Authentidate Holding Corporation (NDAQ:ADAT) shares rose $0.04, or 2.68%, to $1.46 today after Coghill Capital disclosed a 9.9% stake and made several recommendations to the company's board of directors. The Chicago-based investment firm is seeking to restructure the board of directors while also working to improve the company's capital structure.

Authentidate, which provides secure enterprise workflow management solutions, is trading well off its 52-week high of $2.61 but appears to be working to turn itself around. The company recently sold off its Document Management and Systems Integration businesses in order to focus more on their core competencies. Meanwhile, the company reported broad success with its new initiatives in domestic healthcare and foreign partnerships.

Coghill Capital Management is an activist investment company that employs a bottom-up fundamental analysis approach to identify companies in the highly inefficient small cap universe. They target small cap companies with specific, time-bound catalysts for stock price movement. The firm has a strong track record in this area and is a great fund to follow - especially in strong positions like these.

Authentidate's new business initiatives combined with a potential change in capital structure makes it a stock with great potential. The involvement of Coghill only solidifies the potential as they will likely provide the company with the advice and financing that they need to succeed. Combined, these factors make ADAT a stock worth watching!

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Brinks Co. (NYSE:BCO) shares rose $0.68, or 1.09%, to $63.34 today after MMI Investments disclosed an 8.3% stake and suggested that the company explore a spin-off certain business segments. The news comes shortly after Pirate Capital's bout with the company in which they recommended similar spin-offs or a breakup of the company as a whole. Investors are hoping that the involvement of two activist hedge funds may help boost the company's stock price.

MMI Investments suggested in their Schedule 13D filing with the SEC today that BCO shares could be worth as much as $88/share in the event of a spin-off. They based this price off of multiples attained by competitors Tyco and Securitas. Tyco, BCO's largest competitor, recently completed its long-awaited spin-off and transformed itself into a security monitoring pure-play. The new Tyco trades at 10.2x 2007 EBITDA versus BCOs 6.6x. Similarly, Securitas' spin-off is trading at 9.7x - also higher than BCO's 6.6x.



Clearly, the valuations presented here would be a windfall for shareholders as even the lowest valuation represents more than a 25% premium to today's closing price. More, with two activist shareholders standing behind these proposals, there is a strong likelihood that management will at least review the idea. Combined, these factors make BCO a stock worth watching!

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Liz Claiborne (NYSE:LIZ) updated shareholders on its restructuring efforts and gave an upbeat long-term outlook. The American sportswear maker announced that it would shed 16 of its apparel brands and cut nearly 800 jobs in an effort to reduce its reliance on department stores and push their own in-house brands. CEO William McComb said the company is targeting operating margins in the mid-teens percentage with ROIC growth in the high-teen percentage.

Liz Claiborne has traditionally been known in the investment community as an acquisition-driven company. The company's previous strategy had been building a big brand portfolio to hedge against unpredictable fashion cycles. However, this strategy led to some unforeseen consequences that drew concern from investors. While the company's revenues grew, the company saw a substantial increase in both management complexity and overhead costs.

Liz Claiborne plans to cut these expenses and reduce complexity by selling off 16 of its brands while doubling its spending on advertising for its remaining brands. The company also wants to open 300 of its own stores by 2010 to further reduce its dependence on department stores. At the same time, the company plans to cut $190 million in annual expenses through workforce reductions and other cost-cutting measures.

Analysts expect improvements in the company's financials to be visible in 2008. Many analysts and investors are also hoping that CEO McComb will be able to turn around Liz Claiborne's brands like he did J&J's Tylenol brand in his prior position at that company. Combined, these cost-cutting and restructuring efforts could lead to a turnaround in a company that has seen somewhat dismal performance amid a struggling apparel market. This makes LIZ a stock worth watching!

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