LL, Live Ventures shares have ‘significant downside,’ Bleecker Street says

Bleecker Street Research says Live Ventures (LIVE), which offered to LL Flooring last week for $5.85 per share in cash, has a “long and sordid past.” Bleecker notes the Securities and Exchange Commission is seeking to ban Live’s CEO from serving as a director of public companies. The firm sees “significant, actionable, and near term downside” for both LL and Live shares. LL management rejected a buyout offer from its co-founder in May of this year, at a price of $5.76 per share, and the idea that it would re-consider a similar offer “from an objectively inferior would-be purchaser defies belief,” Bleecker writes in a report posted on its website.