Things I Am Hearing

Editor's note: This column by Doug Kass is a special bonus for RealMoney readers. It first appeared on Street Insight on Nov. 2 at 8:16 a.m. EST. To sign up for Street Insight, where you can read Kass' commentary in real time, please click here.

1. Regulatory authorities will allegedly shortly implicate and indict a number of individuals for insider trading in advance of the proposed Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT)/Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) merger.

2. Two large retail acquisitions are allegedly in the works. Sear's (SHLD) Lampert is allegedly involved in the analysis of both.

3. Martha Stewart Living (MSO) will allegedly shortly announce a meaningful acquisition of a company away from its core business.

4. Morgan Stanley (MS), JPMorgan (JPM) and Lehman Bros. (LEH) are allegedly aggressively courting additional hedge funds for acquisition.

5. PC makers are allegedly upset about the increase in the wholesale licensing fees (and its implications for profit margins) that Microsoft (MSFT) will charge for its Vista Home Basic product.

6. Wal-Mart (WMT) will stun investors and allegedly announce its forecast for slightly negative November comps (contrary to expectations of a recovery by the Street).

7. News Corp. (NWS) and several venture capital firms are allegedly eying Digg, a social news site, following the recent acquisition of Reddit by Wired Digital.

8. Google (GOOG) is allegedly targeting a number of smaller acquisitions (like JotSpot's wiki products) in order to compete more effectively with Yahoo! and Microsoft. As well, Google is allegedly considering playing a minority role in private equity's possible Clear Channel Communications (CCU) acquisition. Finally, a large secondary will shortly be announced.

9. E-Trade's (ET) online fraud problem has allegedly increased both within its company and in other online trading companies.

10. Executive reshufflings are allegedly rumored at Citigroup (C) and JPMorgan.

11. One member of the "Icahn group" is allegedly selling its entire position in Time Warner (TWX) into the recent climb.

12. Several subprime lenders are allegedly in a financial free fall. There are rumors of vultures interested in acquiring assets in this industry.

13. A large fund of funds is allegedly planning a large reduction in its fee schedules.

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