Bloomberg News reports that Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc. (NYSE: MER) has extended its Auction Rate Securities (ARS) redemption offer in response to what I thought was pressure from New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo who threatened to take Merrill to court. But what is interesting is that Massachusetts Secretary of State William Galvin was the one who announced the settlement.

While the politics of this intrigue me, those who held Merrill ARSs (pun intended) care about the terms of the settlement. Bloomberg reports that Merrill "will begin the buyback on October 15 for individuals, nonprofits and small business with $3 million or less on deposit. Redemptions for clients with $100 million or less start on January 15." This Merrill deal adds to the one it announced on August 7 -- a voluntary buyback of $10 billion worth of ARS. Merrill has a total of "30,000 clients who held an estimated $12 billion" according to Bloomberg.

This leaves many major ARS issuers lagging behind their peers. Here are four holdouts (with their 2007 municipal ARS issuance in parentheses):

• Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) ($4.3 B)
• Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) ($3.7 B)
• RBC Capital Markets ($1.2 B)
• Lehman Brothers (NYSE: LEH) ($1.1 B)

What are they waiting for?

Peter Cohan is President of Peter S. Cohan & Associates. He also teaches management at Babson College and edits The Cohan Letter. He has no financial interest in the securities mentioned.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) is supposed to be doing very well now. But, last week, its shares were off much more than the Nasdaq, and at week's end, they had recovered less.

On Thursday, Apple stock was down over 12% for the week. The Nasdaq had dropped a little more than 6%. By the end of the week, the consumer electronics giant was still off 5%.

The reason that this appears odd is that Wall Street has been unusually happy about the prospect for Apple's new line of Macs. The Apple computer's sales have been growing faster than the overall PC market. The Mac has 5% of the overall market, and some optimists think this could move toward 10%.

The iPod is still selling well, and RBC Capital says that its check of channels shows that the iPhone is selling very well.

Apple's stock price could be the victim of its own success. At least that's the convenient explanation. Despite the recent sell-off, the stock is up 80% over the last year. Even a slight problem with sales in one of its three businesses would be a disappointment.

Word on the Street is that Yahoo! Inc (NASDAQ: YHOO) CEO Terry Semel is considering resigning from the Internet giant. Rumors are swirling that if Semel resigns, potentially within the next six months, co-founder Jerry Yang will take his place as CEO and Sue Decker will become the company's president.

Last week, the Associated Press reported that angry shareholders have been looking to oust Semel for some time. One shareholder, the article noted, said he believes the company "is drifting" and "its problems ultimately lie at Terry's feet. The feeling among shareholders is widespread." The fact that rival Google Inc (NASDAQ: GOOG) has seen its shares increase nearly six-fold since going public, while Yahoo!'s stock fell 4%, has had shareholders calling for Semel's head on a plate; Google's stock has risen about 30% over the past year, while Yahoo!'s is down 10%.

Shareholders believe that Yahoo!'s younger rival is dominant in the search advertising field, partly because of its acquisitions of DoubleClick and YouTube, while Yahoo! is contending with the resignation of CTO Farzad Nazem (Jerry Yang is serving as the company's interim CTO).

Then there's the issue of Panama, which some claim to be a "Google-wannabe." Back in January, the Wall Street Journal reported some users saying that an upgrade to the online-ad system is a "hassle." Currently, Yahoo! trails behind both Google and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) in the ad-search field, and with many disappointed in Panama, investors can only hope that a new CEO, someone with "fresh eyes," would be able to make an acquisition -- online advertising company ValueClick Inc (NASDAQ: VCLK), perhaps? -- to fill in the gap.

Let's say Semel resigned and Yang took his place. Many analysts feel that this would be a positive move for the company; RBC Capital, for one, believes that shares of Yahoo! could go up $1-$2 should Semel resign. Under new management, the firm said, the company could be open to new ideas that Semel had previously rejected.

While there has been speculation the company would be put up for sale under the direction of Semel, perhaps an intense restructuring under a new leader would be what the company needs to get back on track.