Value Investing News

The latest festival of stocks is now up. It features plenty of great posts that'll keep you busy this week. But, it's a little different than in previous weeks: "Several of the best posts of the last week happened to be on the same topics. Rather than attempting to fight the tide and admit inferior posts in their place, I decided to embrace the idea of multiple posts on the same topic."

The long awaited Topps post at Gannon On Investing is finally here. Other people have written about Topps (TOPP) and several of them have done a good job. But, at about 5,000 words (you've been warned!) I hope this will be one of the more detailed looks at Topps and the Eisner offer. As the title suggests, this post is strongly critical of the $9.75 a share offer.

StreetInsider 13-D story on the latest developments at Topps (TOPP) . Crescendo's representative, Arnaud Ajdler, declared this new low after being removed from a committee overseeing the "go-shop" process where Topps can solicit better bids for forty days. The new committee with effective power over the process includes the Chairman & CEO, Arthur Shorin.

Gannon on Investing discusses the removal of dissident directors from the "go shop" process of soliciting better bids. The post includes extensive excerpts of the actual 8-K filed today by Topps (TOPP) . There's also some personal opinion at the end of the post. It's not positive; it is honest.

The latest on Topps (TOPP) from the AP. The board has removed board members Arnaud Ajdler and Timothy Brog from the committee monitoring the "go shop" process due to concerns about whether they "could adequately represent the best interests of the company's stockholders given their publicly stated opposition to the deal". The committee includes two other directors who voted for the deal.

Cheap Stocks strongly criticizes Eisner's $9.75 a share offer to acquire Topps (TOPP): "…his offer was simply not representative of the company's value, in our humble Cheap Stocks opinion." Cheap Stocks is one of the few outlets that mentions the $9.75 a share offer includes the acquisition of almost $2.20 a share in cash. So, I'd say Cheap Stocks' opinion deserves to be less humble than most.

And so it begins...here's a post from Street Insider's 13D Tracker Blog that includes the letter that is sure to set off a fight between Eisner and friends and Crescendo Partners. The trading card and bubble gum company, Topps (TOPP), hangs in the balance.

Here's Jon Ogg of 24/7 Wall Street's take on the Topps (TOPP) situation. He wrote this before it became widely known that there would be a battle over the deal, because a board member was opposed to the deal and with Crescendo Partners would fight the $9.75 a share offer.

A post from Gannon On Investing discussing the Topps (TOPP) deal. Since the post has been updated, it mentions the battle that is now brewing over the bid. It seems Michael Eisner and company will have to face off against Crescendo Partners if they want to get this deal done at $9.75 a share.