The bottom is $0 unless their search engine improves. Did you see googles new feature? Corrects spelling if you misspelled a word wrong. Google also going public soon and will have lots of money to improve even further.
What does ASKJ really have besides many many many 144 filers and a crummy search engine with a Cartoon Butler attached to it?
Hey, if you lose all your money you can say the Butler did it.
ha ha ha!!
Remember all those Wall Street analysts that but out buys on this stock and it was all a stock scam laddering IPO?
Maybe their is some press coming for the Butler? Goldman Sacks actually put this POS on their recomended list at one time when it was around $65 and falling like a rock.
SEC to Begin Formal Inquiry Into Analyst Conflicts (Update4)
By Philip Boroff
New York, April 25 (Bloomberg) -- The Securities and Exchange Commission will begin a formal probe into Wall Street stock analysts' conflicts of interest, Chairman Harvey Pitt said.
Prompted in part by e-mails New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer released this month of Merrill Lynch & Co. analysts disparaging stocks the firm recommended, the agency will seek documents and demand testimony from Wall Street firms.
``We have a serious crisis in my view in credibility and confidence on Wall Street,'' Pitt said in an interview on public television's Charlie Rose show. The SEC will ensure ``if anybody's violated existing laws, those people are taken to task for that.''
The investigation, the biggest probe ever of Wall Street analysts, will examine whether securities firms committed fraud by issuing favorable research to attract or retain companies as investment banking clients.
The Merrill e-mails prodded Pitt to take action, said Edward Haber, a Boston lawyer who sued Merrill and its former Internet analyst Henry Blodget. ``The SEC and the chairman were forced into being more proactive,'' he said.
Shares of securities firms declined for the fourth day. Merrill fell $2.15, or 5 percent, to $42.50. The stock is down 21 percent since Spitzer announced the inquiry on April 8, compared with a 3 percent drop for the Standard & Poor's 500 Index.
Today, Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. fell $2.24 to $57.91, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co. dropped $2.86 to $48.13, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lost $2.28 to $77.21.
The SEC said it will get help from the New York Stock Exchange, the National Association of Securities Dealers, Spitzer's office, the North American Securities Administrators Association and the states.
Falling Stock
The probe is one of several investigations into Wall Street in the wake of Enron Corp.'s failure and the bursting of the Internet bubble. In another matter, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and FleetBoston Financial Corp. were told they may be charged with illegally demanding unusually large commissions for sought-after initial public offering shares.
The Securities Industry Association, the trade group for Wall Street firms, said it welcomed Pitt's involvement. ``If the industry is to function in the best interests of all investors -- no matter where they reside -- it's essential that uniform regulations apply across the country,'' the association said in a release.
Pitt said new rules should be set ``at the national level'' and the SEC may consider them.
He's already endorsed a proposal from the NASD and NYSE forbidding analysts from reporting to investment bankers and being paid from investment banking revenue. Moving with unusual speed, the SEC will vote on the rule May 8, he said.
He dismissed suggestions of a turf war with Spitzer. ``We do not compete to provide investor protection,'' he told reporters following a speech in New York. ``This is not a new issue, but I believe we can benefit from new information that has come to light.''
`Cooperating Fully'
Merrill spokesman Tim Cobb said the firm is ``cooperating fully with the SEC, as we do with all regulators.''
In e-mails released by Spitzer, Blodget called the Internet Capital Group, a Web commerce company recommended by Merrill, ``a disaster,'' adding ``there really is no floor to this stock.''
Prior to his appointment to the SEC in August, Pitt was a partner with the law firm Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson. He represented the Big Five accounting firms as well as Charles Schwab Corp., Merrill, and Goldman.
In a formal investigation, the SEC has authority to subpoena bank and telephone records and compel testimony. SEC commissioners have to approve the initiation of a formal probe. Most SEC investigations are begun by the staff, and are informal in nature.
Spitzer already has issued subpoenas to Wall Street firms other than Merrill. ``It takes on added importance when the SEC steps in,'' said Thomas Gallagher, head of political research for ISI Group Inc. ``If these other firms have the kind of emails that Merrill had, the impact will spread.''
State Effort
Spitzer, a Harvard Law School graduate and former assistant district attorney, caught the securities industry's attention on April 8. That's when he announced a judge's order requiring Merrill to disclose banking relationships with companies the analysts touted. In an interim settlement last week, Merrill agreed to increase disclosure of corporate clients Merrill analysts cover in research.
Spitzer has been negotiating with Merrill about a possible fine and restitution to investors. To aid Spitzer, the North American Securities Administrators Association formed a task force of states. Leading the effort are New York, New Jersey and California, along with Alabama, Florida, Massachusetts, Kansas and Utah, said Joseph P. Borg, the group's president.
In Washington, Senate committee today approved a bill that would make securities fraud a federal felony and establish new guidelines on document shredding, in response to Enron Corp.'s bankruptcy. |
