The investigative business journalism Web site ShareSleuth has posted its second story since it started this summer, and once again majority owner Mark Cuban has shorted stock in the company that the piece focuses on.
The piece is about UTEK Corp., a Florida-based technology transfer company, and the article states, “Cuban also has sold short 75,000 shares of UTEK’s stock at an average price of around $20 a share. Christopher Carey, editor of Sharesleuth.com, does not invest in individual stocks and has no position in the shares of Xethanol or UTEK.” UTEK’s shares closed on Wednesday, Oct. 25, at $19.01. The last time the shares traded at $20 was on Oct. 2, meaning that Cuban invested in the stock at least three weeks before the article was published.
As far as the journalism involved, this article is an exhaustive piece of research that discloses some shady practices by this company and its business partners. Read more here.
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The Mark Cuban-backed sharesleuth.com blog seems to be doing a fine job lining his pockets at the expense of honest shareholders. Unfortunately, it appears alarmingly easy in this day and age to pump-down the value of one's short position by hiring a blogger to tenuously string together a questionable "story" and conclude guilt by association. Cuban's use of scare tactics to sway honest shareholders while attempting to sabotage the value creation of a promising technology transfer company like Utek should be a matter of concern to all. Morningstar's Stock Grades on 11/03/06 for Utek are A+, B and C+. Why the disparity between Morningstar's research and Cuban's pseudo-investigative reporting? Seems Cuban and his blog-writer have a conflict of interest.