Lordrobot (89.80)

Two Jews and a Redneck wedding

February 14, 2011 – Comments (1) | RELATED TICKERS: JOE , C , BAC

One million acres of scrub pines and falling. Several months ago Einhorn shorted then trashed St. JOE and the stock tumbled. Out from under the rubble emerged Fairholm Capital's Berkowitz who had just witnessed his 28% of JOE stock fall to the basement. Berkowitz immediately thanked Einhorn for dropping the stock saying he would like to buy the whole company. 

Over the next several weeks the Berkowitz strategy seemed to work and JOE made something of a comeback. Then the Borscht hit the Baked Beans. On Friday Joe's board made an announcement that the board was interested in maxim shareholder value and had hired Morgan to look into alternatives including selling the company. Berkowitz had acquired two seats on the Board and the press wanted to know why selling the company was now on the table. This did not jive with Berkowitz's prior statements that the company had great long term value. Then Berkowitz gave his now famous "Stay Tuned" speech. So instead of being a positive, the Morgan situation sounded more like a mayday from a torpedoed launch. 

Meanwhile, Einhorn reiterated that JOE was way over valued. 

The float is 88 million shares. 29% are short shares the rest long. No more shares can be borrowed. So it looks like it could be a short squeeze. THEN COMES MONDAY.

Berkowitz announced that JOE's board had not followed any of his requests. He then announced he was retiring from the JOE Board. But then came the ICING... the KISS of DEATH...

Fairholm Capital nominated former FL Gov and Senatorial seat loser Charlie Christ to JOE's Board.

Stay tuned? Not a chance; its time to bail out.