Part Two of my Rant about "Hassan's buy shows confidence. . . ."

Today, Fred Hassan went through with his purchase of $2 million worth of Schering-Plough common stock -- first announced January 18, 2008, but executed at today's market prices (Now, was that an unregistered put-option, in favor of the shareholders, as of January 18, 2008? But I digress). . . .

[Here is Part One of my Rant, as a backgrounder.]

▲ One -- he essentially used the $2.087 million cash incentive that Hans Bechereer & the board paid him in 2007, for 2006-07 performance, to make this buy -- so, in a very real sense, this is actually from the shareholders' own money -- a bet placed withthe house's funds.

▲ Two -- when he said he'd do this, on January 18, 2008, the stock closed on the NYSE at 21.28. He promised to spend $2 million. That would have netted him about 93,985 shares.

He waited -- to let the markets discover what he knew, re ENHANCE -- and waited, for Year end 2007 results -- and, then waited, for the ACC Panel debacle to fully-unfold. . . . and now, only now, after Q1 is out, does he "buy in" at $18.26, today.

So, now, he gets 109,530 shares for his $2 million. He gets 16 percent more shares, for his $2 million of "spent" 2006 SGP bonus money. He now owns about 720,000 shares outright.

So -- tell me again, now -- how was that a "show of confidence"?

[Query whether his open dispute, with Merck, about the veracity of the $700 million fall-off in the Vytorin Joint Venture's equity income for 2008, makes this "buy" in some way subject to the insider-trading rules. Is there "adequate public information" about the "known trends. . . and uncertainties" of Q2, and Q3, and Q4 "in the public market", simply because Richard T. Clark explained it, on Monday -- or is it considered "undisclosed", as to Schering's stock price, at least -- because Fred Hassan denied the existence of such a model, only yesterday. 'Tis perplexing, indeed. I am sure this -- as an anonymous hypothetical -- will be on an Advanced Securities Regulation final exam, at some law school, one day.]