"Shareholder Fir Tree plans to vote against the company's pending purchase of Pogo Producing (PPP). In a letter to Plains Exploration, Fir Tree said the deal is no longer attractive, because of recent turmoil in the credit markets and because Plains Exploration is so undervalued. Fir Tree said that Plains Exploration, an energy company, could generate more than $1 billion in aftertax proceeds from the "opportunistic" sale of its noncore assets. Without doing the deal, the company could also buy back 20 million to 25 million of its shares, Fir Tree said. If Plains Exploration successfully forms an upstream master limited partnership, its shares could be worth $70 to $75, Fir Tree said in the letter. Fir Tree reported ownership of 6,651,600 shares (9.1% of the total outstanding)"

"Burlington Northern Santa Fe has been notified that Berkshire Hathaway (BRKA) may reach the 25% ownership threshold of its plan to acquire more of the railroad company. Berkshire's planned acquisitions may require approval under the Hart-Scott-Rodino antitrust law, and it has submitted required notifications to the Federal Trade Commission and the Justice Department. Berkshire intends to acquire more than $597.9 million worth of outstanding voting securities in Burlington Northern Santa Fe, in addition to the 52.13 million shares (15%) it owned at the time of its Aug. 28 notice to the company."

"Hedge fund Pirate Capital plans to nominate Thomas R. Hudson Jr. and Christopher Kelly to the company's board at the 2007 annual meeting. Pirate Capital intends to solicit proxies on behalf of the fund's nominations. Pirate Capital currently holds 935,147 shares (9.8%)."

"K Capital Partners wants the company to hire a financial adviser and put itself up for sale. K Capital believes that Sun-Times is trading at a "significant discount" to its intrinsic value, and that "immediate action" must be taken to preserve shareholder value, owing to the company's recent operational deterioration. The investor also said that it is "supportive of management's current operational plan over the short-term," but that the plan must be "implemented concurrently with a strategic review and sale of the company." K Capital currently owns about 6.43 million shares (9.9%)."

"Platinum Management reported ownership of 3,500,000 shares (5.4%), which it acquired from June 1 through Sept. 4 at prices that ranged from $1.11 to $1.61."

"A group including Ancora Capital reported ownership of 1,711,789 shares (5.7%), after buying 1,320,433 from July 5 to Aug. 30 at $1.48 to $1.59 a share."

"Intel (INTC) reported holdings of 9.5 million shares (12.6%), acquired on Aug. 22 for $218.5 million, or $23 per share."

"Quercus Trust reported ownership of 589,956 shares (5.1%), after buying 543,255 from June 25 to Aug. 30 at prices ranging from $4.87 to $6.92."