The Five Dumbest Things on Wall Street This Week

In other gripping news, according to Liberate, it has withdrawn all prior guidance, which it pretty much did a month ago. Chairman and CEO Mitchell Kertzman, who had planned to switch to the post of executive chairman by New Year's, will hang on in his current post until the 10-K/A and 10-Q are in.

And, oh yeah, at the bottom there was one more bit of news: As a result of Liberate's audit -- which at last count had uncovered not $1.84 million, but $10 million of questionably appropriate and/or timed revenue -- the company is canning Donald Fitzpatrick, the company executive appointed chief operating officer in June.

Oh, yeah. Firing the No. 2 guy at the company, on account of some financial-related issues. Yup, yup, yup. No big deal. Move along, folks. Nothing to see here. Just go about your business.

4. Sweet Jain

Speaking of ousted CEOs, we at the lab call your attention to former InfoSpace INSP chief Naveen Jain, who was "terminated" by his board so quietly Dec. 21 that we didn't notice he was gone until after Christmas.

And that's a shame. See, we have a soft spot in our hearts for Jain, and not just because he always returned our calls when we phoned to ask him Dumb questions.

Naveen Jain Remembering InfoSpace's ex-CEO

No, the reason we love Jain is that when Internet stocks were at their giddiest, no one was giddier than he. Jain was the guy who told TheStreet.com -- and anyone else who would listen -- that his startup would be worth a trillion dollars someday. Not bad for a company whose shape-shifting business has been a mystery to most people, including us; we're pretty sure, though, it has something to do with syndicated and/or wireless information distribution or transactions.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. In hindsight, what were we thinking? But back in the days, Jain's goofy immodesty was endearing. In murmured tones at investment conferences, portfolio managers made fun of the excitable nerd who justified his naked egotism with the excuse that he came from Microsoft MSFT. But when Jain took to the podium, professional investors listened. And as his stock climbed, they piled in.