Kelly Black

Kelly — just want to say I love your newsletter. I know you get it all the time, but I really appreciate the sometimes brutal honesty you write with! Keep up the good work. Sean B New York, NY Dear Sean, If you keep on reading, I’ll keep on shootin’ from the hip. 🙂 Cheers, […]

Although I don’t want to encourage Barron’s by helping them sell any more newsstand copies, these guys sure don’t mind stirring the pot when they unmask their glee over the dot-com meltdown. All’s fair in love and war; but for Pete’s sake, if you’re looking to smear the entire Internet sector with a broad lazy […]

Like an episode straight outta the Sopranos, the wiseguy capo’s hot-headed crew were up to no good, running a penny stock pump-n-dump out of a NY-area boiler room operation. Once Manhattan’s crackerjack District Attorney Mary Jo “book ’em” White burst onto the scene, it was curtains for the crooks. But like a classic cops and […]

Expensive cars, leggy blonds, or maybe the dreadful comb-over. They can all be signs of a mid-life crisis or perhaps just ritualistic chest-thumping that seems to suggest boys will simply be boys. But there’s no more eight-hundred pound gorilla of them all, than Forbes’ World’s Richest People list. Don’t smirk – this is serious business. […]

The U.S. Open is upon us, and tourists have descended on my sleepy little town like locusts. An unusual heat wave earlier this week sent northern Californians running for shade, but yesterday afternoon we were treated to a heaping dose of chilly London fog. Sounds like a terrific analogy for all the crazy weather we’ve […]

The FCC is busy conducting some last minute due diligence over America Online’s shady instant messaging (IM) policies. Unfortunately, it’s little more than feel-good window dressing. While most investors have long since put the AOL/Time Warner merger to bed, instant messaging is one of those crucial points that demands a triple shot of scrutiny. As […]

If you’re an entrepreneur in training you ought to be taking notes. EBay announced plans to acquire Half.com yesterday in a blockbuster stock deal valued at roughly $350 million. It’s a win-win move for both companies; but for one serial entrepreneur, it’s a four minute mile in front of the home crowd. Joshua Kopelman is […]

In a charming twist of irony, eToys announced plans to acquire eParties’ limited assets for $1.6 million in stock. The struggling party planner sent its entire workforce packing on an extended summer vacation earlier this month, before publicly acknowledging the pending sale. Successfully hatched from the “original” Net incubator, idealab!, it’s only fitting that eToys […]

Kudos to E-Loan for yanking Fair, Isaac out of the ivory tower and taking ’em behind the woodshed. I almost broke down and added a round lot of the Web mortgage lender to my portfolio just for sentiment’s sake, but I’m no fan of e-financials when sheriff Greenspan is circling the block. If you’re not […]

Someone recently compared the growing list of fly-by-night Web incubators to a group of Elvis impersonators. Truer words were never spoken. But one such start-up who slapped on the moniker, hoping to add a little giddy-up to its stock price, has leapt from the frying pan and into the fire. Most have heard of Jersey-based […]

Belgium-based Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products wrapped up its half a billion dollar stock buyout of privately held Dragon Systems yesterday. But it’s been just another day at the office for retail investors who’ve seen Lernout on a shopping spree since the mid-90’s scooping up guppies. The speech recognition software maker has been using some […]

The dot-com boneyard is making room for financial news Web site and print magazine Individual Investor