The Bizarre Story of Data Transmission Just Got More Bizarre

The Thursday Thud:

The circle game: What makes this story so great is that it's real; they don't write scripts this good. Here's Data Transmission (DTLN Quote), no stranger to this column, whose principal business is selling commodities quotes to farmers using computers supplied by the company.

A year ago, at the urging of hedge fund manager Peter Kamin, who owned more than 5% of the company, it hired an investment banker with the intention of finding a buyer. Kamin became chairman of the committee that looked into ways to get the stock higher, including the sale of the company. The stock reacted by leaping to as high as 46.

Short-sellers, in turn, started betting that the company's basic biz model was flawed because much of Data Transmission's offerings could increasingly be had for free on the Internet. ...