Since early 2007, it's been rough for the shareholders of Cowen Group Inc (NASDAQ: COWN), a mid-tier investment bank. The company's stock price has gone from $20 to low of $3.54.

But lately, Cowen's stock price has perked up, primarily because of takeover overtures. For example, there was an offer from Rodman & Renshaw at $7 per share.

However, this was rebuffed. Instead, yesterday Cowen agreed to a so-called "reverse merger" with hedge fund Ramius LLC, which will own 71% of the new entity. On the news, Cowen's shares increased 37%.

The credit crunch seems to be impacting all types of private equity deals -- even small ones. Just look at the Landry's Restaurants Inc. (NYSE: LNY) transaction. The CEO, Tilman Fertitta, originally agreed to buy the company for $23.50 per share.

But now he's lowering the bid to $21 (for the 61% of the shares he does not own). That puts the deal at about $1.3 billion (when the debt is included). To evaluate the offer, Landry's has setup a special committee of independent directors, as well as retained Cowen and Co. (NASDAQ: COWN) as the financial adviser.

Landry's owns an assortment of brands, such as Landry's Seafood House, Willie G's Seafood & Steak House, and The Crab House. In Q4, the company posted revenues of $280.5 million, which was up from $272 million. However, there was a net loss of $1.9 million.

All in all, this should be a good deal for Fertitta. Over the years, he's demonstrated a good sense for value. And, with the price reduction on the Landry's deal, this looks like it could be a long-term winner for him.

In Friday's trading, Landry's stock spiked 17% to $17.91.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He also operates DealProfiles.com.

Qualcomm (NASDAQ: QCOM) is recently down $1.55 to $37.85 in pre-open trading.

US District Judge Selna issued a ruling favorable for Broadcom (NASDAQ: BRCM), prohibiting QCOM from selling W-CDMA and CDMA chips in the U.S.

Cowen says: "We continue to recommend shares of QCOM and see the stock appreciating 20% versus the market over the next year."

QCOM overall option implied volatility of 36 is near its 26-week average according to Track Data, suggesting non-directional risk.

Options Update is provided by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com

Sirius Satellite Radio (NASDAQ: SIRI) volatility at 68; Arbitrage spread tightens into FCC decision.

• SIRI is recently up $0.22 to $3.53, over 6%. SIRI and XMSR announced on 2/20/07 a merger of equals. XMSR shareholders will receive 4.6 SIRI shares for each XMSR share.
  
• Cowen says: "We expect FCC approval before Dec. 4, the end of the FCC review period. We believe approval as early as Oct. is possible. Maintain Outperform on both XMSR & SIRI."
  
• XMSR-SIRI arbitrage premium spread is at 12%. Mel Karmazin is CEO of SIRI.
  
• XMSR December option implied volatility of 68 is above its 26-week average of 51 according to Track Data, suggesting larger price risks.

XM Satellite Radio (NASDAQ: XMSR) volatility up; Arbitrage spread tightens into FCC decision.

• XMSR is recently up $1.07 to $14.69.
  
• SIRI October option implied volatility of 71 is above its 26-week average of 53 according to Track Data, suggesting larger price risks.

Daily options Update is provided by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: The Mosaic Company (MOS), LivePerson (LPSN) and three U.S. refiners were today's noteworthy downgrades:

• Goldman cut The Mosaic Company (NYSE: MOS) to Neutral from Buy on valuation.

• Stephens downgraded shares of LivePerson Inc (NASDAQ: LPSN) to EqualWeight from Overweight citing execution risk associated with the Kasamba.com acquisition.

• Citigroup cut shares of Sunoco Inc (NYSE: SUN) to Hold from Buy and Tesoro Corp (NYSE: TSO) and Valero Energy Corp (NYSE: VLO) to Sell from Hold based on valuation...

OTHER DOWNGRADES:

• Bear Stearns cut Ventana Medical Systems (NASDAQ: VMSI) to Peer Perform from Outperform.

• Baird downgraded F5 Networks (NASDAQ: FFIV) to Neutral from Outperform.

• Nuvelo Inc (NASDAQ: NUVO) was cut to Market Perform from Outperform at William Blair.

• Keefe Bruyette downgraded shares of Cowen Group (NASDAQ: COWN) to Market Perform from Outperform.

Analyst summaries provided by TheFlyOnTheWall.com (subscription required).

Dell Inc (NASDAQ: DELL), the Texas-based computer manufacturer, shocked Wall Street last night with a massive 240 basis point expansion of gross margins. The stock was up as much as $2 in after-hours trading.

What was the response by sell-side analysts? Disbelieve. Merrill Lynch said sell into strength while Cowen & Co maintained its Neutral rating on the stock. However, Bernstein Research, a research firm known for sticking its neck out, had and continues to have, an Outperform rating on the stock.

Dell grew revenue year-over-year by 3%, besting estimates expecting little if any growth. Higher average selling prices and lower component costs helped results.

Dell's quick turnaround seems somewhat similar to what happened over at Motorola Inc (NYSE: MOT). Dell's new head of global consumer products, Ronald Garriques, worked closely with Ed Zander to help Motorola's quick turnaround. Maybe he is doing the same at Dell. Stay with the stock for a nice ride. When Dell's model is on track, it can generate a lot of cash.

Ever get an automated message on the phone? It's actually a growing industry and is called automated voice messaging, or AVM.

A leader in the space is SoundBite Communications and the company has filed for its IPO this week.

SoundBite's system is completely Web-based. Thus, customers do not have to invest in IT personnel, hardware, servers and so on. Instead, they pay on a per-message or a per-minute basis.

With the service, customers can handle outbound communications like collections, customer care and marketing pitches.

In fact, SoundBite's system delivered nearly one billion calls in 2006. And revenues have been ramping – going from $7.8 million in 2004 to $29.1 million in last year. However, the company lost $160,000.

Based on a variety of research studies, the AVM market is forecasted to grow from $370 million in 2005 to $1.4 billion in 2010.

The underwriters for the IPO include Cowen (NASDAQ: COWN) and Thomas Weisel Partners (NASDAQ: TWPG). The proposed ticker symbol is SDBT.

You can also find the IPO filing at the SEC website.

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