Why this Blog Carries the Goofy Name it Does. . . .

This blog is both a play on the name of the company, as well as a comment on what happened on, and after January 14, 2008, to the "Shearlings". Many long-suffering investors believed CEO Fred Hassan when he said that post-January 14, 2008 Schering-Plough stock price declines were simply an "over-reaction by the press" to the ENHANCE results [Via Web-cast March 18, 2008]. So, they simply took that "haircut" in stride.

Those "Shearlings" (who then proceeded to lose some 20 percent of their value, pre-January 14, 2008), believed Mr. Hassan. They believed it was all simply the crazy media's over-reaction to a "sensationalized" study outcome.

Then, on March 31, 2008, the remaining Shearlings were completely "Plowed Under" by the ACC Panel discussion results, from the day before. On that single trading-day, Schering-Plough investors saw a stock that closed on Friday at $19.47 (and had traded as high as $19.87 that day), fall to an intra-day low on Monday of $14.00, and only saw a recovery to $14.41, at the close on Monday. On Wednesday, April 2, 2008, SGP closed at $13.86. From Friday's high to Wednesday's low, then, these "Scherlings" were plowed under by ANOTHER 30 percent.

Overall, for believeing Mr. Hassan, they lost up to $13.14 per share (on January 14, 2008, SGP opened at $27.00; on April 2, 2008, it closed at $13.86). That is a 50 percent decline, in just under three months.

Then, after the market closed on that Wednesday, April 2, CEO Hassan annouced a drastic $1.5 billion cost-cutting program ($1 billion of that was new, incremental "shearing"!). . . .

That seems tantamount to an admission that this was no frenzied media over-reaction -- no, these cuts -- going out through 2012 -- look a lot like Mr. Hassan expects this downturn in sales of (and profits on) Vytorin and Zetia to be. . . substantially-permanent.

So, this blog bears the mantle of those poor little "S[c]he[a]r[l]ings" that got completely "plo[ugh]wed" under, last week.