Hedge fund magnate Bill Ackman of Pershing Square Capital recently had his bid to seat five new directors on the board of Target (NYS: TGT) soundly rejected by shareholders. Management has fought Ackman tooth and nail. Ackman's strategy has been fairly simple. He believes Target should sell off key real estate assets with lease backs for his stores. He also believes Target should, as much as possible, get out of the credit card business by letting a specialist company run that practice. The board has told Big Bill to just buzz off. We are seeing a current Piqqem Sentiment of Target as Neutral with actually not a ton of interest, implying no one sees a big move in the stock coming.

After rounds of layoffs and cost-cutting, Borders Group (NYSE: BGP) is struggling for survival against a large debt load and declining fundamentals.

But the company got a stay of execution yesterday when it announced that its $42.5 million loan agreement with William Ackman's Pershing Square Capital Management had been extended for another year. One explanation for Ackman's lenience is his status as the company's largest shareholder in addition to being a major creditor.

There is no holiday break for the rumor mill as word of many a company's activity is bantered about.



BUILD-A-BEAR WORKSHOP INC (NYSE: BBW)

As the stock shot up 14% the other day, it was revealed that the warm and fuzzy big bear hired Lehman Brothers to "explore strategic alternatives." Some analysts think an LBO is what will happen, and range the valuation at from $34 to $36. Very recently the company reduced its second quarter per share profit expectations to 7 cents to 10 cents, down from 15 cents to 19 cents, because of slow sales at stores that have been opened for at least a year. Here's a bear to be bullish on.


COUNTRYWIDE FINANCIAL CORPORATION (NYSE: CFC)

It's troubled times for the nation's largest mortgage lender. Earlier in the week the shares began to fall when it was revealed that they may be a part of a government investigation into subprime loans. It certainly doesn't help that three former company executives pleaded guilty to conducting insider trading in shares of Countrywide. The heat is on.


THE STEAK N SHAKE COMPANY (NYSE: SNS)

Two Texas investment groups, HBK Investments and Lone Star Funds, who between them own about 9.5% of the company, are said to be interested in digesting the whole dang thing. The 490 restaurant chain that has operations in 20 states just saw their most recent quarterly profit drop 30% from the previous year, as same store sales fell 4.7%. Gentlemen that they are though, they'll only pursue the sizzle if the board cooks it up with them.



STILL FLYING AROUND


WENDY'S INTERNATIONAL INC (NYSE: WEN)

They say they may want to sell the company, and the latest firm to gobble up shares is Tudor Investment, purchasing a 6.1% stake.


TD AMERITRADE HOLDING CORPORATION (NASDAQ: AMTD)

Jana Partners and S.A.C. Capital Advisors, who have about an 8.4% combined ownership of AMTD, are keeping the pressure on for the firm to partner up with another brokerage firm, and have now formalized their demands.



BUZZ


DJO INCORPORATED (NYSE: DJO): MMI Investments purchased 9.4% of the company's shares. When they buy in, they usually see the company acquired...Pride International Inc (NYSE: PDE): Spin off of foreign assets, or a possible takeover, has attracted interest...Legg Mason Inc (NYSE: LM): Pershing Square Capital, whose activist leader William Ackman has tried to push around McDonald's Corporation (NYSE: MCD) and Wendy's, has taken a 1.5% share of the company.

This week, the $5.3 billion buyout of Ceridian (NYSE: CEN) has gotten a lot more complex. The company's biggest shareholder, Pershing Square Capital Management, is not happy about the price tag.

More and more, private equity deals are coming under attack by activist shareholders. Then again, it tends to be an effective strategy.

As for Pershing, it has hired the investment bank, Lazard (NYSE: LAZ), to help things out.

Pershing's William Ackman has written a letter to Ceridian shareholders. Basically, he is going to seek out other suitors for the company (including strategic buyers and private equity firms). He would even be amenable to a big-time dividend or a spin-off of non-core divisions.

All in all, Ackman is just trying to get a higher price.

But it didn't have much of an impact. For the day, Ceridian's stock price was up $0.16 to $35.37. The proposed buyout price is $36.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including the Complete M&A Handbook and the EDGAR-Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements.