Filed under: Business, Finance, Web services, Social Software, web 2.0

Myspace, Facebook and Twitter, the concepts are pretty much the same. You follow someone with interests that intrigues you, see what their doing, what their saying and sometimes you do what they say. Now what if they told you where to spend your money, would you? Covestor thinks so.

Covestor takes the social networking formula and applies it to the stock market in a 2 part system. The first requires members with some sort of investment background (we’ll call them experts) to build portfolios. The second has average users reviewing these members and if they like what they see, they follow them.

If these experts buy or sell a certain stocks, users get to see that and select if they would like to buy or sell along side their experts. Covestor is currently working on a fully automated system as well. You’ll just be able to put down a bunch of cash and the system will invest your money as your experts invest. Of course as an expert you get a percentage of the action, since people are following your advise.

So is this the next step in social networking? We already take advice on what to wear, where to go and what to eat. Why not take it a step further with having strangers tell you what to do with your money?

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Filed under: Deals, General Electric (GE), CBS Corp ‘B’ (CBS)

Hollywood veteran Robert Halmi and his son, Robert, helped to build an entertainment firm back in the late 1970s — and it turned out to be a great success. In fact, by 1994 they sold it off to Hallmark Cards. Then, in 2006 Robert teamed up with Kelso (a private equity firm) to acquire Hallmark Entertainment, which was renamed RHI Entertainment (NASDAQ: RHIE)

And, this week, RHI has hit the public markets - pricing its IPO at $14 per share.

Essentially, RHI develops and distributes made-for-television content and mini-series. Last year, the company posted $232 million in revenues and adjusted EBITDA of $33 million.

A key asset is RHI’s film library, which includes more than 1,000 titles (or 3,500 broadcast hours). No doubt, this is a big source of future cash flows. What’s more, the company is expanding into new categories, such as video-on-demand and pay-per-view.

Some of RHI’s customers include ABC, CBS (NYSE: CBS), GE’s (NYSE: GE) NBC, Spike Television and USA Network. There are also deals with global broadcasters, such as Antena-3, M6, PROSIEBEN-SAT1, TF1, Seven Network and Sky.

Unfortunately, the IPO market has been rocky lately. As a result, RHI had a dicey start - with the stock price falling 3.57% to $13.50 in today’s trading.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He also operates MergerBook.com.

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Filed under: Earnings reports, Deals, Bank of America (BAC), Countrywide Financial (CFC)

Thornburg Mortgage (NYSE:TMA) was one of the larger mortgage lenders in the US. Its stock now trades at $.65, down from nearly $27 a year ago. That means it market cap was $5 billion then.

According to The Wall Street Journal, TMA stated in a federal filing that “the future of the home-mortgage finance company as a viable business remains in doubt.” The company is trying to raise over $1.3 billion, but, by many accounts, that is not going well.

One of the issues that the Thornburg problems opens, again, is why Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) is so anxious to buy Countrywide (NYSE:CFC). While the largest mortgage lender may have problems which are not quite as severe as Thornburg’s, it still faces a growing number of customer defaults.

Many on Wall St. would argue that Countrywide would trade well below its current price of $4.67,down from its 52-week high of $38.89, if BAC had not made its offer. It has traded as low as $3.95. CFC has had trouble with regulators, write-offs and in being probed for its lending practices.

Could Countrywide have fallen below $1 if it did not have a firm buy-out offer? Certainly.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

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Filed under: Deals, Private equity, Blackstone Group L.P (BX)

Apria Healthcare Group Inc. (NYSE: AHG), a home healthcare services company, has seen its shares plunge from $31.57 to $15.31 over the past year. But as of today, things got much brighter, as the shares spiked 26% to $20.

The Blackstone Group (NYSE: BX) has concurred to buy the company for $1.6 billion. Debt financing will come from Bank of America (NYSE: BAC), Wachovia (NYSE: WB) and Barclays Capital (NYSE: BCS).

Apria operates about 550 respiratory and infusion therapy facilities across the US and serves more than two million patients per year. For the latest quarter, Apria posted a 35.1% increase in revenues to $528 million (there was a nice boost from the Coram acquisition). Net income was $20.8 million.

However, Apria has had to deal with Medicare payment reductions. Although, as for Blackstone, this is something it can cope with since it will hold onto the company for a while and can restructure the Apria platform.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar On the web Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He also operates MergerBook.com.

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Filed under: Deals, Management, Market matters, Economic data

The potential collapse of the $10.6 billion buyout of Huntsman Corp. (NYSE: HUN) is hardly a shock.

For one thing, rising oil prices are crushing specialty chemical makers. Another thing is that the deal was announced almost a year ago, an eternity for the closing of a merger and acquisition. The Wall Street Journal argues that private equity shop Apollo Management and its Hexcion Specialty Chemicals Inc. are making a “novel” argument to get out of the deal.

“In a complaint filed in the Delaware Court of Chancery, Hexion said Huntsman’s poor financial results — increased net debt and lower-than-expected earnings — would render the combined company insolvent,” the paper said, adding that legal experts expect Huntsman to file a countersuit. Of course, shares of Salt Lake City-based Huntsman were plunging in premarket action and will likely open much, much lower. CNBC’s David Faber points out that the Huntsman deal was “held out” to be the strongest of the LBO deals. That’s scary.

In a press release, Huntsman CEO Peter Huntsman stated, “These actions appear to be a blatant attempt to deprive our shareholders of the benefits of the Merger Agreement that was agreed to nearly a year ago.” The company added that it intends to “vigorously enforce” its rights under the merger agreement and seek to consummate the merger under the agreed upon terms.

Another buyout deal, the $6.1 billion buyout of Penn National Gaming Inc. (NASDAQ: PENN) by Fortress Investment Group and Centerbridge Partners, also remains in flux. The New York Times reported in Might that the banks were balking at the original terms of the buyout. Penn National Gaming recently extended the closing date of the merger to grant more time for regulatory approvals.

Private equity firms continue to write large checks. Blackstone Group (NYSE: BX) this day agreed to buy Apria Healthcare Group Inc. (NYSE: AHG) for $1.6 billion. Shares of the home healthcare company are surging on the news.

Whether the parties involved in the Huntsman deal will resolve their differences remains to be seen. The squabbles over these deals, including the Clear Channel Communications buyout, underscore how tough the market is for everyone. Companies looking for a large payout will need to look elsewhere

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Filed under: Deals, Competitive strategy, Boeing Co (BA), Politics, Northrop Grumman (NOC)

The Government Accountability Office has decided that the Air Force has done Boeing (NYSE: BA) dirty. It states that in the bidding process for a new air tanker, the Air Force should not have favored Northrop-Grumman (NYSE:NOC) for the project. NOC won the tanker deal several months ago.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the decision “effectively gives Boeing the chance to recapture its decades-long lock on the business of supplying planes that can refuel other planes in midair.” The GAO said the Air Force analysts had made mistakes in some of their evaluation analysis.

The whole matter stinks. Boeing has been able to push its agenda in Washington by lobbying hard to keep jobs for the tanker in the US. The Northrop proposal would have had EADS, the European airplane maker, do some of the work. Several senators got behind the idea that Boeing should get another chance.

Was the GAO influenced by Congress? Who will ever know, but if Boeing, which is the incumbent for supplying the military tankers, can get into the position to bid again, something seems a bit off.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

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Filed under: Before the bell, Analyst reports, Analyst upgrades and downgrades, Deals, Ford Motor (F), Market matters, Economic data, Oil

U.S. stock futures were mixed early Thursday morning after stocks shut Monday around three-month lows following a heavy selling session. It could be, though, that after such few days we might see a recovery of sorts in today’s trading.

On Wednesday, stocks sank again after FedEx gave its grim outlook, Morgan Stanley reported results and Fifth Third’s cut its dividend. The Dow industrials fell below the 12,000 mark during the session for the first time in three months, but ended down slightly above it, down 131 points, or 1.08%, the Nasdaq Composite dropped 28 points, or 1.14%, and the S&P 500 fell 13 points, or 0.97%.

Economic data today includes weekly initial jobless claims to be released at 8:30 a.m. EDT, the June Philadelphia Fed Index and Mays leading economic indicators, both due out at 10:00.

Oil prices remained steady above $136 a barrel despite an attack on a Nigerian oil field. Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE: RDS.A) shut down production at the offshore oil field after the attack. The field produces about 200,000 barrels per day.

In corporate news, Huntsman Corp. (NYSE: HUN) shares are plunging over 35% in premarket trading after Hexion Specialty Chemicals said late Wednesday it will not be able to go through with its deal to buy Huntsman because of Huntsman’s increased debts and lower profits. Jefferies&Co. downgraded Huntsman Corp. to Underperform from Hold and cut his price target to $15 from $28. Huntsman closed at $20.86 Wednesday.

Kirk Kerkorian’s Tracinda Corp. has increased its stake in Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) to 6.49% from 5.5% according to securities filings and now owns 140.8 million Ford shares.

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