So, how would I fix ESPN? There is a reason I am talking about this topic today. My idea was sparked by an interview conducted by Darren Rovell with ESPN The Magazine's general manager Gary Hoenig. The interview focused on a new promotion that offers the magazine and ESPN.com's pay site (Insider) for a year for $1. The offer is for current subscribers only, requires you to sign up for auto pay on credit card, and is one heck of a deal. This is actually a good move, because the customers should realize how nice both of these subscriptions are (I have had the magazine, and it is decent) and pony up the money for subscriptions when the time comes. I have never used the Insider, but it boasts extra knowledge for subscribers, and the subscription wall has cost me some valuable fantasy football knowledge in the past.

The market takes an upward turn, and the insiders head for the exits.

In the wake of the largest stock market rally in 71 years, according to Bloomberg, the sale of insider shares has reached its most aggressive levels in the past two years. Insiders of companies in the S&P 500 were net sellers for 14 weeks in a row. Six people at Amgen (NASDAQ: AMGN), for example, sold $8.2 million in company stock.

Wachovia Corp. (NYSE: WB - option chain) shares are falling today with most other financial stocks, but we uncovered some interesting insider activity from this week. On Monday, a director at WB bought one million shares for $11.00. This cost him $11 million and could be interpreted as a sign that the stock is probably not going to go away any time soon. However, it is also a good idea to note that the same director bought 500,000 shares last winter at $38, so he may also just be averaging his position downwards. Either way, if you think that the stock won't fall by too much more in the coming months, then now could be a good time to look at a bullish hedged trade on WB, since the put premiums will be high today.

WB opened this morning at $10.44. So far today the stock has hit a low of $8.50 and a high of $10.91. As of 12:55, WB is trading at $9.55, down $1.96 (17.0%). The chart for WB looks bearish and S&P gives the stock a 2 STARS (out of 5) sell ranking.

For a bullish hedged play on this stock, I would consider an October bull-put credit spread below the $5 range. A bull-put credit spread is an options position that combines the purchase and sale of put options to hedge risk in case the stock doesn't do what you think but still leverage nice returns. For this particular trade, we will make a 39.9% return in just one month as long as WB is above $5 at October expiration. Wachovia would have to fall by more than 47% before we would start to lose money. Learn more about this type of trade here.

When the CEO of one of the most-watched companies on the planet accelerates his stock sales, people pay attention.

This is what is happening with Google, Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) CEO Eric Schmidt, who has sold $1.4 billion worth of stock in under three years with the search king. According to the San Jose Mercury News, "Between Wednesday and Friday, Schmidt filed a series of Form 4s disclosing that he sold 105,739 shares at prices ranging from $563.40 to $571.50 per share to collect $59,968,220."

Is this part of his normally scheduled portfolio divesting strategy, or is Schmidt cashing out before Google shares come crashing down? Although Schmidt, like many execs, sells shares on a scheduled filed with the SEC, we can't judge the guy for Google shares being near the $600 level at this point, right? Although Google shares may come crashing down to reasonable levels at some point, they do stand at over $582 today, within shouting distance of the ill-famed $600 price point. Is Google really worth that much? That question has been bandied about many times recently over the last year, and here we are.

When Schmidt signed on to lead the rag-tag Google team with founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, he probably had no idea what would transpire. However, the behemoth now controls access to so much information it would boggle the average mind. In a world of instant gratification, Google serves up a tasty dish of information billions of times per day around the world, satisfying the needs of business, government and consumers alike.

For that kind of exponential growth in such a short time, perhaps Schmidt's leadership is worth the billion-plus in stock he's sold since 2005. Is he worth it? You decide.

Five Orbitz insiders bought close to $600,000 worth of Orbitz Worldwide Inc's (NYSE: OWW) stock between $9.55 to $10.10 last week. This is another sign that better days could be ahead for the online travel business.

Expedia Inc (NASDAQ: EXPE) earlier this summer announced plans to repurchase 42% of its stock through a tender offer, before the collapse of the high-yield market caused the company to reduce its share buyback.

Collapsed share buyback or not, the executives at the top online travel companies are becoming increasingly bullish. Barry Diller, Expedia's chairman, said in the most recent earnings call that this is a business that can handle leverage, suggesting pricing in this industry is improving. Additionally, Priceline.com Inc (NASDAQ: PCLN) also reported very strong results.

After having a severe industry downturn in 2006, the industry is beginning a nice upcycle. The trend is your friend in the online travel business.

With multi-billion dollar buyout deals booming, it's hard to keep a secret. There are a lot of players involved: investment bankers, attorneys, consultants and so on.

For example, several months ago, a friend of mine -- who is the CFO of a software company -- told me that International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM) was going to buy FileNet. Interestingly enough, the stock price was surging. And, yes, several weeks later IBM did announce a deal to buy the company.

Over the past year or so, it seems that there have been many leaks on big deals. Perhaps people forgot about the insider trading scandals during the M&A boom of the 1980s?

Well, according to a story by Reuters, there was some unusual trading in the stock options of Harrah's Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE:HET) before its $15 billion leveraged buyout was announced.

The article quoted Paul Foster, who is part of the site theflyonthewall.com, as well as Jon Najarian, who manages insideoptions.com.

Maybe the trading activity is an example of smart investors making a savvy bet?

Apple's case against PowerPage and AppleInsider has now been dropped. The original case stemmed from Apple's suing the two news sites for publishing "trade secrets" regarding an upcoming product code-named "Asteroid" and requesting the identity of their sources. The trial judge ruled in Apple's favor citing that when "trade secrets" are published by a journalist, the source's first amendment rights are nullified.

The case was appealed, and on May 26, 2006 the State of California Court of Appeal 6th Appellate District ruled in favor of the journalists, citing that indeed the sources' are indeed protected by the First Amendment.

The news today is that Apple has dropped further appeals on this case, and the EFF confirmed that Apple filed documents that it would not pursue the case further.

Apple's case against ThinkSecret is still pending as is the legal battle between the Beatles' Apple Corps and Apple.

Insider Blogging looks at the employees blogs of our favorite companies, exposing the last legal way to get "inside information." And Jason Calacanis, my boss and one of the subjects of today's look inside, loves this feature!

We've quoted Mini-Microsoft, famous for his anonymous look behind the silicon curtain, but it seems that this time will be one of our last (until, Robert Scoble-like, he rises from anonymity and keeps his criticisms to the immaterial). He didn't say we were the reason he stopped blogging -- actually, it's his wife, who he never told about the secretive blog (so she would avoid the stress), or maybe his too-honest talk with Seattle Times reporter Danny Westneat (Mini was "weary," said Danny, and Mini realized: it's true!).

But wait! He's not totally stopped blogging. We're just going to see a mini-Mini-Microsoft from now on. I truly have no idea what that means.

Maybe it was encouragement from Jason Calacanis, the insider blogger who dares to (a) speak his name and (b) criticize his own company. Earlier this week he took AOL Search to task, offering some criticism for "too many ads and too much collateral" that fills the screen. AOL should love its users more than Google, Yahoo! and MSN, he says, but only including one ad before the search results. Jim Kukral gives him some "credit" for his analysis and finally tells him: "good advice."

So which is more valuable: employees who are too stressed to blog critically in secret, or those who boldly take their brethren to task in a web site that bears their own last name? I won't opine, but I will point out that Microsoft was down 50 cents today, to $22.65 (flirting again with a several-year low), whereas Time Warner was down just a penny to $17.21 (comfortably in the middle of its 52-week range).