’s Third-Quarter 2007 financial results.  Given the financial crisis of the past 2 years and the increased scrutiny and skepticism of financial institutions during that same period, it is uncertain as to why you have not been more communicative.  One expects that a responsible board in this environment would proactively assure investors that measures are being taken to improve operations, grow revenues and enhance shareholder value.  To date, though, there has not yet been any message from your management directly to its outside minority shareholders during this tumultuous period.  With the stock, according to the last-sale price on the pink sheets from December 16, 2009 at $2.25 (down from more than $6.00 roughly two years ago), the current market capitalization of the Company is only about $3.71 million – representing only a fraction of my estimate of Winmill’s tangible book value.

“Your company still has a publicly-traded stock, and you have a fiduciary obligation to enhance shareholder value. Due diligence for shareholders is a continual process, and to that end, I request that you immediately release Winmill’s consolidated annual reports for 2007 and 2008, as well as resume quarterly updates.  Furthermore, you should hold an annual meeting where shareholders can have a productive dialogue to voice their concerns, better understand your company’s approach, and hear about your strategy for creation of shareholder value.  Also, your affiliated companies and funds should consider abandoning the protection provisions of Maryland Law (specifically the Maryland Control Share Acquisition Act) and any other poison pill provisions, as I suspect that these limitations on shareholders’ rights may be contributing to the discounts to book value of these companies’ share prices.  For similar reasons, I also think you should consider re-listing the shares of your holding company, closed-end funds, and affiliates on national exchanges - or at least move them up to a higher tier on the bulletin board, such as the OTCQX. Finally, in order to represent the interests of the outside minority shareholders, you should consider appointing an independent outside individual to Winmill’s board of directors.  To ensure independence, that new board member should be someone who is unaffiliated with your firm, its affiliates, its employees, or employees’ family members.

I am interested in seeing Winmill’s share price more accurately reflect the value of the company’s enterprise, and would expect that you also share this goal. Therefore, as 2009 closes, I would like to see Winmill’s board take this opportunity to improve communication and enact strategies to create value for the company’s outside minority shareholders.”