American Eagle's (AEO) announcement that its CEO will be retiring may be the catalyst for the company to finally go private.

CEO James V. O'Donnell will stay on American Eagle until a successor is named, and through an orderly transition period.

Quadrangle Group, a powerful investment bank and private equity player headed by Steven Rattner (the on-again, off-again Car Czar for the Obama team), has stopped trying to raise money for it's new private equity fund, according to PE Hub. Private equity has certainly gotten a bad rap of late, with many market seers claiming that the whole PE industry was headed for a giant blowup.

The percentage of deals done by private equity shops fell by over 50% in 2008. Many of the university endowments and state and municipal pension funds that had been key patrons of PE fundraisers are now so far underwater that they can't even conceive of coughing up cash for PE, let alone explaining why they are reserving money for an asset class that looked incredibly toxic in 2008. Certainly, the PE sector will bounce back because every single pension and endowment fund manager will chase the highest returns, even if there is no strong statistical research that PE profers higher returns (or even any returns) over time.

Alex Salkever is Director of Research at Piqqem.com, a stock research community powered by the Wisdom of Crowds.

Take it Private! is a series looking at one company each week that, in my opinion, has no reason for being public. To find these companies, I screen for the following:

• high insider ownership
• a history of solid profitability
• a paltry Price/Earnings and/or Price/Cash Flow multiple
• a stagnant stock price accompanied by low volume indicating a lack of interest in the stock.

My purpose in highlighting these companies? This screen can be a good way to find deep value stocks, especially companies that may be attractive to a strategic buyer, private equity firm or management-led buyout at a premium to the current share price. However these profiles should not be interpreted as a recommendation to buy a certain stock. Let's take a look at Rex Stores (NASDAQ: RSC), a stock that I've followed with interest since 2004. Rex Stores owns and operates 111 electronics retail stores in 34 states, a business that has struggled in the face of lower-priced competitors from Best Buy (NASDAQ: BBY) to Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT)

MicrocapTrader made a compelling and difficult to refute argument about the stock's value in this post from April of 2007: "In any event, assigning a proper valuation to RSC's property brings its tangible book value up to ~ $15 per share without even considering its inventory, worth another $6 per share at its carrying value."

And then there's the ethanol.

Take it Private! is a new series looking at one company each week that, in my opinion, has no reason for being public. To find these companies, I screen for the following:

• High insider ownership
• A history of solid profitability
• A paltry Price/Earnings and/or Price/Cash Flow multiple, and a reasonable Price/Book ratio.
• A stagnant stock price accompanied by low volume indicating a lack of interest in the stock

My purpose in highlighting these companies? This screen can be a good way to find deep value stocks, especially companies that may be attractive to a strategic buyer, private equity firm or management-led buyout at a premium to the current share price. However, this profile should not be interpreted as a recommendation to buy shares in Playboy Enterprises (NYSE: PLA).

Steven Mallas recently asked What happened to Playboy stock?, and referring to the company's tanking stock price and operational problems wrote that he'd "love to be invited for an extended stay at the Playboy mansion so that I could help solve the company's problems "

Take it Private! is a new series looking at one company each week that, in my opinion, has no reason for being public. To find these companies, I screen for the following:

• High insider ownership
• A history of solid profitability
• A paltry Price/Earnings and/or Price/Cash Flow multiple, combined with a reasonable Price/Book ratio
• A stagnant stock price accompanied by low volume indicating a lack of interest in the stock

My purpose in highlighting these companies? This screen can be a good way to find deep value stocks, especially companies that may be attractive to a strategic buyer, private equity firm or management-led buyout at a premium to the current share price. However, these profiles should not be interpreted as a recommendation to buy a certain stock. For the second week, let's take a look at BAB, Inc. (OTC BB: BABB).

A word of warning: given its status as a bulletin board stock with a $7 million market cap and less than $4 thousand worth of shares trading hands on any given day, BAB Inc. is probably an inappropriate investment for the vast majority of investors. Nevertheless, it is the company's size and lack of trading liquidity that makes it a great fit for the Take it Private! series.

BAB Inc. is the parent company of breakfast franchise concepts Big Apple Bagels and My Favorite Muffin, along with Brewster's Coffee, which is served at those two stores. With just one company-owned prototype store, BAB Inc. has 126 franchised locations. The company is solidly profitable and the shares currently pay a dividend yield of more than 8%, and it appears to be sustainable.

Here's where it gets interesting: insiders own 48.72% of the stock, giving Big Apple Bagels an absurdly small float for a public company. Given that, the public company expenses alone make this an ideal candidate for a management-led going-private transaction. To tell you the truth, I'm amazed that this company is public at all.

Take it Private! is a new series looking at one company each week that, in my opinion, has no reason for being public. To find these companies, I screen for the following:

• High Insider Ownership
• A History of Solid Profitability
• A paltry Price/Earnings and/or Price/Cash Flow multiple, and a reasonable Price/Book ratio.
  
• A stagnant stock price accompanied by low volume indicating a lack of interest in the stock

My purpose in highlighting these companies? This screen can be a good way to find deep value stocks, especially companies that may be attractive to a strategic buyer, private equity firm or management-led buyout at a premium to the current share price. However, these profiles should not be interpreted as a recommendation to buy a certain stock.

For the inaugural column, let's take a look at Hastings Entertainment (NASDAQ: HAST).

According to Hastings' latest proxy statement, the company's current directors and officers own 33.91% of the company's stock. Chairman and CEO John Marmaduke alone owns 29% of the company. So Hastings definitely meets the first test: high insider ownership.