Online Trading News

Shares of Escala Group (Nasdaq:ESCL) jumped to $6.40, up 44.14%.  The company, which sells collectibles, announced June’s sales hit a record high and was led by Escala’s Nutmeg Sales which had $1.5 million in revenue, but also saw increases in Greg Manning Auctions as well as John Bull Stamp Auctions making June’s total $6.4 million.  Escala has a long established collectible stamp business that sells stamps and other collectibles all around the world.

Late yesterday, news broke that Openwave(Nasdaq:OPWV) recieved a subpoena for information about its options valuation.  Supposedly employee stock options were being valued at dates when the share prices were at lows instead of the actual date of issuance. 

Today the company lowered it earnings estimates.  Competition from the free phone browser Opera has put heat on the openwave software.  Shares of the Openwave fell 33% to $7.67 in trading today.  Shares have fallen from prices in the low $20s since April.

2007 may be brighter for Openwave.  More users are using their cellphones to browse the internet and the company has continued to attract new clients and increase revenues.

Both companies specialize in mail advertising.  Advo(NYSE:AD) Primarily sends targetted direct mailings, while Valassis(NYSE:VCI) mainly sends out newspaper inserts.

Immediatly following the news shares of ADVO leaped.  So far today the company has grown 47%, up to $35.77 per share.  The biggest benefit of the buyout will be cost savings.  The companies are very similar and it is estimated that the combined company could save as much as $40 million per year.

 The acquistion requires Valassis to pay $1.175 billion in cash as well as acquire $125 million in debt, and closes in three to four months.  Shares of Valassis dropped more than 15% to $19.62 today, signally that investors believe the deal favors ADVO.

Shares of Blue Dolphin (Nasdaq:BDCO), a company searching for oil in the carribean gained 28%.  The company explores possible oil fields and operates offshore oil rigs as well as two oil piplines and a third pipeline on the way. Recently there have been sturggles, Blue Dolphin has spent a great deal of effort looking for oil and has not found significant reserves.  A few days ago Blue Dolphin entered into an agreement where its Galveston 350 will be used by a client for over 11 months.  On top of this high oil prices have made Blue Dolphin hot.  The company had huge momentum today driving prices near $5.80/share.