SkillSoft Closing Soon

SkillSoft plc (Ticker: SKIL) is pretty much a done deal at this point and is scheduled to close on Wednesday, May 26th. On Thursday, the Irish court gave the final approval and today SSI Investments sold $310 million in notes to fund the deal. I couldn’t believe how the spread did not narrow over this past week. I’ll end up making 1% over a 3 week period (~ 17% annualized return). I’ll take it even though it’s just small change...

Stinky and Hefty

Stinky, Stinky, Stinky, Hefty, Hefty, Hefty… as the Hefty commercial goes. I got rid of Fidelity National Information (Ticker: FIS) yesterday at ~ $27.24 generating a loss of 11% on the new FIS position. Overall, the net loss for the FIS position is 4.71% if I include the initial gain. Yeah, so this was the stinky part of the trade. I picked up some Pactiv (Ticker: PTV), which owns the Hefty trash bags. This is working out so far and the odds are good for a decent bid for the company. There’s a leveraged buyout on the table and two strategic buyers eyeing the company. Time will tell…

More Fidelity National Information Services

What the heck… I picked up a few more shares of Fidelity National Information Services (Ticker: FIS) near the close today at ~ $29.65. We’ll see if a bid materializes over this weekend.

Sold Fidelity National Information Services

I just sold my position in Fidelity National Information Services, Inc (Ticker: FIS) at $28.89. Something just doesn’t feel right with the end of day sell off on some good volume. I purchased the shares on 5/7 at an average price of $28.66 netting a 0.80% gain over a 4 day period.

Argon ST Again

I’m back in Argon ST (Ticker: STST), a defense contractor, who placed itself up for sale in the beginning of the year. It looks like they finally started the auction process according to a recent Reuters report. The report stated that Boeing (Ticker: BA), BAE and Raytheon (Ticker: RTN) are currently conducting their due diligence. I picked up a few shares today at ~ $24.50 this morning.

Same Old Down Day

I don’t know if I should be happy or upset… My non retirement portfolio declined 0.67% today, while the DOW was -1.34%, NASDAQ -2.33% and the S&P 500 -1.53%. I’m out performing the market, but in a negative way. I’m not satisfied with this result. I simply hate losing any amount of $$$. I picked up a few shares of Fidelity National Information Services (Ticker: FIS) today as special situations play. A deal is brewing with several private equity players eyeing the company. We should hear very soon if a deal is inked.

Market Crash or Correction?

Damn… What just happened??? The DOW was down over 900 points at one point and closed down just 348 points (down 3.20%). I was loading up for some buys, but my fingers wasn't quick enough. My non retirement portfolio was down 1.92% today. Ouch…

InterMune Mistako and Some SkillSoft PLC

I had to clear my mind of the InterMune (Ticker: ITMN) trade yesterday, which was executed poorly. I went in with a tiny position in InterMune with the goal of making some quick $$$. I did not evaluate the downside risk at all. I was on a roll on my trades and thought this was another easy $$$. I only had one losing trade this year so how can I go wrong??? Well, the FDA gave the thumbs down and the stock tumbled 80%. Fortunately, I was not that greedy and initiated only a small position, but I’m sure some people were wiped out from this trade. I’ve learned a lot from this small mistake…

Ok, now back to business and back to basics. I picked up a bunch of SkillSoft PLC (Ticker: SKIL) today at $11.15. If you remember, I played this one a few months back and didn’t quite work out as expected. Now, it’s a different ball game. Everything is settling down towards a closing on May 24. I’m looking at a 0.90% return over a 2.5 week period (17% annualized) based on a closing price of $11.25. I view this as a very low risk trade…