Update on some things we covered in class

Updates on Home Depot, Adelphia, and the XM/Sirius potential merger:


* Home Depot had their annual meeting and it was quite a change from last year's! The new CEO made a point to be more open! From the NY Times:

"Frank Blake confronted the past, saying he regretted last year’s now infamous annual meeting, when members of the board stayed home and his predecessor, Robert L. Nardelli, refused to take questions from investors.

“There is no better way to deal with a mistake than to acknowledge it, fix it and move forward,” Mr. Blake said. “We apologize for last year’s meeting. It was a mistake and we won’t do it again.”

Over the next two hours, Mr. Blake strove to make this year’s meeting a model of openness "

* The Rigas's conviction was upheld today. From the Houston Chronicle:

"The 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the conviction of the 82-year-old Rigas and his son, Timothy J. Rigas, on charges of securities fraud, conspiracy to commit bank fraud and bank fraud. The court did reverse their conviction on one lesser count.

Lawyers for the men had argued that fraud charges should be thrown out because accounting terms were not explained to the jury.

"Defendants are wrong," the Manhattan appeals court wrote bluntly. It added that the government was not required to present expert testimony about accounting requirements because the requirements are not essential to the securities fraud.""

* Anti-trust? C/Net reports that "...the U.S. Senate's antitrust subcommittee on Wednesday urged regulators to block Sirius Satellite Radio's proposed acquisition of XM Satellite Radio Holdings."

I obviously have no inside information and am not an expert on it, but I think it should be allowed to go through. MP3s, CDs, and local radio seem to provide competition.

*Totally unrelated, but interesting Merrill Lynch employees will now get three sick days a year instead of 40. Interesting that it was announced just before the "beach flu" season hits.