May 6th is arguably one of the biggest quarterly reports for Synchronoss Technologies (SNCR). The stock is down over 43% since January and has been sold off hard each of the last two earnings reports. It has popped recently, despite management 10b5-1 trading plans kicking into gear again. The reality is the stock was way oversold. So what is an investor to do?

Reviewing the ‘latest’ Office Max (OMX) turnaround plan was a little embarrassing; I found myself thumbing through 135 slides that referenced how they were going to “refocus”. You would think executives with such elevated compensation packages would be focused on what amounts to nothing more than ‘best practices’ from the start.

RF Micro (RFMD) has been a serial disappointment for over 7 years now. Excluding the dot com bubble, the stock has traded in range from $2 - $9 since 2Q 2002 (a slow painful erosion of shareholder value). Using the stock price as a measure of management's success or lack thereof you can see that management's strategy has failed miserably.

Note to RFMD management: This is your legacy. Grade: D+. You avoided an "F" because you are not bankrupt. Go back and look up what it means to "align your interests with shareholders." The share repurchase was late and reeked of desperation. Share buybacks are initiated when you have no better use for cash or you believe the shares are undervalued - not to mitigate erosion in the share price due to a lack of public confidence.

It's official: Jones Soda (JSDA) is a train wreck! Take your pick: the Board of Directors, Peter Van Stolk, the list can go on. But for this article I would like to focus on the Board.

We have seen throughout every macro crisis or company specific issue that sends a company into chaos that the strength of a Board of Directors or lack thereof is revealed in the aftermath. In the case of Jones, I would like to offer some hypotheticals that to me seem very plausible if not completely on point.

Synchronoss Technologies (SNCR) is a relatively new software company that handles the activations and provisioning of a variety of services for ILECs, CLECs and other companies. They are most widely known for activating the iPhone for AT&T (T) and Apple (AAPL).

Listening to Coldwater Creek's (CWTR) latest conference call with analysts left me wondering, "what are they thinking?" As recently as today, one can draw similar comparisons with Thornburg Mortgage's (TMA) woes. Management at Thornburg was extremely bullish for months in spite of the credit freeze that was closing in around them. So much so that they sunk millions of dollars of their own money into the business in the form of stock purchases.