KEDM Happy Hour
Grab a 6-pack as Kuppy sits down with American financial journalist Herb Greenberg!
Herb is an OG of finance and a true “gentleman short seller.” Best known for his time as a Senior Commentator on CNBC (back when people actually cared about CNBC….), he was eventually banned from the channel for being too bearish and exposing too many frauds (which is against CNBC’s business model).
He was also well known as a senior columnist at The Street, a talking head and ex-Street.com journalist and analyst. These days, Herb publishes Herb Greenberg | On the Street, exposing more frauds and shorts, and can also be found on X here.
He’s seen it all – cycles, frauds, bubbles and crashes – and is a good friend. This one should be fun…
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Kliff Note of the Week
Cluster Buying Notes: Interesting cluster buys over at listed VC IP Group (IPO LN). A LOT is going on here, and this one easily fits in different ED buckets.
IPO owns a few stakes in now-listed companies (e.g., Oxford Nanopore (ONT LN)), but also in some quantum computing companies, which are conservatively booked compared to listed peers. Healthy b/s, big discount to reported NAV (~40%), some Metsera CVRs (o/w the Pfizer CEO said it expects to pay them in full, a whopping ~$3bn).
They recently rejected an 82.9p bid (incl CVR) from the largest shareholder, Railways Pensions Trustee, as it would ‘significantly undervalue IP’s origination platform and prospects’, with the company highlighting a ‘dense pipeline of value‑accretive milestones’ over the next 18 months.
Meanwhile, Saba is involved and continues to increase its position. Just waiting for the action here.
Strategic Alternatives Notes: Bioventus (BVS) launched a review of strategic alternatives after ‘a recent unsolicited acquisition proposal and multiple other expressions of interest’.
The medical device company seems to be executing well on its growth plan, with 2026 seeing growth again mainly driven by dd growth in its Pain Treatment segment. Plenty of operating leverage left with >70% gross margins. Still ldd EV/EBITDA despite the recent move.
Buyback Notes: Ad & marketing company MNTN (MNTN) authorized a $100m buyback, roughly 11% of its current market cap. MNTN (short for ‘mountain’ apparently) IPOed last year, and we all know what happened to software in H2.
But despite the big derating, the company has been showing strong growth, which, given >80% gross margins, is translating into serious earnings growth. Net cash is ~25% of the market cap, so the buyback is technically paid for. ~10x forward EV/EBITDA (adjusted for some heavy SBC).
CEO Turnover Notes: Dave & Buster’s (PLAY) CEO Tarun Lal is throwing in the towel and stepping down, to be replaced by current CFO Darin Harper. This is the 4th CEO in less than 3 years, so maybe turning around an outdated consumer format during a consumer recession is just really hard?
Walk through any of their stores and their games feel old and very expensive. Add some leverage to it, and we don’t envy Harper for the job he is now tasked to do.
Maybe he will realize that growing store count with a balance sheet that is already stretched is not the smart thing to do.
Golden Handcuff Notes: STAAR Surgical (STAA) has just posted its strongest first half on record, with Q2 net sales more than doubling year over year to more than $90 million. The board wants to keep the momentum.
Warren Foust received 395,494 performance options tied to share-price hurdles of $50, $75, and $100 over 10 years, with nearly half of the award weighted toward the $100 target.
The package also pulls forward his entire 2027 equity grant, effectively awarding two years of options upfront. This eliminates the need to renegotiate the 2027 grant and locks him into the same $50/$75/$100 performance structure from day one.
Buyback Notes: Teleflex (TFX) closed the $1.5bn sale of its OEM business to Montagu and Kohlberg, with the deal delivering ~$1.25bn after-tax, and Teleflex paying down $800m of debt and advancing its $1bn buyback (now ~17% of market cap).
They bought back $250m worth of shares in the last quarter, and you can expect them to continue this pace over the next few quarters.
Disclaimer. KEDM is provided for informative purposes only. No due diligence has (yet) been performed on the names on this list. The list might change strongly on a regular basis. This overview does not constitute advice; always do your own due diligence. For the full disclaimer, please go here.