You had to see this coming:

According to a BBC report, It appears that life at Craigslist has become even more interesting. As you may know, Craigslist has been embroiled in a legal tussle with Internet giant eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY). After purchasing a 28.4% stake in the company over a year ago, eBay now claims that Craigslist's founder Craig Newmark and its chief executive Jim Buckmaster have done things to disadvantage eBay's stake in the company. The BBC report didn't specify exactly what eBay claims Craiglist officials have done to "dilute" eBay's interests. Craigslist has now filed a counter suit against eBay, alleging illegal competition. You can get more information on eBay's original lawsuit here.

The BBC report states: "The lawsuit demands that eBay restore all shares of Craigslist owned by eBay or for the court to require eBay to divest its holdings in Craigslist." This demand is apparently supported by the premise that after acquiring its stake in Craigslist, eBay gleaned operating information from that company and then used it to launch Kijiji. Craigslist also insists that eBay, "[...] violated [Craigslist] trademarks and used misleading advertising on Google to run ads for its rival Kijiji site."

What a pretty picture of corporate raiding we have here. I think the outcome of this legal battle shall be dictated by two particular things. First, Craigslist will need to provide a first class package of documentation to support its legal counter claims. Second, it wouldn't hurt if it could find a judge who has been ripped off using eBay...

It did not take long for Marvel Entertainment (NYSE: MVL) to announce the intended 2010 release of Iron Man 2. This came one day after Marvel reported its latest earnings and the spectacularly successful weekend debut of its newest hit movie.

Having seen Iron Man with the cast and crew -- a prejudiced crowd if there ever was one -- I can tell you it is worth catching Iron Man on the big screen.

Meanwhile, if you are a Marvel comics fan, as I was growing up, and can't wait for the sequel, let's hope that the June 13 premiere of the The Incredible Hulk tides you over until 2010. And then, starting with Iron Man 2, you can look forward to the gates opening wide for the pantheon of Marvel Super Heroes.

It was announced Monday that Valero Energy (NYSE: VLO) has entered into an agreement with Albertson's LLC to acquire 72 convenience stores and fueling kiosks. This will expand Valero's company-owned retail presence in Texas, Colorado, Arizona and Louisiana, where Valero already operates approximately 950 company-owned Corner Store locations.

Valero, one of my top picks of 2007, is my worst of 2008 -- Chasing Value: 8 stocks for 2008 -- April Bunge's back. It has been a turbulent couple of years in the oil industry and as my colleague Doug McIntyre reported earlier -- Goldman makes case of $200 oil -- it does not look to get much better.

In the mean time, while Valero's margins have been squeezed this year, it looks like it is intent on diversifying into more of a retail, convenience outlet and sell snacks and coffee in addition to its fuel products. "This transaction offers great synergies with our existing retail network and supply chain," said Gary Arthur, President of Valero's Retail Division. "All of these sites are relatively new and offer strong potential for merchandise growth." Should the 7-Eleven and Circle-K chains be worried? Not yet.

Sheldon Liber is the CEO of a small private investment company and the principal for design and research at an architecture & planning firm. He writes the columns Chasing Value and Serious Money. DISCLOSURE: I currently own shares of VLO.

Focus LLC, investment banking service provider, has announced the acquisition of U.K. based Avialec by Kapco-Valtec, in a move aimed in part at expanding Kapco-Vatec's marketing base. Avialec, based in Petersfield, England, is a provider of electrical components to the aerospace industry. Building on eight years of growth, Avialec company leadership sought the benefit of increased aerospace industry clout which Kapco-Valtec presents.

Barrie Prescott, CEO of Avialec stated in the Focus LLC press release, "I had decided it was time to put Avialec under the wing of a larger progressive organization with financial firepower to realize the many opportunities before us ... FOCUS was the perfect firm to help us realize our goals."

Kapco-Valtec, a leader in aerospace supply chain management, shall provide market leverage for Avialec to realize it's expected growth potential, while gaining the benefit of greater exposure to Avialec's major accounts in the U.K. Likewise, Kapco-Valtec shall provide broader exposure of Avialec to U.S. aerospace accounts.

The Focus LLC investment bankers press release stated: "As is the case with the growing number of international M&A transactions, this deal is a win-win for both companies. We were pleased to be able to complete the transaction in just over four months, said Manan Shah, a FOCUS Partner."

For further information regarding this acquisition and the services of Focus LLC, please visit the Focus website at www.focusbankers.com.

Bipartisan legislation aimed specifically at increasing government regulation of railroads threatens to hamstring 25 years of successful growth and investment by that industry. The Railroad Antitrust Enforcement Act of 2007 (H.R.1650) would effectively undo specific and narrow antitrust process exemptions that were provided for the railroads by the Staggers Rail Act of 1980. The Staggers act effectively halted what had previously been a massive and staggering decline by American railroads. Currently, the railroads are effectively and efficiently regulated by the Surface Transportation Board.

The American Association of Railroads reported in a press release, "Since Staggers, railroads and their customers have benefited enormously. Railroads have reinvested $420 billion back into their systems since 1980. The result has been improved service and safety, and nearly double their traffic volumes -- all while lowering average rates by more than 50 percent in inflation-adjusted terms. That means the average rail [shipping customer] can move twice as much freight today for the same price as in 1980." AAR further reports that a just-released Morgan Stanley survey found customer satisfaction with rail service is at a historical high.

It should also be noted that the devastating decline suffered by the railroads prior to passage of Staggers is arguably the lynch pin of this nation's inability to establish reliable, desirable, and profitable mass transit for commuters by rail. The rate of investment by our freight railroads since 1980 could be one facet in bringing effective local and nationwide passenger rail service back within our grasp. The passage of H.R.1650 may effectively destroy any further hope of developing high-speed, cross-continental passenger rail service and the further expansion of local commuter rail services.

In an age when surface transportation is becoming incredibly more expensive and our airlines are in perilous distress, do we really need to limit our options by passing legislation which could severely injure a system that works? You may wish to consider contacting your legislators in an effort to halt H.R.1650 dead in its tracks.

Shares of electronics retailer Radioshack (NYSE: RSH) are trading lower in premarket trading after putting up less than impressive earnings this morning.

The company was able to slightly come in above analyst estimates, with 30 cents per share compared to the forecast 29 cents per share, but the rest of the report left much to be desired. Compared to its first period last year, earnings were down slightly, as the company was able to show earnings of 31 cents a share last year. Revenue was also lower, by 4.4%.

One area that analysts always look at in judging a company's performance is same-store sales. Radioshack was weak in this area as well, posting a drop of 4% year-over-year. The company blamed this decline on lower demand for its Sprint post-paid wireless contracts and related accessories. Excluding this weak part of its business, Radioshack stated that it would have actually seen a 0.7% increase in its same-store sales.

Defense contractor Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) posted strong earnings this morning for its first quarter of $1.75 per share, well ahead of the $1.63 analysts had been expecting.

Looking at the quarter's revenue figures, we see a nice year-over-year jump, climbing to $9.98 billion from $9.28 billion. In addition, the company lifted its full-year earnings forecast by 10 cents to $7.15 to $7.35 per share.

The company had good earnings, and lifted full year estimates, so why is the stock falling in today's action? It could be in reaction to the fact that the company's biggest division, its jet business, showed a drop in sales in the period. During the quarter, this business fell since Lockheed is in the middle of a transition from its older fighter jets to newer models such as the F-35 and F-22.

McDonald's Corp. (NYSE: MCD) continues to amaze investors.

The home of the Quarter Pounder today reported net income of $946.1 million, or 81 cents a share, compared with $762.4 million, or 62 cents, a year earlier, according to the earnings press release. Revenue increased to $5.61 billion. Wall Street analysts were expected profit of 70 cents on revenue of $5.44 billion.

Gains outside the U.S. helped off-set the weak performance of its domestic business

"For the quarter, Europe and Asia/Pacific, Middle East and Africa both delivered double-digit revenue and operating income growth," the company said. "Europe's revenues rose 23% (11% in constant currencies) during the quarter to nearly $2.4 billion, fueled by an 11.1% comparable sales increase – the highest in the segment's history."

Meanwhile, the U.S. business saw comparable sales rise 2.9% and operating income jump 5.9%. Weak consumer spending is hurting the chain, though, as March comparable sales were negative. The Illinois company, however, expects sales to rebound in April to a 2% to 2.5% gain.

Let's not forget about the coffee strategy, AKA "The Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) Killer." That's been a strong driver for breakfast traffic and should continue to do so for some time.

"Over the next 12 to 18 months, we're going to see coffee as a catalyst for sales," Thrivent Asset Management analyst Chris Scheurer told Bloomberg News.

This underscores why now is a good time for the great taste of McDonald's.

Shares of Eli Lilly & Co. (NYSE: LLY) are tanking after the drugmaker reported worse-than-expected first quarter earnings.

Net income more than doubled to $1.06 billion, or 97 cents a share, as sales of Cialis and Cymbalta climbed. Revenue rose 14% to $4.81 billion from $4.23 billion. Excluding one-time items profit was 92 cents, below the 96-average estimate of analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial. Revenue was expected at $4.83 billion. Thanks to a lower tax rate, company raised its 2008 forecast to $3.90 to $4.05, from $3.73 to $3.90.

"Following strong performance in 2007, Lilly continued to deliver solid financial results in the first quarter of 2008," commented John Lechleiter, the company's new chief executive officer, said in the earnings release. "Double-digit sales growth was once again primarily driven by volume. ...We also made appropriate investments in R&D to accelerate the progress of our mid-stage pipeline, resulting in six molecules advancing to the next stage on clinical development this past quarter, while at the same time delivering strong earnings per share growth for the quarter."

The earnings miss was due to a larger-than-expected charge for halting development of the AIR insulin inhaler. The $145.7 million, or 9 cents a share, was at least $25.7 million more than the Indianapolis-based company estimated when it abandoned the drug last month, according to Bloomberg.

Miller Tabak analyst Les Funleyder told the news service that "In the near term, our earnings picture isn't that bad for Lilly, but they have a Zyprexa problem. It is going off patent soon and Risperdal is going off patent in the second half of this year.''

Shares of Lilly fell $2.29, or 4.4%, to $49.78 in early trading.

Chalk up another problem for Overstock.com (NASDAQ: OSTK), the failing online retailer run by the wacky CEO Patrick Byrne. Yet this law enforcement investigation doesn't appear to come with any "celebration" by Byrne.

Byrne is usually proud of the company's failures, but the announcement of the latest law enforcement investigation was buried deep in a press release about the latest set of quarterly losses: On April 15, 2008, we received a letter from the Office of the District Attorney of Marin County, California, stating that the District Attorneys of Marin and four other counties in California have begun an investigation into the way we advertise products for sale, together with an administrative subpoena seeking related information and documents. We follow industry advertising practices and we intend to respond fully to the subpoena and cooperate with the investigation.

This investigation is in addition to the ongoing investigation by the SEC, as well as the litigation between Overstock and Gradient Analytics. Gradient sharply criticized Overstock in its research reports and Byrne and company cried that the reports were not true. (Oddly enough, the company still has not turned a profit several years later, and is still a horrible investment.)

Note to Patrick Byrne: Those who have bad things to say about Overstock, its business model, its operations, and its never-ending financial losses aren't necessarily short sellers who are trying to profit off bad news. Many of them are realists who have figured out how awful your company is. Sorry, but sometimes the truth hurts.

Tracy L. Coenen, CPA, MBA, CFE, performs fraud examinations and financial investigations for her company Sequence Inc. Forensic Accounting, and is the author of Essentials of Corporate Fraud.

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Live Bloggin' Google's (Nasdaq: GOOG) earnings report

Begins @ 4:00pm EST
Host: Andrew Horowitz, money manager and author
The Disciplined Investor


16:01 GOOG prelim $4.84 vs $4.52 First Call consensus; revs $3.7 bln, ex TAC revs vs $3.61 bln First Call consensus.

Google reported revenues of $5.19 billion for the quarter ended March 31, 2008, an increase of 42% compared to the first quarter of 2007 and an increase of 7% compared to the fourth quarter of 2007. Google reports its revenues, consistent with GAAP, on a gross basis without deducting traffic acquisition costs, or TAC. In the first quarter of 2008, TAC totaled $1.49 billion, or 29% of advertising revenues.

16:10 Stock is in major rally mode, the earnings beat on revenue was a major sigh of relief as there was significant concern about the Doubleclick integration (GOOG up $40 on evening, so far). Currently trading @ $503.

16:15 Stock at $497, leveling off ahead of call. Numbers in and tabled. Overall, there is a cheer and a good amount of relief.

16:20 Chart is looking good...

Wolverine World Wide, Inc. (NYSE: WWW), a footwear maker that competes with businesses such as The Timberland Company (NYSE: TBL), announced impressive earnings -- yet the stock as of this writing was down almost 3%. What gives, you ask? Well, it looks like revenues came in a bit on the light side.

According to Briefing.com, Wolverine beat Wall Street's expectations by a whopping three pennies. They came in at $0.46 per diluted share -- this represented growth over the previous year's quarter of almost 18%. But the top line was rather sheepish in terms of expansion -- Wolverine took in $288 million this quarter versus $281 million in Q1 2007. Yeah, that performance wasn't anything to be proud of, I suppose. So investors were in a punishing mood and sold the stock.

Still, Wolverine is an interesting stock that probably should be put on a watch list. It's not too far from the 52-week high, it doesn't appear to be overly expensive, and according to the company's earnings release, gross margins expanded by 100 basis points. I wouldn't necessarily get in now if I wanted to invest in Wolverine, but I'd be on the lookout for pullbacks.

Disclosure: I don't own shares in any of the companies mentioned here; positions can change at any time.

And the web wars continue. Viacom (NYSE: VIA) issued a press release yesterday touting the success of its various Internet destinations. According to traffic numbers the release cited from comScore Media Metrics, the MTV Networks Music Group achieved an increase of well over 18% in terms of average monthly unique visitors during the first quarter of 2008 versus the year-ago period.

But what is really newsworthy about the release is that management of MTV Networks, a division of Viacom, clearly wanted to rub its success in the face of its competitors. The release highlighted prominantly the fact that Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO) Music's average monthly unique visitors saw a decline of well over 11% during the same period. News Corp.'s (NYSE: NWS) MySpace Music's number dropped 8%.

Viacom houses several major web brands -- MTV.com, VH1.com, Rockband.com, etc. And Sumner Redstone et al have made it clear in the past that a major part of the conglomerate's growth strategy is, and will continue to be, exploitation of the synergy between the web brands and the complementary broadcast brands -- each entity will feed eyeballs to the corresponding entity. Whenever you watch a Viacom platform -- for example, the reality shows on VH1 on Sunday nights -- you'll always see a plug for the companion Internet site. (All media companies do this, though, so it isn't unique to Viacom.)

By no means should any shareholder take this data to mean that Viacom is now king of the 'net. No, the media conglomerate isn't there yet. MySpace and Yahoo! are still immensely powerful in their own rights (like that even needed to be said).

But investors may well want to note that Viacom is keeping up efforts to broaden its presence on the web. So long as the company constantly changes its strategies as the tastes -- and keeps up with the attention spans of the target demographic -- then it will have a fighting chance to remain relevant in Web 2.0, 3.0, 4.0 or whatever version we're in.

As aggressive as Viacom has been regarding building a web strategy, it can certainly get more aggressive. The press release offers up several examples of exclusive online content that served as drivers for the Q1 ratings -- the exclusive premiere of a Mariah Carey single, for example. Continue experimenting, Viacom. Try to think outside the box. The web is a tough battleground, and it will take all the innovative genes in your corporate DNA to beat the big guys of cyberspace.

Disclosure: I don't own shares in any of the companies mentioned here; positions can change at any time.

Whoa! Crocs (Nasdaq: CROX), the footwear and gear manufacturer, was down over 28% at the time of this writing during after-hours trading on Monday, April 14. The catalyst -- besides the fact that it's Crocs -- was a nasty little press release explaining management's belief that the company's first quarter will come in lower than expected in terms of net sales and earnings per share. Previously, Crocs was looking to do about $225 million for the top line and $0.46 per share for net income. Forget about it! Now expect between $195 million and $200 million for sales, and somewhere between a loss per share of $0.05 to break-even for the bottom line.

Well, the stock closed on Monday at $17.79, a little better than the 52-week low of $15.42 (keep in mind, the 52-week high is over $75!). According to AOL Finance, the stock, at the time of this writing, had an after-hours quote of $12.72. I'm not sure what the stock will do on Tuesday, but is it a trade? For me, no; for those who can't make it to Las Vegas and need to do some gambling, sure, you could play around with it.

I think the Crocs story is done for now. Its product portfolio is not one I have long-term confidence in. Crocs, in short, is not my kind of stock.

Disclosure: I don't own shares in any company mentioned here; positions can change at any time.

Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG) is one of my favorite companies. No, I don't own it; I should, I know, but I can't own everything. Nevertheless, I love P&G for its great collection of brands that dominate supermarket shelves. And, I also love that blue-chip dividend it pays out.

Well, the company announced that shareholders are going to get a raise. The quarterly payout increased 14% to $0.40 per share. Can P&G afford to do this? How does one check? Well, you'll want to look at a company's cash flow. P&G's latest 10Q shows that, for the latest six-month period, the Dow component generated $7.4 billion in operational cash. P&G spent about $1.2 billion for capital expenditures. Dividend obligations were $2.3 billion. Adding up the dividend payments and the cap-ex requirements shows that $7.4 billion amply took care of both financial activities. Yeah, I'd say that P&G can afford the nice double-digit increase.

Here's another nifty thing. Since the new annual payment is $1.60 per share, investors can buy P&G shares all the way up to a share price of $80 and still get a 2% yield. Yeah, that might not sound like much, but an excellent, dependable, low-risk blue-chip equity with a yield 2% or higher isn't something to dismiss. So, like PepsiCo (NYSE: PEP), Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ), and Clorox (NYSE: CLX), Procter & Gamble is a safe consumer-goods stock that should be looked to as a potential core holding. This latest dividend increase offers further evidence of such thinking.

Disclosure: I don't own shares in any of the companies mentioned; positions can change at any time.