seriously ?

BofA Left to Clean Up Countrywide's Mess

It seems to me that BAC would have had an idea of what they were getting into. I hope I am right. It seems like they would have a much better idea of what they were doing than speculators looking on from the outside.

Again I hope I am right because there doesn't seem to be a clear way of knowing what BAC is getting into. Maybe they are getting an incredibly good deal, or maybe untold debt ?

BAC is getting hammered right now and I am betting that they are in a better situation than JP , CITT due to less exposure ergo the sector is just very unpopular right now so BAC might be a very good deal for the long-term investory.

Should Google, Yahoo, & Microsoft Worry About Countrywide's Takeover?

agreed, but I think the more important issue is how an overall recession will affect online advertising.

Also I believe google is really the company in question here. Yahoo is dying and may soon be bought by Microsoft. I would also dare to say that Microsoft is dying because they are fighting an N-front war ( remember they want to be the world's first tech company to be an "N-trick pony" )

Online advertising is a serious issue for Google but shouldn't be for Microsoft as I believe they have already lost that war.

BofA's Countrywide Purchase is a Huge Mistake

I agree with the above commenter, many of the articles' critiques of BoFa were very short sited.

Bofa is aggressive internationally, ( again, China anyone!)
I highly doubt that it was the case that " They were searching for something..."

Also, I find even the logic a bit muddled and therefore must fear the author may be suffering a bit from hubris...

After admitting that, "The reason we shorted BAC was that the company had reached a cap in terms of the percentage of assets that they could hold in the United States" ;

The author goes on to "politley" insinuate that Bofa may be somewhat naive.
"Imagine a rookie investor sitting on a wad of cash, and itching to invest it."

Hmmm... so we have a bank that has literally grown itself as large as it legally can and is then compared to being a "rookie investor" ...interesting... but not asinine.

What is asinine is saying that you shorted the stock because it had met a limit on its growth and then you go on to talk about how many investing mistakes Bofa is making and will continue to make.

So, then why did you really short the stock ? For both of these reasons or simply due to the aforementioned "limit" ( which only matters domestically and in terms of assets held, and NOT EVEN all aspects of their domestic business/ATMs/Credit Cards/Free online investing etc. ).

A much more cogent reason for shorting the stock at 54.5 would be that it was nearly at a ( 3 year !?) high and the housing market crash was painfully obvious.

This article sounds nothing more than a pump or should I say dump piece. Bofa is the new kid on the block in Manhattan and I have been just laughing when I turn on CNBC as Goldman, Morgan Stanley etc repeatedly and nearly unabashedly bad mouth the company. ( Market cap envy ? ) This just smacks of the typical wall street rhetoric surrounding this company. They don't know how to invest...blah blah blah...

I wish the people politicking like this would just be a little bit more frank. Or at least make sense.

If you think that Bofa if full of rookie investors, just come out and say, "I am shorting the stock because Bofa is very bad at investing."

If somone said this and had any sort of data/numbers to back this up ( I've looked BTW and I hate to tell you but they have a "bit" of cash and assets ) I would actually listen.

The rhetoric in this article quickly lead me to read it with the same "inquisitiveness" that I lend to politicians and talking heads.

I feel dumber now; ergo, a bit upset.

But no worries, I encourage you and whomever to continue to publish pieces like this because I enjoy reinvesting a 7% dividend in a stock with a P/E of 8.

Especially, if that stock just happens to be the biggest bank in the USA.

O and BTW how have those non-rookie savvy investors been doing lately, like say...Morgan Stanley ? I haven't been paying attention.