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Cablevision (NYSE: CVC), one of my favorite corporate governance brothels, met with its disgruntled shareholders and reluctantly agreed to its idea of a shareholder-friendly initiative: a 10 cent per share quarterly dividend.

That works out to a yield of less than 1.3% based on the current share price and, needless to say, the disenfranchised shareholders aren't exactly thrilled. Mario Gabelli, whose fund is a major shareholder and a constant critic of the company's management and governance, told The Guardian that "To pay a 10-cent dividend which is $30 million is nice, but it's not what we wanted. . . They should have authorized a $1 billion buyback and they would use incremental cash flows to fund it. They clearly did not listen to shareholders."

Duh. But here's the thing, Mario: the whole point of having a dual-class voting structure where one family has complete control over the company is that you don't have to listen to shareholders. If the Dolans wanted to listen to shareholders, they wouldn't have adopted that structure in the first place and/or they'd get rid of it now!

I'm all for fruitless struggles based on principles, but it's pretty silly of Gabelli and other activists to be taking on a company where there's no mechanism for holding the board of directors accountable. Maybe they should head over to North Korea and complain indignantly that the regime is not doing a good job representing the interests of the people.

Shares of Biogen Idec Inc. (NASDAQ: BIIB) plummeted on news that its multiple-sclerosis drug Tysabri was linked to brain infections causing death, leaving 4.3% shareholder Carl Icahn with a hefty paper loss.

But Icahn didn't back down. Having already pushed for one unsuccessful effort to sell the company, and having lost a bid for three seats on the board of directors, Icahn filed a 13-D announcing that he had raised his stake to 6.1%, buying in the wake of the brain infection announcement.

As one of the smarter activist value investors going, Carl Icahn's moves are closely watched by investors looking to piggyback off his ideas.

Shares of Circuit City (NYSE: CC), the outhouse of electronics retailing, continue to frustrate investors, falling more than 4% yesterday after the company said that it would delay the completion of a new $45 million distribution facility that had been intended to consolidate the operations of two existing warehouses. Today's paltry bounce of a penny hardly makes up for the bad news.

A piece in today's Wall Street Journal looks at (subscription required) the company's history of missteps that began in 2006 when the company failed to respond quickly to price declines in LCD TVs, and was compounded by cost-cutting moves that involved eliminating the company's most productive employees.

Now the company is running out of money and desperately needs to do a deal. Blockbuster (NYSE: BBI) had made a conditional offer of $6-8 per share back in May, but withdrew it and now the stock is trading under $2 -- and there don't appear to be any new suitors on the horizon.

While the horrific oil spill by the Exxon Valdez happened all the way back in 1989 (yes that was 19 years ago!), Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM) is still in litigation over how much it should be forced to pay in damages.

Last month, Exxon Mobil won a big victory when the Supreme Court (in a 5-3 decision) lowered the company's punitive damages from $2.5 billion all the way down to $507.5 million. While this was good news for Exxon Mobil, there was one little detail left to work out -- interest on all that money. Of course, Exxon Mobil does not want to pay that interest, and today the Supreme Court decided that a lower court needs to make this decision.

So just how much interest are we talking about here? Roughly $500 million and counting, as Exxon announced earlier that the victims of the oil spill have requested $488 million in interest. This works out to about $15,000 per victim.

What does this amount mean to Exxon? Ten hours of sales. That's right, ten hours. You would think the company would just pay the money and be done with the whole mess, but Exxon will continue to fight and will have its day in the lower court of appeals.

When most companies report bad numbers in a tough economy, they're quick to blame their woes on the macro picture.

This bothers me because it's pretty hypocritical: I have never once seen a company report good numbers in a good economy and tell investors in the press release that 'We're getting bailed out by the economy right now. We haven't made good strategic decisions, but hey, in a market like this, Richard Wagoner could make money! I can't believe how much we get paid for this!'

But when Steak n' Shake (NYSE: SNS) reported a loss of $9.8 million for the third quarter vs. break-even last year, the company's newly-installed CEO Sardar Biglari didn't blame high gas prices and low consumer confidence. Here's his statement from the press release:

In my view, our poor performance is not the result of poor economic conditions. Much of our operating shortfall, I believe, is the result of our own lack of execution. As a company that began in the midst of the Great Depression, we have a deep heritage from one of the great American brands and are fortunate to have attracted committed and passionate employees, benefits that we believe will allow us once again to become a thriving chain.

Jeff Bewkes, the Stanford MBA behind HBO's huge success, took over as CEO of BloggingStocks' parent, Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) this January. The New York Times reports that he wants to get rid of everything he inherited except selected "content providers" -- e.g., people who make movies and TV programs and write articles in magazines. But would such a strategy make Time Warner's stock an attractive investment?

I don't think so. The reason is simple. Warner Brothers produced an enormous hit with Dark Knight -- the LA Times reports that its revenues so far total $441 million domestically and are expected to hit $520 million. Dark Knight's success is not typical -- it's an outlier. That's because the movie business is a huge gamble as is any enterprise that depends on the fickle combination of talent and audience tastes. Hollywood often overcomes this problem by getting wealthy individuals to pony up to finance films on the hope that they might get to rub elbows with the stars.

Meanwhile, Bewkes wants to dump the cable business. He plans to spin off 84% of Time Warner Cable to shareholders. He plans to sell AOL. And it looks like he'll try to dispense with most of Time Warner's magazines. This would leave Time Warner a much smaller company with lower return on assets -- by my rough estimate based on doubling the revenues and operating income of its first half results for the remaining Filmed Entertainment and Networks segments.

This post is one in a series on prominent company nicknames. See all 25, and share your thoughts and memories about Home Despot below in the comments.

One of the most unfortunate of company nicknames that I have ever been witness to, is the distasteful tag of homage that has been bestowed upon Home Depot Inc. (NYSE: HD). Even more disconcerting than the nickname itself, is the fact that it was bestowed on the company not from outside sources, but from within the company's own hierarchy. "Home Despot" is a name that shall long remain the legacy of one well-jettisoned corporate executive. Home Despot is the name that distinctly belongs to Bob Nardelli, a man who took his own personal neuroses and bound a great corporation with them.

I could feel the effects of the Home Despot when I entered one of the company's retail locations in my neighborhood. Though the store was always tidy and quiet, it had a tight and smothering feel to it. Associates were always available to show me where specific merchandise was, but they were never friendly or engaging. They always seemed afraid to get involved. It was quite a stark contrast to the Menard's store where I definitely preferred to shop. At that store I always felt welcome, and it always felt like things were going on.

I have moved away from the Home Depot store since then, so I can't say if the effects of the Home Despot still linger there. I can however, say that the name itself still does. It's an unfortunate reality that negative nicknames often have a tendency to hang around far longer than the good ones do. I can only hope that the man who gave spawn to the concepts that deserved that nasty title, took with him all the negative sentiment such a name entails. Home Depot never deserved such a negative association, and I think that Bob Nardelli never deserved Home Depot.

When you're hot you're hot, and when you're Whole Foods Market (NASDAQ: WFMI) you're ice cold -- and you're a health food store recalling beef provided by a supplier with a long history of USDA run-ins and a role in the latest outbreak of E. coli.

The Washington Post reports that "The meat Whole Foods recalled came from Coleman Natural Foods, which unbeknownst to Whole Foods had processed it at Nebraska Beef, an Omaha meatpacker with a history of food-safety and other violations. Nebraska Beef last month recalled more than 5 million pounds of beef produced in May and June after its meat was blamed for another E. coli outbreak in seven states."

Nebraska Beef's history of run-ins with the FDA is pretty remarkable: sanctions for problems including feces-contaminated carcasses, water from pipes dripping onto meat, and E. coli issues as far back as 1997.

That Whole Foods was unaware that it was acquiring its merchandise from such a questionable source raises serious questions about its quality control and sourcing -- those are two of the main reasons that many consumers are willing to pay a premium for Whole Foods products.

This is probably an isolated incident but, from a PR perspective, it's likely to be very damaging. With its reputation for being expensive (see Sarah Gilbert's Whole Paycheck) hurting sales in the current climate, Whole Foods is ill-equipped to deal with a scandal like this.

Investors/readers have probably already heard all of the bad jokes regarding Six Flags.

• "Things are so bad at Six Flags, it's now called Three Flags."
• "The only thing rising at Six Flags is the rollercoaster."
• "A contest offered a vacation prize. First Prize: a day at Six Flags. Second Prize: two days at Six Flags."

O.K., that last one was borrowed from arguably the greatest comedian of all time, Groucho Marx, but you get the point: times are tough for Six Flags (NYSE: SIX).

Six Flags has more than $2.4 billion in debt, hasn't posted a profit in years, and has a big hurdle next summer: a $288 million payment to preferred shareholders, The Wall Street Journal reported (subscription required). Six Flags' stock closed Friday down 10 cents to $1.02.

Attendance, down 3% in Q2, is expected to "decline by at least that percentage, or come in even lower" for the year stock analyst C. Leonard Bauer told BloggingStocks, adding that it's not an elaborate mystery concerning why Six Flags is becoming less of a destination of significance.

Your 401(k) and ROTH IRA might be down, and shares of student lender Sallie Mae (NYSE: SLM) have gone from $50 to $15 since October, over concerns about the student loan market.

But you'll be happy to know that the endowment for Harvard is chugging right along, up in the 7-9% range for its fiscal year ended in June, according to The Wall Street Journal (subscription required).

In the current market malaise, that's enough to make it the best-performing major endowment, according to experts. That's especially impressive given the fund's massive size: $35 billion.

The Journal reports that "The endowment's staff pursued a strategy of shielding the fund from market downturns by purchasing credit-default swaps that helped protect it from wild market swings. Harvard also had a larger position than many endowments in plain-vanilla Treasury debt, which outperformed the stock market."

I have just one question: With a $35 billion endowment growing at 7% per year, why do they need to charge $45 thousand per yeah? To its credit, the school announced late last year that it would extend much more generous financial aid to middle-class families.

CEOs have been doing the old soft shoe at quarterly report time since the market first form, but dancing now seems to have become a favored pastime of CEOs include Steve Ballmer of Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), Jerry Yang of Yahoo (NASDAQ:YHOO) and (surprise? hardly) Mark Cuban (also a yahoo).

Yang busted some moves recently dancing with the star of Where the Hell is Matt?, the outstanding internet feature following adventurer and dancer (I use the term loosely) Matt Harding. Don't miss the video at the end of this post, if you're not familiar with Matt. - it's perhaps the most charming, uplifting video I've seen in years.

Of course, who can forget Steve Ballmer's dance at the podium during a Microsoft presentation? And, of course, Mark, 'Gimme the Cubs" Cuban performing on Dancing with the Stars?

Come to think of it, many CEOs are already quite accomplished at performing the fan dance with their balance sheets. Ex-Gov. Spitzer has shown his fondness for the hustle and the shag, while Donald Rumsfeld is still waiting for the cakewalk to begin. Senator Craig seems to favor the swing, while President Bush appears dead-set on taking on the Persian Dance before he waltzes out of the White House.

And me? Having lived through the Vietnam Era, I'm doing the Time Warp again.

Thanks to Portfolio.com

AIG (NYSE: AIG) may have a new CEO, but his track record is no better than that of the man he replaced. The firm said its second-quarter net loss was $5.36 billion, or $2.06 a share. AIG blamed the housing and credit markets, but, of course, the real trouble rests with its risk management. According to Reuters, "AIG said it recorded $5.56 billion in second quarter unrealized market valuation losses on credit default swaps, the same area that led to losses in the prior two quarters."

While the company's insurance and investing units are still profitable, AIG may have to post similar losses in the next two quarters if the US credit and housing markets get worse. It has already moved ahead with its plan to raise $20 billion. It may have to add substantially to that to offset big deficits .

With AIG's stock at about $25 and a market cap of $72 billion, another capital injection cold drive shares down to $20.

In other words, AIG's shares may be down over 50% this year, but that does not make them a good investment. The stock could actually still be one of the most risky among large-cap firms. AIG joins many other financial companies in finding that replacing CEOs does them no good.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

Following the demand of one of Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO)'s largest shareholders, Capital Research Global Investors, to review the vote in last week's re-election of the Internet giant's board, Yahoo! has now released the corrected numbers this afternoon. To recount, Capital Research Global Investors couldn't understand how Jerry Yang received 85.4% supporting votes when the fund's 16% holding was withheld.

Yahoo! acknowledged the error, blaming it on a tabulation error by Broadbridge. The new count shows much more disdain for several members of the board. Specifically, CEO Yang went from 85.4% support to 66.3% in the new count, Roy J. Bostock and Ronald W. Burkle went from 79.5% and 81.2% respectively to 60.4% and 62.1% respectively.

While this doesn't change anything except to show the board doesn't have the same approval from shareholders, it seems there are still some open questions. Barron's Eric Savitz brings concerns from Mithras Capital, an investment firm that owns 1.7 million Yahoo shares, regarding 200 million fewer votes in this year's vote compared to votes in the past two years.

The possible explanation is that the ballots that voted the Icahn slate before his agreement with Yahoo's board were voided and therefore not all shareholders were represented. Mithras Capital then wonders whether some members of the board wouldn't have been re-elected had these votes been counted.

Regardless, after several delays of the meeting as well as a "tabulation error," more questions are left unanswered and this whole vote leaves a really bad taste and lowers -- even further -- shareholders' confidence in Yahoo's board and management.

You might think that corporate train wreck Circuit City (NYSE: CC) would have a lot of things to worry about -- like, oh, I don't know, the fact that it lost $165 million last quarter. Or the stock price, which has gone from $30 to $2 in less than three years. And with fellow wreck Blockbuster (NYSE: BBI) having withdrawn its proposal to acquire the company, Circuit City is even out of the running for the prestigious Stupidest Merger in History That Doesn't Involve the Company Which Owns This Website Award.

You might think that Circuit City management has plenty to keep it busy, but you'd be wrong. Circuit City banned its stores from selling an issue of MAD Magazine that made fun of the company, referring to it as "Sucker City." Hah.

But yesterday the company reversed course and allowed the magazines to be sold, with a PR spokesman blaming "some overly sensitive souls at our corporate headquarters" --

Over the past year, automakers have struggled to deal with the tough economic conditions in North America, especially the United States. One of the companies that has been able to handle the slowdown better than its peers has been Toyota (NYSE: TM). But the effects are being felt even by the Japanese automaker, as made clear today in the news that the company is laying off 800 workers in one of its Japanese plants.

The 800 workers that are being laid off represent about 10% of the workforce at the company's plant in southwestern Japan. So far, the company has been able to sidestep the steep losses that its American rivals have been forced to deal with, but this year is proving to be a bit tougher, as the company is now predicting a first annual drop in profit, which would be the first time in the past seven years that the company has seen profit fall.

Toyota has been more fortunate than many automakers, mostly due the fact that the company has a long history of building smaller, more fuel efficient cars. This fact alone has helped it weather the slowdown that record high gasoline prices in the U.S. have helped create. Last Friday, however, the company stated that sales dropped 18.7% in July from the same period last year.