Ackman and Atkins team up to sell Allergan on eBay?

Betsy Atkins, supporter of activist
investors, and eBay jump-starter.

On July 7, 2014, Bill Ackman nominated Betsy Atkins to join Allergan's Board of Directors.  Everyone knows, of course, that all of Ackman's nominees have been chosen for their ability to prep Allergan for an "Ackman-advantage" sale.  As it turns out, Ackman's choice of Betsy Atkins is especially interesting--given her venture capital relationship to eBay, the internet sales giant.

If Atkins joins the Board...will we soon be seeing Allergan on eBay?  Stranger things have happened.  Maybe this is Ackman's idea of cutting hostile takeover costs.  Sneak in, bid low, and have Atkins close the bid before Allergan's shareholders--or the SEC--know what hit them.  (Sound familiar?)

Ridiculous?  Sure.  But if an Air Force fighter jet can be sold on eBay, why not Allergan?  You have to admit, Ackman has been thinking waaay outside the box, lately.





Source:  https://investor.shareholder.com/nasdaqomx/CorpGovDirectorsConf/speakers.cfm#25297

Source: "Bring it on" by Robert McGarvey, 2008, http://www.corporatesecretary.com/articles/case-studies/11678/bring-it/

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Robinson Elementary Alert! SVUSD Closes Grade Database Before Critical Scores Are Entered

In conversation with a Robinson Elementary School teacher today, I learned some very troubling news.  The database that receives individual assignment scores and crunches them into final grades, was shut down on Sunday night.

So... What's the big deal?  According to a prominent teacher with decades of experience, staff are normally allowed until "after school is out" to finish grading assignments and essays, and then adjust the grades.  This year, however, teachers with hundreds of papers left to grade, were simply out of luck...never mind the students.

What if your child was gunning for the honor roll?  Maybe he or she had, say, an 88 or 89% in Social Studies as of the 15th of June, and was waiting for the grading of 4 or 5 awesome assignments (with high point counts) to shoot that overall grade into an A?  Tough luck.

As it happens, the teacher I spoke to said she had several kids "shooting for the honor roll," who will never make it thanks to the database shutdown.

An example database entry, below, shows a real Robinson Elementary School 3rd grader's Social Studies scores filed with SVUSD, as of June 24 (today).  As you can see, the last time it was updated was on June 15, and several assignments have not had their scores recorded.  The missing grades are also not highlighted in red, which would be the standard symbol for "the teacher never received it from the student to begin with." If this were the case, the grade would be entered as a 0.  There are other subjects in the database, like Health and Technology, that simply have no scores at all.

According to the total at the bottom, the overall grade is an 88.82%--a B.  But what if those missing assignments were as awesome as the student hoped?  Then his or her score would be in the 90's and an A...definitely the difference between a spot on the honor roll podium...or not.

Is it just me, or does this seem like there could be quite a few students learning a terrible lesson this year?   Work hard and turn in your work...but don't expect it to count?

1   Landform Map Summative Assignments 10  /  10 100.00% Yes   2   Santa Ana Mountains Summative Assignments 10  /  10 100.00% Yes   3   The Lands of Orange County Summative Assignments 74  /  100 74.00% Yes   4   Native Americans of Orange County Summative Assignments      /  100 No   5   Juaneno Life Summative Assignments      /  10 No   6   Juaneno Person Project Summative Assignments      /  100 No   7   Juaneno Basket Summative Assignments 10  /  10 100.00% Yes   8   Explorers Map Summative Assignments 9  /  10 90.00% Yes   9   OC Seal Summative Assignments 9  /  10 90.00% Yes   10   PB p.21-23 Summative Assignments 86  /  100 86.00% Yes   11   PB p.24 Summative Assignments 90  /  100 90.00% Yes   12   PB p.25 Summative Assignments 90  /  100 90.00% Yes   13   PB p.26 Summative Assignments      /  100 No   14   PB p.27 Summative Assignments 100  /  100 100.00% Yes   15   PB p.28-29 Summative Assignments 87  /  100 87.00% Yes   16   PB p.39 Summative Assignments 100  /  100 100.00% Incomplete Yes   17   PB p.40-41 Summative Assignments 80  /  100 80.00% Yes Category Perc of Grade Points Max Perc Assignments 100.00% 755.00 850 88.82% Total 88.82%

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