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6.28.2001 although perhaps not yet time to bet big, the shares of liberty media (LMGa) are looking a bit more attractive these days. with the purchase of deutsche telekom's cable assets, speculation is that malone is once again up to his old tricks. although there are lots of moving parts with this big media holding company, 5x free cash flow looks like a fair price...a potential LEAPS play.

6.27.2001 "real estate is a dominant global industry undergoing dramatic transformation from fragmented ownership by numerous private owners to increasing ownership by a much smaller number of very large, professionally managed, publicly traded companies." this is the business premise of security capital group (SCZ), which aims to be at the forefront of this rationalization trend in real estate. its shares represent a nice value play in light of its solid management and cash flow picture.

the knackers are picking over the bones of bankrupt loan packagers like finova. victims of the credit crunch of 1998, shops like finova have been hit hard. however, it might be worthwhile to follow the shares of criimi mae (CMM), newly emerged from chapter 11. even in the face of the recent pressure the stock has faced due to the conversion of some preferred shares, ceo william dockser recently purchased 100,000 shares at 60 cents - a sign of insider confidence. certainly, the shop has just come off of life support and could easily be whacked by more former preferred share holders lurking in the wings, not to mention a softening commercial real estate/CMBS market. but its chapter 11 recap workouts and newly expanded, incentivized board look reasonably solid.

with new york's ruling in favor of sanity on the roads, will other states follow suit? if so, telematics becomes a long-term theme worth following.