The Five Dumbest Things on Wall Street This Week

3. My Beamish Boy! O Frabjous Day! Callooh! Callay!

We got a lot of abuse recently for making fun of American Technology Corporation (ATCO Quote - Cramer on ATCO - Stock Picks).

Well, here we go again.

ATC, as you may recall from our writeup last month, is a San Diego-based company that's developing what sounds like an undeniably cool product: Speakers that can beam sounds as precisely as a laser shoots light.

Unfortunately, as we argued, ATC's stock, for a variety of reasons, doesn't seem as cool to us as its gadgetry. We specified a few of our concerns: a justifiable threat of major shareholder dilution, minuscule revenue and suspicious press release puffery.

This week, things only got worse.

For one, ATC settled a lawsuit filed earlier this year by HST, in which HST sought $811,000. In fact, ATC says it expects to record a charge of $950,000 related to the settlement, covering a $458,000 cash payment and the issuance of 100,000 shares of restricted stock.

Also this week, ATC announced that Jim Irish, who was appointed chief executive less than eight months ago, had resigned "by mutual agreement with the board of directors." No reason was given. In February, Irish said in a statement, "In all my years of business leadership and development, I have never encountered an opportunity with such tremendous potential as now exists for ATC and its sound technologies. ... I am excited to spearhead the transition from R&D into the sales and marketing of these paradigm-changing products and technologies."

"Our company is at an important crossroads in our development," ATC Chairman Woody Norris was quoted saying. "After years of research and development we are now transitioning into the all-important marketing, branding and sales phase for our patented technologies. ... We are very pleased to have Jim Irish with his 20-plus years of company-building expertise to lead us into this next stage of product and revenue growth."