Who needs venture capital money when you have litigation? Facebook was awarded $711 million in damages Thursday in an anti-spam case against Sanford Wallace, an internet marketer. The popular social networking platform went after Wallace for tapping its users' accounts without their permission and sending fake posts and messages.

Wallace has quite a reputation for spamming, having gained the nicknames "Spam King" and "Spamford" back in the 1990s, when he was good for up to 30 million spam e-mails a day.

How desperate can they get? First I received a very long-winded, 10+ page e-mail from Motley Fool with the following sales pitch :That's why I'm offering you the chance to join Motley Fool Stock Advisor for just $79 -- that's 60% OFF our regular membership rate. But a word of warning: This special discount will be available for a limited time only!

Two days later, I received another 10+ page, jargon-filled e-mail blabbering on about the virtues of the newsletter while trying to create a sense of urgency because the clock was ticking and I was going to miss out.

Hormel Foods Corp. (NYSE: HRL) pleased Wall Street this morning with an upwardly revised 2009 forecast. Thanks to a strong third-quarter performance from its Jennie-O turkey unit, along with solid results in its refrigerated foods and grocery products divisions, Hormel now expects fiscal 2009 earnings of $2.36 to $2.42 per share.

"We also benefited from better investment performance in our rabbi trust," commented Chairman, President, and CEO Jeffrey M. Ettinger in a company release.

Hormel Foods (NYSE: HRL) hasn't been a bad stock. Its recent performance is firmly in the green. Shares of Hormel have increased in value by 8% year-to-date. Over the last six months, the stock is up by roughly 16%.

Now we come to the food entity's second-quarter report, which was issued on Thursday. Do the numbers indicate that the stock will continue to trend higher? Or is now the time to sell?

Just last week, Hormel Foods Corporation (NYSE: HRL) surprised investors with stronger-than-expected first-quarter earnings. Sales during the period were boosted by healthy demand for the company's recession-friendly canned ham-like product, Spam. Today, it seems that Standard & Poor's is revealing its own soft spot for potted meat, announcing that HRL will join its storied S&P 500 Index as of the close of trading on March 3.

Hormel will replace American Capital Ltd. (NASDAQ: ACAS) in the closely watched broad-market index. The latter stock has given up nearly 96% of its value during the past year, and it's extending those losses today with a plunge of more than 16%.

Shares of Hormel Foods Corporation (NYSE: HRL) are on the upswing today, after the packaged-foods firm exceeded analysts' first-quarter earnings expectations. The company's upside surprise is partially attributable to strong sales of its infamous canned meat, Spam, which successfully lured in cost-conscious consumers.

During the recently concluded quarter, HRL banked a profit of $81.4 million, or 60 cents per share. That's an 8% slide from the same quarter last year, but analysts were expecting a profit of just 51 cents per share. Net sales rose 4% to $1.69 billion, with strong results for Dinty Moore stews, Hormel chili, and the aforementioned Spam.

We don't expect to find investment advice from opinion columns, but New York Times columnist Frank Rich unleashed a quartet to those willing to read between the lines in his recent piece "Herbert Hoover Lives."

Here's the money quote (no pun intended) from the theater critic turned political pundit: "What are Americans still buying? Big Macs, Campbell's soup, Hershey's chocolate and Spam -- the four food groups of the apocalypse."

This post is part of our Big Company, Small Town series, featuring large companies and the small towns in which they are headquartered.

Ah, Spam. Doesn't the word make your mouth water? Or maybe not. Either way, Spam must be given its due. It is the most famous of the mystery meats, those exciting concoctions of the meat-packing industry. It has been sold by the billions of cans since its invention in 1937. It helped feed the Allies and win World War Two. It is central to a Monty Python skit about Vikings in a greasy spoon, and now a Broadway musical. It provides a name for unwanted e-mail. It theoretically lasts forever. And it is a product of the Hormel Foods Corporation (NYSE: HRL).

Spam is made in several places, but its ancestral home and main production facility is in Austin, Minnesota, sometimes called Spam Town. Austin is the small town south of Minneapolis that is home to Hormel, proud maker of all things Spam. (I should note that Hormel would prefer that we write "SPAM luncheon meat" but I don't think we'll take that suggestion too seriously.)

Hormel has long dominated the town of Austin, and not just because the Spam Museum is located there. It is by far the largest employer in town and the majority of workers in Austin work for Hormel, producing many of the company's meaty foods. Hormel's roots in the town go deep. Drawn by the town's good rail and river access, George A. Hormel opened a meat packing business there in 1891, and his small company eventually grew into the billion-dollar colossus that today owns a dizzying array of food brands, from Chi-Chi's and Valley Fresh to Dinty Moore and, of course, Spam. (Does it seem fair that one company gets to own both Dinty Moore and Spam?)

In tough financial times, certain food products and food preparation ideas seem to gain increasing favor with consumers. People try to find ways to prepare nutritious and interesting meals while gaining greater purchasing power from their hard-earned dollars.

Just the other day, some of us bloggers were engaged in a lively email chat regarding some of our tried-and-true strategies for stretching our grocery dollars. As you can guess, ramen noodles almost immediately took center stage. I was entertained with stories of the many ways that the slender pasta can be made quite appealing. For instance, if you take any brand of chunky salsa, cut it 50% with water, add a sliced hot dog and pour the heated mixture over the noodles, it's really a very delicious and satisfying meal.

As the discussion ebbed, I couldn't help but be amazed that no one had mentioned SPAM, by Hormel Foods Corp. (NYSE: HRL). Surely, I thought, these people must know about the illustrious history of SPAM! Could they ignore the fact that SPAM has carried literally millions of people though hard times since prior to World War II? Though there is probably a ratio of three SPAM jokes to every one SPAM recipe, the fact remains that Hormel's SPAM, in all its variations, still sells exceptionally well. It sells even better as times get tough, as indicated by a recent Associated Press overview.

The Associated Press reports that Spam sales are on the rise. Cans of Spam -- a pig byproduct -- are flying off the shelf as consumers are turning more to lunch meats and other lower-cost foods to extend their already stretched food budgets.

As I posted, consumers are going on a recession diet. I had not thought of Spam as a way to play this trend. But its sales are up 10.6% and its manufacturer, Hormel Foods (NYSE: HRL) has seen its profits rise 14%. But the price of Spam is up more than Hormel's stock, with the average 12 oz. can costing about $2.62. That's an increase of 17 cents, or nearly 7% from the same time last year.

Despite rising prices, Spam seems like a good alternative to consumers. AP quotes Kimberly Quan, a stay-at-home mom of three, who has been feeding her family more Spam in the last six months as she tries to make her food budget go further. "It's canned meat and it's in the cupboard and if everything else is gone from the fridge, it's there."

It's pretty rare that a victory in a $230 million lawsuit is only a moral victory, but Myspace, which is owned by News Corp. (NYSE: NWS), has won just such a case.

The company sued Sanford Wallace and Walter Rines for spamming the social networking site's users with phishing schemes and links to websites offering merchandise for sale or paid advertising. A federal judge in Los Angeles ruled in favor of MySpace after the con-men failed to show up for a hearing.

Why are the damages so high? CAN-SPAM, a 2003 law, entitled providers to $100 in damages for every spam message sent -- and the amount triples when the spam is sent "willfully and knowingly."

Perhaps this will send a message to would-be spammers that they shouldn't mess with MySpace. But the spammers are nowhere to be found, and it's hard to imagine that they have anything like $230 million to pay the judgment, or even the $4.7 million in attorneys fees that the judge awarded MySpace.

The Justice Department recently made headlines with its indictment of stock spam honcho Alan Ralsky, whom it accused of running a "spamming operation that, as alleged in the indictment, largely focused on running a stock pump and dump scheme, whereby the defendants sent spam touting thinly traded Chinese penny stocks, drove up their stock price, and reaped profits by selling the stock at artificially inflated prices."

Gary Weiss provides his usual skeptical insight, pointing out that what the "Justice Department doesn't say is that Ralsky was hardly holed up in some cave in Afghanistan. He was operating out in the open, and was even the subject of an article in The New York Times, for Pete's sake. The Spamhaus Project has a file on this man a mile long, and notes that the FBI raided his house three years ago."

The fact that it took the feds so long to do something -- and the fact that the SEC never did anything -- is interesting and indicative of the old saying that "the wheels of justice grind slowly."

Here's the lesson investors should take from this: the fact that no one has been arrested and trading hasn't been suspended doesn't mean that nothing is amiss. Investors cannot rely on the SEC to protect them from fraudulent investments.

The Israeli company Commtouch (NASDAQ: CTCH), a leading provider of email defense systems, announced today that all proposals presented to shareholders on its proxy statement for the annual meeting of shareholders held on December 14, 2007 were overwhelmingly approved, including the reverse stock split (by over 92% of the voting shares).

I guess the question is whether this is good, bad, or insignificant news? While in some cases reverse splits signal that a company is at the end of the line, in Commtouch's case that is not the case. The company continues to execute its business model well, and as more and more defense is needed to stop spammers, Commtouch should continue to grow. The company made this move in order to reduce the number of shares, as well as get the share price up over $5, where it would be open to more institutional interest.

It seems that this is a positive move and the fact that over 90% of the votes were in favor is a good sign. But what's really important is that it continues to sign deals and execute. If it does that, the stock will take care of itself.

Aaron Katsman is the lead Portfolio Manager and Managing Director of America Israel Investment Associates, LLC. and Senior Editor of IsraelNewsletter.com. Disclosure: Writer owns stock and is long CTCH. He has no position in any stock mentioned as of 12/13707.

Commtouch (NASDAQ: CTCH), a leading provider of email defense systems, announced today that Check Point Software (NASDAQ: CHKP) has entered into a licensing agreement with the email firm. Commtouch's defense works on a three-pronged approach. Reputation service for blocking unwanted mail traffic at the perimeter, significantly reducing the necessary IT resources for handling email; Zero-Hour(TM) Virus Outbreak Protection to complement traditional anti-virus solutions; and Anti-spam, which works against all formats and languages including Asian languages, image spam and attachment spam.

Speaking to the importance of this deal, CEO Gideon Mantel said, "Check Point's choice of Commtouch as the best solution for its customers after a period of rigorous testing further validates our technology and is an important milestone for Commtouch. Commtouch is the only technology provider of three layers of email defense that, together, ensure continued effectiveness in the face of constantly changing threats. We believe this important and strategic agreement will positively impact our business."

Commtouch's business has been growing rapidly. The company had set a goal for 30 new deals for all of 2007, and it had almost achieved that goal by the end of October. Clearly there is a need for email spam protection; for investors looking at a small company making headway in this field, the stock may be a very attractive long-term play.

Aaron Katsman is the lead Portfolio Manager and Managing Director of America Israel Investment Associates, LLC. and Senior Editor of IsraelNewsletter.com. Disclosure: Writer owns stock and is long both CTCH and CHKP , as of 12/10/07.

According to a report issued by Help Net Security, as many as 19 of every 20 emails are spam. Thanks to good filters on my various accounts, I don't see much of this, so I was astounded to see how those most loathsome of subhumans, the spammers, have taken over the email world.

The report is full of bad news for those of us dependent on electronic communications. One attack during the third quarter of 2007 used more than 11,000 "zombie" IP addresses (computers taken over via virus infections) to unleash a tsunami of penis enhancement and stock tip emails.

The types of malicious spam are also evolving. Just a few months ago, I was receiving stock tip spam in the form of text saved as an image. Now that my troops have learned to discard those, the sleazebags have gone to using other file types, like PDF, Excel and Word files, to entice me to open them and thereby infect my PC.