Wynnefield Capital, Inc. v. Tile Shop Holdings, Inc.

This is a developing situation. Tile Shop (TTS) was trading for around $3 until the company announced plans to de-register with the SEC, suspend its dividend, and cancel its share buybacks. The share price crashed by 2/3rds as a result.

They have been sued by a shareholder who claims that this was a deliberate scheme to take over the company at a fire sale price:

The board of directors of a Delaware corporation has a fundamental duty and obligation to “protect the corporation enterprise,” and to defend stockholders “from harm reasonably perceived, irrespective of its source.” This case involves a board that is purposely letting half of its members – including the known repeat fraudster who founded the company – buy a controlling stake in the company through open market purchases at depressed prices, without paying a fair price, much less a control premium. Instead of adopting a poison pill or taking other defensive measures to protect public stockholders in the face of a change of control transaction executed in the open market, this board helped turn a slowly developing creeping takeover into a modern street sweep.

The company is temporarily enjoined from deregistering, and some think that the stock is interesting at the current price. The complaint filed in Delaware court is posted below.

Tile Shop - Wynnefield Capi... by Nate Tobik on Scribd

Verified Complaint to Compel Inspection of Books and Records of Hauppauge Digital Inc. ($HAUP)

Regarding Hauppauge Digital Inc. (HAUP), see also these posts from other bloggers:

• Hauppauge Digital: Gone Dark but is there Value?
• HAUP Hides in the Darkness
• Paging all HAUP Shareholders...

HAUP - 220 Complaint by Nate Tobik on Scribd

Oddball Stocks Newsletter - Also Available à La Carte

Just a quick note that there are two different ways to become a true Oddball: subscribe to the Oddball Stocks Newsletter, or purchase one of the limited number of back Issues that we have published à la carte.

You can see a full list of à la carte Issues, but they are Issues 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, and 26. We just published Issue 27 to subscribers, but that will not be available without a subscription for a while.

Some comments from happy subscribers:

• "You need to raise the price!"
• "I think you guys are selling yourself short on your company visits. Saying that you are visiting or reporting from a company in your marketing, doesn’t give justice to the insight and analysis you are providing."
• "The quality of the writing (even including your new contributors) is really top-drawer."
• "Great newsletter! - you guys are either providing too much info or not charging enough..."

We also posted some excerpts to give a taste of the Oddball writing and coverage style - but just remember that the most interesting content is for subscribers only. The excerpts were on Tower Properties, Bank of Utica, small banks, Avalon Holdings, Boston Sand and Gravel, Conrad Industries, and Sitestar / Enterprise Diversified.

And also see this post for what's been going on in the Oddball Universe.

Just Published: Issue 27 of the Oddball Stocks Newsletter

Happy Thanksgiving to all Oddballs! We just published Issue 27 of the Newsletter. If you are a subscriber, it should be in your inbox right now. If not, you can sign up right here.

Also, a lot has been going on in the Oddball universe. Some blog posts to catch up on:

• Enterprise Diversified, Inc. v. Woodmont Lexington, LLC - the old SYTE (see also) is in a dispute with the manager that took control of Mt. Melrose, LLC (its divested real estate division in Lexington, Kentucky)
• Life Insurance Company of Alabama - amazing to see a report by a state regulator pointing out behavior by small company management that could cause "shareholder lawsuits".
• The Problem With "Sum of the Parts" - Managements could stop buying assets, sell overpriced (i.e. low earnings relative to purported asset value) ones to third-parties, and return capital to shareholders. But managements need to own assets to justify being paid. And managers with bigger empires get paid more.
• Looking at the Hanover Foods Corporation Annual Results for 2019 – Hanover was probably the most hated Oddball at our Newsletter meetup this year. There was only one gentleman willing to raise his hand to say he had not given up on it!