Insider Chatter by Donna Bogatin » Henry Blodget 2.0: Silicon Alley Outsider Trolls Again

November 16, 2007

Henry Blodget 2.0: Silicon Alley Outsider Trolls Again

What is an Internet “troll”? Think “trolling for suckers,” so says the Web 2.0 arbiter of all wisdom: Wikipedia.

CNBC apparently has been suckered by the best of them, forgetting that old adage “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.”

Yes, Henry Blodget strikes again: Think Blodget 2.0.

From AMZN to YHOO, millions in fines and a liftetime ban from the real Wall Street has apparently not broken Blodget’s stride, with Kevin Ryan at his side.

How so? While his own aptly titled ”Internet Outsider” blog made little hay, Blodget’s co-production with Ryan, the self-proclaimed “Silicon Alley Insider (SAI),” illustrates that while everyone deserves a second chance, not everyone makes the best of it.

Blodget headlines today “Proof that Microsoft Plans to Buy Yahoo” (replayed at Huffington Post): The latest (not so) greatest ”SAI” snack-sized derivative, dangerous hyperbole.

The world ought to ignore Blodget 2.0–same as the SEC wished the world had ignored Blodget 1.0. I was paying scant attention to today’s “SAI” entertainment, until CNBC declared that Blodget’s regurgitation of a third-party story is responsible for moving YHOO!

Has CNBC ever even read the Ryan-Blodget supposed insider reports?

Would General Electric’s business news team really rely on a blog rant by an SEC-chastised ex-Wall Street analyst about two massive publicly traded companies that proudly hails “We’re going to go out on a limb here and assume that Microsoft division president Kevin Johnson is not a moron.” Is an eight sentence off-the-cuff riff off of a Reuters report really what CNBC turns to for its supposed proprietary market “insight”?

Representative other not so insider “SAI” not so scoops today:

One paragaraph replay of a Financial Times report on News Corp.,
Posting of a Fox Business story transcript,
Rehasing of a New York Times’ reporter’s lunch with a Microsoft exec…

IMAGINE THE HAVOC BLODGET WOULD WREAK IF HE REALLY DID (STILL) HAVE INSIDER KNOWLEDGE AND/OR ACCESS?

Tracy Pride Stoneman, securities lawyer, on Blodget 1.0 and Internet booms:

With Henry Blodget and Mary Meeker pushing tech and Jack Grubman pumping telecom to their brokers and the investing public, it is not happenstance that millions of investors ended up concentrated in volatile, speculative securities. The sad reality is that millions of investors not only paid for this advice in the form of commissions and fees, but they also paid for it with their life savings.

HOW SO?

The SEC Complaints alleged that: Blodget aided and abetted Merrill Lynch’s fraudulent research on GoTo.com. Further, Merrill Lynch and Blodget published research on five other companies [24/7 Media, Inc.; LifeMinders, Inc.; Homestore.com, Inc.; Excite@Home; and Internet Capital Group, Inc.] that were not based on principles of fair dealing and good faith and did not provide a sound basis for evaluating facts, contained exaggerated or unwarranted claims, and/or contained opinions for which there was no reasonable basis.