Herb's Hotline: About That Whole Foods Deal

New saga in the making?: That's what it looks like with yesterday's deal between Whole Foods (WFMI:Nasdaq - news - boards) and Gaiam (GAIA:Nasdaq - news - boards). Six months ago Whole Foods was touting that its WholePeople.com subsidiary would become a powerful brand by leveraging it through the company's Whole Foods stores. Now it scraps that plan and does a not-easy-to-figure-out deal with a company nobody has ever heard of that has a name nobody can pronounce. A convenient way to sweep the dirt under the rug? Dunno, haven't talked to either company ... yet! But this we know: If Gaiam had paid its bills on time last quarter its operating cash flow, in all likelihood, wouldn't have been positive. Payables -- bills owed to suppliers -- skyrocketed in the quarter, so much so that the changes in payables for the first three months of this year equaled 141% of operating cash flow. That's huge by any standard. And this is a company that has $10 million in payables that are due within one year or less, and only $2 million in cash and (to give it the benefit of the doubt) $4 million in accounts receivable (that, if collected, will turn into cash). That's still not enough! More after I talk to Gaiam, whose CEO, Jirka Rysavy, lives outside of Boulder, Colo., in a mountain cabin that has no indoor plumbing. The last company he ran, Corporate Express, was sold after its stock went through the type of roller-coaster ride that ended in the kind of drop most investors would rather forget. ...

Meanwhile, back to Cyber-Care (CYBR:Nasdaq - news - boards): Mentioned it on this ay-em's RealMoney.com Columnist Conversation. Jus' in case you missed it: "Trading in this stock, and the activity on the company's message boards, epitomizes all the excesses and abuses of this market. The Cyber boards are being closely read by regulators. While this may not be an important story in the micro sense for most of you, it could have important macro ramifications if the powers that be ever take any action. It really is unbelievable, and unfortunate, that somebody can get away with posting something as fact and then come back and say, "Sorry folks, I lied." That pretty much sums up all that is wrong with most message boards." ...

Finally, good news, Charlie: A recent item here on Heinz's (HNZ:NYSE - news - boards) new tuna pouches (which, based on email reaction, will be a big hit), included my recipe for tuna salad (chunk light tuna in water with light mayo, lemon, celery and freshly ground black pepper.) I know, I know! Who cares about tuna recipes? This is supposed to be an investment site. Well, you can't perform on an empty stomach and, besides, lotsa readers, it turns out, have passion about their tuna recipes. Take Joe Files, of Memphis, Tenn. He says small chunks of sweet pickle make a nice addition. (You would expect anything less from a Southerner?!? Actually, I always top mine with a few slices of pickle and tomato. But I think chopped jalapeno is about to join the list (thanks to Bryan Sachs, whoever you are!). And whoever you are, a belated thanks for stopping by this edition of The Hotline.

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Surviving and profiting in treacherous markets June 28th, 2000, Marriott World Trade Center, New York City

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Herb Greenberg writes daily for TheStreet.com. In keeping with TSC's editorial policy, he doesn't own or short individual stocks, though he owns stock in TheStreet.com. He also doesn't invest in hedge funds or other private investment partnerships. He welcomes your feedback at [e-mail]. Greenberg also writes a monthly column for Fortune.