Earlier today I wrote about Firebrand Partners and Harbinger Capital Partners' bid to get four directors onto the board of directors at the New York Times Co. (NYSE: NYT) . The other nine directors are controlled by the Sulzberger family through a dual-class voting structure and, in his letter to the company's top two executives, Firebreand CIO Scott Galloway wrote that:

I want to assure you that we are not pursuing a change in the dual class shareholder structure. The New York Times is a great institution controlled by the Sulzberger family and we have no illusion about, or desire to change, that fact. Our efforts are focused on how we can work with management and the Board for the benefit of all stakeholders.

Amazingly, the stock is trading up about 9% on the news. But here's the problem: no matter how good Galloway's idea that the company should invest more in digital media assets, his suggestion that the company do something about it is no more than walking up to the owner of a privately-held restaurant and telling him he should serve better steaks. Maybe he'll listen, maybe he won't: But with the ownership structure that's currently in place, the New York Times board and management has no particular reason to listen to an outside shareholder.

Firebrand has no leverage -- The fact that they own almost 5% of the company's stock means nothing. If their proxy contest is successful, they'll end up with 4 of 13 seats on a board controlled by a family that has refused to allow other shareholders to have any meaningful say in the company.

I have no idea whether the company is headed up or down, short-term or long-term. But there is no real reason for the stock to be up nearly 10% today.

Let me start off by saying that Firebrand Partners is the perfect name for a fund that is willing to take on an entrenched management/board of directors at the New York Times (NYSE: NYT).

Firebrand will not seek to take on the big governance problems at the New York Times, but instead it hopes to offer suggestions to the company on how it can improve its operations. A quick peek at the 5-year chart for the stock shows that the company can use all the help it can get.

According to the New York Times, "In his letter, Mr. Galloway wrote that the Times Company should focus on its core publishing business. That should include selling assets to finance deals for digital media, he wrote."

The letter is expected to be made public via a 13-D filing today. When it is, you'll be able to find it here.

The PC business has been bizarre lately. Of course, there was the case of Dell's exploding laptops.

Something else that has been unusual: Gateway's stock has been surging.

Then again, as I wrote about in BloggingStocks.com this week, a hedge fund put the company "in play" by purchasing 10% of the stock. The fund also hired Firebrand Partners, which uses strategies to encourage shareholder value.

Firebrand's first step was writing a letter to Gateway's management. Yes, so far, it has been sheer poetry for Gateway shareholders. In fact, Firebrand Partners gets 10% of the profits on the adventure – and is well in-the-money already.

Now, another player has joined the fray: Lap Shun Hui, who was the former backer of eMachines. This company was sold to Gateway several years ago. In other words, Hui has a pretty good understanding of Gateway's value.

He is prepared to write a check for $450 for the retail operations of Gateway. He's even hinted that he might be interested in buying the whole company.

Yes, investors got a nice pop this week on Gateway. No doubt, Hui's offer is probably not the final one (anyone who has $450 million to spend certainly knows how to negotiate).

However, these buyout scenarios can get crazy and is really a game for those who are speculators – not investors.

Tom Taulli is the author of a variety of books, such as the Complete M&A Handbook and operates InvestorOffering.com.

Dell is not the only troubled PC maker. Gateway is also in a mess. Actually, it seems like Gateway really is another way of saying "troubled." This stock has been torture, which is at a lowly $1.50. The high for the past year was $3.25.

Well, Harbinger Capital Partners, a hedge fund, sees this as an opportunity to agitate for change (i.e., a better stock price). To this end, the firm scooped up 10.2% of Gateway's outstanding shares. Harbinger Capital Partners also hired a group that knows how to attack lackluster managements: Firebrand Partners (yes, the name says it all). Steve Galloway is the founder of the firm, who also built the ecommerce site Red Envelope and is also a Clinical Associate Professor at The Stern School of Business, where he teaches brand strategy to 2nd-year MBA students.

The Gateway deal is potentially lucrative for Galloway. That is, he gets a 10% cut of any profits on the adventure.

His first step? He sent a letter to Gateway's management.