good find Roger.....they called the AA a sleazebag....I like that.....that should be incorporated into his title... perhaps "The sleazebag formerly known as the AA " or perhaps sleAAzebAAg...it would seem that Infospace is about to become the poster child of the Internet Meltdown along with Merrill.....
another piece thats good reading
Merrill Lynch maintained a list of its highest recommended stocks, selected from all
of the stocks Merrill Lynch covered -- not just internet stocks. To be selected for this list (the
“Favored 15"), to which retail brokers and the public had access, a stock had to have a 1-1 rating.
(ML 09639). InfoSpace was on the “Favored 15” List from at least August 2000 until
December 5, 2000, even though Blodget had acknowledged as early as July 2000 that the stock was
a “powder keg” and that “many institutions” had raised “bad smell comments” about it, and in
October had referred to it as a “piece of junk.” ( ML 06413-14, ML 06578). Oddly enough, Blodget
was unaware that the stock he had been covering for months carried the imprimatur of the “Favored
15.” (ML 61728, ML 61784-85). When a broker eventually complained on October 20, 2000, about
Blodget’s price objective and rating of the stock, Blodget contacted a fellow analyst: “[c]an we
please reset this stupid price target and rip this piece of junk off whatever list it’s on. If you have
to downgrade it, downgrade it.” (ML 06578). InfoSpace however, was not removed from the
“Favored 15” until December 5, 2000 (ML 06700) and was not downgraded until December 11,
2000. (ML 00388; see also ML 61784-85). |
