From a 2008 post:
LEDs: Venture capitalists see the light (CREE)
About ten years ago the best stockpicker I know told me he was looking at CREE. The pitch was "They have 'blue'". I didn't pay much attention, the Nasdaq was starting it's blow-off run, from around 1500 to 5048 in 18 months.
Cree went from $3 to $93....
During that time there have been a couple dozen buyout rumors.*
One reason to doubt this one is the fact that LED equipment maker Veeco closed up 4.38% while Cree closed up 4.18% at $52.16. Another company in the sector, Aixtron AG, was up 4.08%.
From Schaeffer's Research:
Call speculators have swarmed semiconductor concern Cree, Inc. (CREE) today, with some analysts attributing the action to another round of unsubstantiated buyout buzz. Just after midday, the stock has already seen more than 22,000 calls cross the tape – almost quintupling its predicted daily volume of fewer than 5,250 calls.*Here's one from September, 2009:
The bulk of the activity has centered on the equity's out-of-the-money September 55 call, which has seen roughly 5,400 contracts change hands. In the same vein, CREE's near-the-money September 52.50 call has seen almost 3,700 contracts exchanged, while its in-the-money September 50 call has seen close to 2,900 contracts traded. However, while the majority of the front-month calls have crossed closer to the ask price – suggesting they were likely bought – intraday volume has yet to exceed open interest, meaning we can't yet determine how much of today's activity will translate into freshly purchased bullish bets....MORE
Cree: IBM Rumor Resurfaces (Updated) CREE
