Big Billy Gates Loves Trash (RSG)

Recent filings showed Microsoft founder Bill Gates, through his Cascade Investment fund, has been aggressively building his stake in waste management company Republic Services Inc. (NYSE: RSG).

A recent Form 4 filing showed Gates bought another 500,000 shares on 2/2 which brings his stake to 44,894,569 shares. Gates has bought over 10 million shares of Republic Services since September 30, 2008.

One service you can't cutback on is waste removal.

Billy may finally have a winner here.

Track Bill Gates news here - or - Cascade Investment news here.

Amylin (AMLN) Shareholders Want Change - NOW!

Amylin Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: AMLN) has investors all fired-up and not in a good way. Just a few days after 8.3% shareholder Carl Icahn announced that he is nominating a slate of 5 Directors, 12.5% holder Eastbourne Capital is introducing their own, separate slate of 5 Directors.

To make matters worse for Amylin management, Eastbourne acknowledged Icahn's slate, but said it does not believe that these separate efforts to bring change to Amylin are in competition with each other. In other words, vote for ours or vote for theirs, either way we want change - NOW!

Our own Lon Juricic commented on the Icahn news for Barrons.com tonight. Lon said that Ichan's involvement with Amylin looks poised to be a repeat of his success at ImClone, which was sold to Eli Lilly (NYSE: LLY) for $70 per share, after a bidding war with Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY). Lon told Barron's, "Icahn kept building his position and eventually became chairman of the board, where he could push his agenda and positioned ImClone for a graceful sale... I could see this as the same situation playing out"

Ultimately, the shareholder activism at Amylin should be good news for investors.