The Pirates Miss Out On Outback Booty

It’s been a while since we checked in on Pirate Capital. Several weeks ago, the troubled Norwalk, Connecticut hedge fund was all over this page with news of mass analyst defections, loss-making sales of its large stake in the parent company of Outback Steakhouses, an SEC probe and a letter from founder Tom Hudson to the fund’s investors seeking to reassure them that the fund was not melting down.
After that the notoriously noisy hedge fund went quiet. The people handling press calls seemed program not say “no comment” to all inquiries. New letters from Hudson—either to investors or to companies in which Pirate funds hold positions—were not forthcoming. It seemed clear that Hudson had decided to bunker down and regroup.
Today Pirate is back in the news and its not pretty. It appears that the soaking Pirate took on its Outback position—buying a 5.3 percent stake when shares were priced at $42 to $39 and selling at $27.59 to $29.37 a share—might have been unnecessary. Yesterday the parent company of Outback announced a Bain Capital led leveraged buyout, sending the stock up to $39.72 a share. Ouch.
Pirate Jumped 'Out' Too Early [New York Post]