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Non-Tech : Conseco Insurance (CNO) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Cogito who wrote (1727)	7/11/2000 7:55:26 AM
From: Tunica Albuginea	Respond to of 4155

Allen, the markets are full these days of " unnamed sources ". This is why I try, at least, to credit the origin of my posts. Wendt's pay is very reasonable and Joe Kernan just said so on CNBC : To quote " 45 mill is very reasonable .They paid him 45 mill and stock is already up over 1 billion in 10 days since they got him ". Joe with a chuckle did go on to say however that he was willing to do it for less, than that, perhaps 43 million......... :-)) So they already got their money back 20 fold. But of course we all know why there are protestations to Wendt's pay. It is just a smoke screen to hide the knee-shaking of the shorts. They have truly been caught in the proverbial " with their pants down " on this one. Nobody, I think, had ever thought when they were shorting that Wendt would ever be called into CNC.Had they known I think the short position would have been significantly ......er... shorter ? ...is the word? <vbg> So they know they've been caught. They know that Wendt means business and he is not going to let them go. So rumors and innuendos will be rife, all day long: His pay is too high; his hair is too short; his ties don't match... Wendt is a significantly better deal for the shareholder than what carpetbagging LEH, MSDW where going to give them for GNT, 700 mill. and an emaciated almost bankrupt co. Wendt instead will turn around because he is one of the top Financiers ( can we say " the top? " ) of the last 20 years. Again, I, would never have even have " considered " investing in CNC if anybody other than Wendt had been hired. So the press reports are meaningless to me. I will be away for the part of the day but will be back later, cheers TA . . . . -------------------------------------------------------- Message #1727 from Allen Murdock at Jul 11, 2000 4:15 AM Tunica - I'm always suspicious of stories in the financial press which contain quotations from unnamed hedge fund managers who have short positions in the stock they're talking about. I don't have a problem with someone who is short making disparaging comments about a stock, but why do they not want their names involved? Any stock that has such a large short interest will get talked down quite a bit in the press. That's for sure. We can expect to see a lot more of this kind of thing. I'm not saying that Gary Wendt can or can not turn Conseco around. I don't know. He has his work cut out for him, certainly. In one way, he has not made things easy for himself by taking this large package up front. It minimizes his personal risk, but it is definitely fear fodder for the shorts. Still, shorts can be wrong. My gut feeling is that you are correct in believing that his reputation is important to him, and thus he probably does believe he can do what needs to be done. Believing and doing, however, are two different things. A most interesting situation. - Allen