Abner Kurtin of K Capital Partners supports the recommendation of Davidson Kempner Capital Management to elect new members to the board of what once was Canadian publisher Conrad Black's Hollinger International. Kurtin's entities control 8.62 million shares 10.49% of the total outstanding).

PL Capital Advisors considers HF Financial stock undervalued, even after adjusting for potential losses on the company's holdings of trust preferred securities. PL Capital plans to ask the bank holding company's management about its plans for mitigating the impact of these securities, which are held by HF Financial's main operating subsidiary, Home Federal Bank in South Dakota. PL Capital also wants information on what the company plans to do with funds raised through the U.S. government's capital-purchase program. PL Capital owns 290,350 shares (7.3%).

Fairholme Capital Management said that it is in discussions with the consumer-finance company about the possibility of exchanging certain debt securities that it owns for additional Americredit shares. Fairholme is also considering buying asset-backed securities of Americredit or an affiliate. Fairholme and Americredit also are considering an agreement under which Fairholme would refrain from taking certain actions about the company for a specified period and would acquire one seat on the board. Fairholme owns about 22.85 million shares (19.6%).

Funds including Mario Gabelli's Gamco Investors (GBL) reiterated that they 144 Filings, page M56 want Diebold's board to remove the company's poison-pill arrangement by redeeming the preferred-share purchase rights or letting them expire on Feb. 10. If the poison pill isn't removed, Gamco hopes to submit the issue for a shareholder vote at the 2009 annual meeting of the automated-teller-machine maker. Gamco added that it wants to maintain a dialogue with Diebold on issues such as the use of cash flow, corporate governance and poison pills. Gamco holds 5,001,900 shares (7.57%).

Shamrock Activist Value Fund has boosted its stake in Elizabeth Arden to 7.02% from 5.83%. It also said that it recently met with the company's representatives to discuss ideas to enhance long-term value for shareholders. Shamrock suggested that the beauty-products company implement a majority-voting standard for election of directors and separate the positions of chairman and chief executive officer. Shamrock now has 2.02 million shares, up from the approximately 1.68 million it reported owning on Oct. 27. Shamrock is a California investment firm run by Roy E. Disney, a member of the founding family of the Walt Disney Co.

Mill Road Capital raised its stake to 1,836,414 shares (10%) by buying 254,738 from Oct. 20 to Nov. 10 at prices ranging from $2.27 to $5.63.

Billionaire investor Steven A. Cohen's SAC Capital Management cut its stake to about 1.36 million shares (6.3%) from the 1.82 million (8.5%) it had reported owning on June 30. The move comes after the JDA Software Group (JDAS), which had agreed in August to buy i2 Technologies for $14.86 a share, decided to seek a lower purchase price to close the deal.

Steel Partners II reduced its holdings to about 8.5 million shares (7.5%) from the 10.05 million (8.9%) that it had reported owning on June 30.