Heartland Advisors, the largest shareholder of Osteotech, wants the company to hire a financial adviser to assist in exploring all possible strategic options to maximize shareholder value. Heartland recently had discussions with Osteotech's management and intends to have further conversations with the company to advance that end. Heartland owns about 2.57 million shares (14.4% of the shares outstanding).

City of London Investment Management says that the fund's board isn't acting in shareholders' best interests by proposing to eliminate the fund's in-kind repurchase offer. City of London asserts that the board "failed to take meaningful actions to permanently reduce or eliminate the substantial and persistent discount to net asset value at which the fund's shares have been trading." City of London owns 3,076,863 shares (a 17% stake).

PL Capital entered into a standstill agreement with Bancorp Rhode Island after BARI's board decided to adopt a majority voting policy and reduce the size of the board to 12 directors from 15 over three years. Under the terms of the agreement, PL Capital agreed not to bring any proposals before the company's 2009 annual meeting of shareholders and will vote its shares for the election of the directors nominated by the board. PL Capital currently holds about 4.6 million shares (8%).

Silverstone Capital asked Midas CEO Alan Feldman to remove the company's poison-pill provisions. Silverstone said that if the company fails to do so, it would request inclusion of a resolution to revoke the poison pill in the company's 2009 proxy material so that shareholders can vote on the matter. Silverstone owns 1,142,624 shares (8.2%).

Doddsville Investments wants the company to "act aggressively" to buy back its stock and bonds in the open market. Doddsville also called for the company, which markets Yellow Pages and offers online local commercial search, to pay a dividend to reward shareholders who have taken a risk owning a company in a slow-growth industry. The investor also requested three board seats from Donnelley so management's interests are aligned with shareholders'. Doddsville Investments reported ownership of 10.8% of the outstanding shares.

Raging Capital Fund seeks to replace two directors. Raging Capital said that the two non-employee directors, John R. Sumser and Edward F. McCauley, own a combined 76,000 shares, and that neither has purchased shares on the open market. Raging Capital said Sumser and McCauley are up for election in 2009, and it calls on the board to replace them with two new directors that have material share ownership. Raging Capital reported holding 1,468,371 shares (8.75%).

BlueLine Partners believes Healthtronics shares are "undervalued" owing to the aggressive manner in which the company has recently been pursuing acquisitions. BlueLine said that "while these acquisitions all have strategic promise, the timing of these deals has been out of sync with the significantly more cautious perspective of investors." BlueLine and its affiliates reported ownership of 2,005,364 shares, 5.3% of the total outstanding.

Microchip Technology (MCHP) raised its stake to about 1.19 million shares (9.2%) from 786,200 (6.1%) reported on March 13. The increased stake comes as speculation has been growing that Microchip may be interested in acquiring the chip maker.