A large shareholder in Penn Treaty American (NYSE:PTA) demanded that the company immediately hire an investment banker in order to explore strategic alternatives including a possible sale of the company, according to a Schedule 13D filing with the SEC. Shareholders are hoping that the company will heed this advice and unlock value in the troubled company.

Monarch Activist Partners, which owns less than a five percent stake in the company, believes that the company's shares are worth upwards of $10 per share and the only way for investors to realize this value is through a sale of the company. In conversations with other shareholders and professionals, they believe that the company is current in its statutory filings, a sale of the company would not be dependent on GAAP financials.

"We believe PTA's Directors are in breach of their fiduciary responsibility by letting the financial reporting issues persist indefinitely without pursuing strategic alternatives," said Monarch's James Chadwick. "If PTA does not hire an investment banking firm to pursue alternatives and add shareholder representatives to the board immediately we intend to take action to unseat the board in the next shareholders' meeting."

All in all, this is great news for shareholders as it means that PTA shares may finally come to value. The activist hedge fund is likely to see support from other institutional investors too - making their campaign for changes likely to result in something. Combined, these factors make PTA a stock worth watching!

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A. Schulman Inc. (NDAQ:SHLM) may be finding itself in the crosshairs of activist investor James Mitarotonda or Barington after the hedge fund request copies of financial statements and other records from the paint and platics company in a Schedule 13D/A filing with the SEC. The move comes just a week after another activist called for the sale of the company's Akron unit.

According to the filing with the SEC: "On October 25, 2007, Barington and Barington Companies Offshore Fund, Ltd. delivered a letter to the Company demanding ... a listing of the Company’s stockholders and copies of certain books and records of the Company in order to enable [the hedge fund] to investigate and communicate with the Company’s stockholders regarding matters relating to their mutual interests as stockholders."

The purpose is reportedly to evaluate "the use of corporate assets, the levels and types of compensation, perquisites and benefits provided to directors and executive officers of the Company, the nature of any family, business or personal relationships between the Company’s executive officers and directors, and certain decisions by the Board or its committees regarding the foregoing matters or otherwise affecting Board oversight, the management of the Company or other interests of stockholders."

The move comes just a week after Ramius Capital disclosed a 7.6 percent stake and nominated four directors to the company's board while pressing for an auction of the company. According to that activist, "Ramius' nominees can prove valuable in helping the company fully explore strategic alternatives and to focus on improving profitability."

In the end, this is all great news for shareholders. Any efforts to unlock value over the short-term through a sale would likely be a windfall for shareholders and investors willing to take a risk in the company. Combined, these factors make SHLM a stock worth watching!

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Google Inc. (NDAQ:GOOG) is rumored to be developing its own social network to compete directly against Facebook just days after losing its bid for a piece of the pie, according to TechCrunch. The new social networking platform will reportedly allow developers to build applications and focus on the U.S. marketplace as opposed to the foreign users attracted by its Orkut project.

The new project, code named Maka-Maka, is Google's attempt to build a social layer across all of its applications. The tech giant is reportedly planning to unveil this project in stages beginning in November. The new project is being built to combine all of Google's apps and services, which many people already use. Contacts are in Gmail, feeds are in Google Reader, IM buddies are in Gtalk, upcoming events are in Google Calendar, and even search history.

Google, however, has had problems converting its past projects into sustainable businesses. Its search business continues to be its largest by a long shot while adoption to Gmail, Gtalk and other new services has been somewhat slow. And let's not forget Google's existing foray into social networking through its Orkut network. This has been wildly successful outside of the states with over 24 million users but failed to penetrate the US market other than 500,000 users.

Social networking sites like Facebook have also experienced problems converting pageviews into profits. It turns out that these users tend to click ads far less than traditional web properties, making them substantially less valuable unless companies can figure out how to get money through more traditional methods.

In the end, this is good news for shareholders if Google can actually convert this into a profitable network for ads. Otherwise, this project could simply be another capital intensive spend for Google's shareholders who have already forked out countless dollars towards other projects. Regardless, GOOG is definitely going to be in the spotlight ahead of this project release.

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