Return to Transcripts main page
American Morning
'Minding Your Business'
Aired January 27, 2004 - 07:20 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Trial day now has finally arrived for Martha Stewart. Opening statements begin in less than three hours from now in the case that involves her sale of ImClone stock. Yesterday, a jury of eight women, four men, was finally chosen to hear the case.
Andy Serwer is following the trial and he is here minding your business this morning -- good morning.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Good morning to you.
O'BRIEN: Give us a rundown on who's on the jury, and who does it help?
SERWER: Well, we'll talk about that. It's interesting, of course, the day has finally arrived. I mean this trial is finally beginning this morning, Soledad. The jury, as you said, eight and four women to men. And what's striking to me is when you look at the makeup of the jury, how many of these people have ties either to the brokerage industry or to ImClone or have been burned in the great scandals by owning stock in companies like Enron.
So all these people have been touched somehow by all of the things that have happened on Wall Street over the past couple of years.
Having said that, legal experts seem to think this jury is favorable to Martha Stewart, I think mostly because of the eight to four makeup, thinking women will be more sympathetic to her plight.
O'BRIEN: How are her businesses doing? And how have they done as she sort of is -- had been investigated and then heading into trial?
SERWER: Well, I mean, as you might imagine, it just has not been good news for Martha Stewart's businesses while this whole thing is going on. In fact, now Martha Stewart's business is losing money for the first time since 1999 when the company went public. The latest quarterly report shows a loss, which, of course, is a difficult situation. The stock has perked up a little bit. It's now at a 52 week high. But Wall Street reports show that a lot of the stock is in the hands of short sellers, people who would bet on the stock going down. That would happen, of course, if there was a guilty verdict in this case.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired January 27, 2004 - 07:20 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Trial day now has finally arrived for Martha Stewart. Opening statements begin in less than three hours from now in the case that involves her sale of ImClone stock. Yesterday, a jury of eight women, four men, was finally chosen to hear the case.
Andy Serwer is following the trial and he is here minding your business this morning -- good morning.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Good morning to you.
O'BRIEN: Give us a rundown on who's on the jury, and who does it help?
SERWER: Well, we'll talk about that. It's interesting, of course, the day has finally arrived. I mean this trial is finally beginning this morning, Soledad. The jury, as you said, eight and four women to men. And what's striking to me is when you look at the makeup of the jury, how many of these people have ties either to the brokerage industry or to ImClone or have been burned in the great scandals by owning stock in companies like Enron.
So all these people have been touched somehow by all of the things that have happened on Wall Street over the past couple of years.
Having said that, legal experts seem to think this jury is favorable to Martha Stewart, I think mostly because of the eight to four makeup, thinking women will be more sympathetic to her plight.
O'BRIEN: How are her businesses doing? And how have they done as she sort of is -- had been investigated and then heading into trial?
SERWER: Well, I mean, as you might imagine, it just has not been good news for Martha Stewart's businesses while this whole thing is going on. In fact, now Martha Stewart's business is losing money for the first time since 1999 when the company went public. The latest quarterly report shows a loss, which, of course, is a difficult situation. The stock has perked up a little bit. It's now at a 52 week high. But Wall Street reports show that a lot of the stock is in the hands of short sellers, people who would bet on the stock going down. That would happen, of course, if there was a guilty verdict in this case.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
