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

To: Tunica Albuginea who wrote (1925)	7/23/2000 8:29:44 AM
From: Robert T. Quasius	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 4155

Thanks for culling some good posts from the Yahoo board. There is a lot of garbage posted there, and I don't bother to wade through most of it. Any of the shorts out there care to do likewise, so we can have a balanced view?

To: Tunica Albuginea who wrote (1925)	7/26/2000 11:19:36 AM
From: Tunica Albuginea	Respond to of 4155

WSJ: CNC BULLS and BEARS DUKING IY OUT From Wall Street Journal July 24, 2000 Despite Wendt's Arrival, Conseco Bears Are On The Rise By ALLISON BISBEY COLTER interactive.wsj.com^CNC NEW YORK -- Gary Wendt's arrival at the helm of Conseco Inc. (CNC) may have lifted the company's stock price, but there are more people than ever betting on the insurer's demise. The level of short sales not yet closed out, or short interest, in Conseco shares rose to 63.9 million shares on July 14 from 57 million shares on June 15, according to figures released by the New York Stock Exchange late Thursday. Conseco, which was trading at around $5 a share in mid-June, rose as high as 11 3/8 after Wendt, the former chairman and chief executive of General Electric Co.'s (GE) GE Capital Corp., took over at the end of last month. Wendt replaced founder Steven Hilbert, who was forced by the board in April to resign as chairman and chief executive. While the rally early this month was undoubtedly fueled by short covering, market watchers say some of the bears who took cover were replaced by a new crowd who felt more comfortable shorting the stock at higher levels. Conseco closed at 8 1/8 Friday, down 1/16 or 0.8%. The stock is 80% above its recent low of 4 1/2, reached in May, but still well below the 52-week high of 31 5/8, reached in July 1999. Conseco traded as high as $58 a share in 1998, before the company bought its consumer finance business, the former Green Tree Financial, for $6 billion in stock. While no one questions Wendt's reputation, Conseco bears say they're as convinced as ever that the company is unsalvageable. Add up the strikes, as they see them - a highly leveraged balance sheet, a subprime lending business that soaks up cash flow, the likely loss of insurance business following a downgrade of the Conseco's claims-paying ability - and you have a company headed for a major capital restructuring that will inevitably favor its creditors over the shareholders. Short sellers point to Wendt's $45 million signing bonus as evidence that the new CEO is less than certain about his ability to turn things around. "Strip away all of the smoke, what you've got is a lowly rated product in an industry where that's a major liability," one investor with a major short position said. "Even the greatest people have not been successful in saving some companies." But as Alan Abelson used to say in the television ads, the people buying Conseco are equally convinced the stock is going to rise. Conseco bulls point to a shakeout in the subprime lending business that will ultimately benefit Conseco Finance, the abundance of other assets that can be sold, and, ultimately, to the size of the short interest itself, as positive factors. They note that, by his own admission, Wendt forfeited $20 million to take the top job at Conseco. That's the difference between his signing bonus and what he would have received under a non-compete agreement with his former employer. Minneapolis financier Irwin Jacobs, who owns just under 5% of Conseco, believes a number of people have continued to short the stock on the way up. "It's been a pretty constant number" of short sellers, he said, noting that the volume of shares traded over the past few weeks was insufficient to cover a sizable amount of short interest. Conseco's average daily trading volume is currently running at about 7.6 million shares. ------------------------------------------------------ TA

To: Tunica Albuginea who wrote (1925)	7/30/2000 2:55:18 AM
From: Tunica Albuginea	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 4155

REVIEW OF RECENT POSTS ON CONSECO ( 7-30-00 ) . . RECENT ARTICLES ON GARY WENDT AND CONSECO . . 7/27/00 BUSINESS WIRE: CONSECO ANNOUNCES RESTRUCTURING messages.yahoo.com . . 7/27/00 IRWIN JACOBS WANTS TO PRODUCE A SHORT SQUEEZE. .........AD IN WALL STREET JOURNAL messages.yahoo.com streetmonkey.com . . 7/26/00 LEHMAN MAINTAINS OUTPERORM II ON CNC Message 14109720 7/24/00 BLOOMBERG: WENDT GETS RID OF LEOPARD CHAIR AND .......PROTECTS SHAREHOLDER EQUITY: quote.bloomberg.com . . 7/19/2000 WENDT HIRES Ex-GE CRISIS TEAM messages.yahoo.com. . 7/12/2000 20 MILLION PAID TO HIRE WENDT Part I messages.yahoo.com. Part II messages.yahoo.com. 6/30/2000 WENDT BACK FROM HONEYMOON messages.yahoo.com. ====================================================== . CURRENT SHORT INTEREST 7/22/2000 messages.yahoo.com. ======================================================= VARIOUS ISSUES IN CNC: BANKRUPTCY 7/22/2000 Part I messages.yahoo.com. Part II messages.yahoo.com. Part III messages.yahoo.com. . . MR.T.LEE'S PREFERRED STOCK messages.yahoo.com; messages.yahoo.com. . =========================================================== CNC CHART stockcharts.com[L,A]DCCLYYMY[PB10!B20!B30!F][VC60][IUH14,3!LI14,3!LC20!LK14] . ========================================================== MAGAZINE ARTICLES ON GARY WENDT Aug. 7, 2000 :BUSINESS WEEK ragingbull.altavista.com Comments on Business Week Article: Message 14127197 . . 1997 FORBES/GECAPITAL: " BLOWING BUBBLES " forbes.com . ========================================================== PREVIOUS REVIEW POSTS . . July 5, 2000: REVIEW OF GARY WELCH LIFE AND ARTICLES Message 13993832 . July 10, 2000: W S J : GE Capital’s Wendt: " A BRUTAL NEGOTIATOR " Message 14023303 TA