Lone Star Steakhouse & Saloon, Inc. (NDAQ:STAR) said today that it received a higher buyout offer from Dallas-based private equity firm Lone Star Funds. The PE firm raised its bid from $27.10 to $27.35, which represents a 1% rise in the offer. The Company also said it pushed back the meeting of shareholders to vote on the proposed merger from November 30th to December 12th.

There are several large shareholders that plan to vote against the merger, including Barington Capital, Deutsche Bank and Millenco LP, all of whom believe the offer significantly undervalues the restaurant chain. Although these funds have yet to comment, it is unlikely that the 1% raise will affect their sentiment. In a previous article, we also noted that Barington Capital said it has identified several other parties that may be interested in purchasing the company at a price greater than $27.10 per share, contingent upon their ability to review non-public information. However, the company said it still plans to support the merger agreement with Lone Star Funds. If these funds succeed in preventing the sale at this price, it could mean an increased bid or opportunity for the company to receive other bids. This makes STAR a stock worth keeping an eye on over the next few months.

Related Companies
Brinker International, Inc. (EAT)
Ryan's Restaurant Group (RYAN)
Texas Roadhouse Inc. (TXRH)

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NYSE:AMD) revealed today in a form 4 filing with the SEC that James Fleck - a new director from AMD's acquisition of ATI - purchased 25,000 shares on the open market at $22.15. This is the first purchase he has made since he was appointed as a director on October 25, 2006. AMD's stock has fallen significantly this year from a high of $42 to its current levels in the mid-20's. This drop largely stems from a reduced outlook and increasing spending on acquisitions, including the ATI purchase for $5.4 billion. With company insiders beginning to purchase at these levels, it may be a sign that things are ready to improve, and this makes it a stock worth watching over the next few months.

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Intel Corporation (INTC)
GTSI Corp. (GTSI)
Transmeta Corporation (TMTA)

Triad Hospitals Inc. (NYSE:TRI) may see itself in more hot water today after Axon again increased its stake in the company, which is now at 7.4% according to their latest 13D/A filing with the SEC. The hedge fund also attached a previous letter it had sent in early November to this filing, which highlighted the changes it was seeking.

These changes included:

• Significantly amending the composition of the board, in order to improve the depth of financial sophistication, and also to include representation from shareholders. The current board is simply not credible as a guardian of our capital.
• The company should focus on improving and optimizing existing assets. It is critical that focus be placed on improving the company's analytical tools and controls. Margins must be improved, capital expenditures must be rationalized, and issues like bad debt must be analyzed carefully. Ultimately, until the current assets have been optimized and management control has been enhanced, it does not appear sensible to continually expand, and increase complexity.
• Capital usage strategy should be dramatically altered. Instead of aggressive spending on capital expenditures and acquisitions, the company should reduce expenditures to levels needed to optimize existing assets. Excess cash flow should be returned to shareholders, via dividends or share buyback.
• The company has the flexibility to increase leverage significantly without impairing operating flexibility, or increasing risk to imprudent levels. Rather than keeping this capacity as a 'war chest', the company should instead use it to optimize the capital structure, and generate return for shareholders. With these steps, the company could comfortably implement a capital reduction of $1.0 to $1.25 billion, and still have leverage ratios and coverage metrics that would be prudent and manageable.

Axon also said the company should amend the composition of the board, focus on improving and optimizing existing assets, return excess cash flow through dividends and they increase leverage significantly. In the end, the hedge fund believes the fair value of the stock is 25 to 50% higher than current levels. This makes TRI a stock to keep an eye on as the fund works to implement these changes. The stock is currently trading down 2% in morning trading.

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Community Health Systems (CYH)
Tenet Healthcare Corporation (THC)
HCA, Inc. (HCA)

General Motors (NYSE:GM) may see increased downward pressure today as Tracinda revealed in a 13D/A filing that it sold another 14 million shares in a private transaction at $28.75 per share - a few points below the current market price. This move brings the hedge funds stake down to 4.95% from 7.4% just a few days ago on November 22nd and 9.9% earlier this year. Tracinda began selling its stake in GM after Jerome York - the funds representative on GM's board - resigned after partnership talks between GM and Nissan-Renault broke down in October. GM shares are down almost 1% in mid-day trading today.

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Ford Motor Company (F)
Toyota Motor Corporation (TM)
Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (HMC)

Brocade Communications (NDAQ:BRCD) revealed in a form 4 filing with the SEC after the close yesterday that the company's CEO exercised 1,079,943 options at between $4.55 and $6.00, and then sold 1,679,943 shares at $8.97.

Carriage Services Inc. (NYSE:CSV) revealed in a form 4 filing with the SEC yesterday that the company's chairman purchased 27,100 shares between 11/27 and 11/28 at prices between $4.93 and $5.00, bringing his stake to 952,965 shares.

Home Solutions of America Inc. (NDAQ:HSOA) revealed in a form 4 filing with the SEC yesterday that the company's president purchased 20,000 shares on the open market at $5.48, bringing his stake up to 218,930 shares.

TD Ameritrade Holding Corporation (NDAQ:AMTD) revealed in a form 4 filing with the SEC yesterday that the company's director purchased 10,000 shares on the open market on November 27th at $17.10, bringing his stake to 25,200 shares.

Apple Computers, Inc. (NDAQ:AAPL)
SEC Filing Watchlist
The company applied for a patent for a cellphone/iPod combination. The patent application indicates it invented the phone/iPod combination and filed for it in August, but didn't announce it publicly until today.

Cal Dive International, Inc. (NYSE:CAL)
S-1/A Filing with the SEC
The company indicated in an S-1/A filing with the SEC that it sees an IPO price of $14 to $16 per share on 22.2 million shares. The company is a subsidiary of Helix Energy Solutions Group, Inc. (NYSE:HLX), an energy services company. In early March 2006, the parent company changed its name from Cal Dive International, Inc. to Helix Energy Solutions Group, Inc. The new company is to become the heir to all of Helix’s shallow water marine contracting business. After the offer is made, Helix will own nearly 62 million of the company's outstanding shares of common stock.

Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE)
8-K Filing with the SEC
The company announced a favorable trend in revenues in the fourth quarter and expects 2006 revenues to be slightly higher with lower costs. The company predicts that the adjusted EPS for 2006 will be at least $2.05 per share compared to its previous estimate of about $2.00 per share; meanwhile, analyst consensus stands at $2.02. Pfizer held a meeting today in which it reviewed the largest pipeline in the company's history, running a total of 242 programs that span eleven therapeutic areas.

Pirate Capital LLC recently released a 13F filing showing its holdings, which have been significantly decreased since the hedge fund's shakeup back in October when it failed to disclose its sale of OSI Restaurants in a timely matter. More recently, the fund announced that it sold its 4.8 million share stake in Mirant Corporation (NYSE:MIR). A list of Pirate Capital's holdings as of September 30, 2006 can be viewed in their latest 13F filing with the SEC.

Here are some of their largest holdings:

1. Intrawest Corp - This is a company in which Pirate has over $300 million invested, and it is finally paying off. Intrawest's board agreed to sell the company to Fortress Investment Group for $35 per share in cash. Mr. Hudson said, "We commend the Board of Directors and the Executive Management for conducting the broad and thorough strategic review that resulted in the sale of Intrawest. We would like to congratulate the Board and Management for delivering value to their shareholders." Pirate was a buyer between $26 and $30 per share, making them a significant winner on this play.
2. The Brink's Company (NYSE:BCO) - This is a company in which Pirate has over $209 million invested. Recently, on November 11th, Pirate encouraged the company to explore a sale, start a large Dutch tender offer for its shares, and immediately appoint Pirate founder Thomas Hudson to its board; however, the company still appears to be ingoring their requests and pursuing an acquisition instead. It was after this that the hedge fund angrily noted, "We are concerned that shareholder propositions are falling upon deaf ears" and submitted proxy materials in a recent 13D/A filing in a move to bring the issue to shareholder attention.
3. Walter Industries (NYSE:WLT) - This is a company in which Pirate has over $135 million invested. The company moved up today after it resolved a lawsuit involving CC Arbitrage Ltd. and CNH CA Master Account L.P., who agreed to dismiss all claims, and immediately convert their convertible senior subordinated notes to the company's common stock. In this case, Pirate successfully convinced the company to spin-off its whole-owned Mueller subsidiary back in May of 2006. Meanwhile, the hedge fund recently cut its stake and remained silent. Other objectives it had on the table since its last filing in October of 2005, included the sale of its other Finance and Homebuilding subsidiaries. However, the multiples for these sectors are not high enough at this time to justify a sale.

As you can see, the process of unlocking shareholder value can take a lot of time and has no certain outcome. However, when it does work - as in the case of Intrawest - handsome profits can be made. And with over $1.4 billion invested, Pirate Capital is one of the best activist hedge funds to keep an eye on!

Home Depot (NYSE:HD) may be seeing some private equity interest according to reports on CNBC. There is speculation that the company could go for as much as $100 billion, although many analysts remain skeptical. Charlie Gasparino reported that KKR has already crunched the numbers for a potential bid to take the company private, while there is also talk of other potential HD bidders on the floor. The interest comes after the stock has fallen from a high of nearly $45 in early 2006 to its current levels around $35 per share, down over 8% on the year.

Many attribute this drop to poor performance by the company's CEO Nardelli along with declining market conditions. Meanwhile, their main competitor - Lowes - has beat the company on almost every metric. Lowe's revenues grew 130% compared to HD's 78%; Lowe's ROA increased 52% while HD's hardly increased at all; and finally, Lowe's customer service rating rose to 78 from 75, while HD's decreased to 67 from 75 during the same time period. Combined, market conditions and poor management may have made this stock cheap enough for private equity to seriously consider. This makes Home Depot a stock to keep an eye on over the next few months.

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Lowes Companies, Inc. (LOW)
Conn's Inc. (CONN)
Building Materials Holding Corporation (BMHC)

Tribune Company (NYSE:TRB) announced yesterday that it would be extending its strategic review process, saying the committee would be prepared to make a final recommendation to the board in the first quarter of 2007. Reuters is reporting that three private equity groups have made a bid for the company, including a group consisting of Texas Pacific Group and Thomas H. Lee Partners and another that includes Madison Dearborn Partners, Providence Equity Partners and Apollo Management, and Bain Capital. Other interested parties include: the Carlyle Group, billionaires Eli Broad and Ron Burkle, Maurice Greenberg of AIG, and several others.

The company said that it is seeking a single buyer for its television and newspaper units. With all of this interest, the company is in a great position to sell off its company at a substantial premium to the current prices. To date, the company has sold approximately $450 million of non-core assets. This is definitely a company to watch closely as this situation unfolds.

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Washington Post Co. (WPO)
Gannett Co., Inc. (GCI)
CBS Corporation (CBS)

Grupo Aeroportuario del Centro Norte, S.A.B. de C.V. (NDAQ:OMAB)
S-1 Filing with the SEC
Mexican airport operator Grupo Aeroportuario del Centro Norte, commonly known by its trade name OMA, began trading today. The stock opened higher than predicted, at $22.08 after pricing at $18.00, above the expected $14.50 to $16.50 range. Grupo Aeroportuario del Centro Norte operates thirteen international airports in nine states of central and northern Mexico. OMA's airports also serve Monterrey, Mexico's third largest metropolitan area, a few tourist destinations, and nine other regional centers and border cities.

The New York Times Company (NYSE:NYT)
SEC Filing Watchlist
The New York Post reported today that Greenberg has made an effort to buy a controlling stake in the New York Times, in order to break the Sulzberger family's control of the company. Later, Greenberg's spokesman said he has no intentions of increasing his stake beyond his 100k shares; nevertheless, CNBC's Charlie Gasparino's follow-up reports on the story moved NYT up 7.5% in today's trading.

Wireless Ronin Technologies, Inc. (NDAQ:RNIN)
SB2-A Filing with the SEC
Shares of Wireless Ronin Technologies, a digital signage company, soared 57% today on its second day of trading with a volume of 5.5 million shares. Strangely, this move comes after the stock IPO'd yesterday at $4 per share, where it closed at $4.58 on volume of 1.6 million shares.