Focus Media's Shares Dropped: What You Need to Know (FMCN)

Focus Media's Shares Dropped: What You Need to Know

Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.

What: American Depositary Receipts of Chinese digital media and advertising company Focus Media (Nasdaq: FMCN ) fell as much as 10.3% on fairly heavy morning volume.

So what: Dirt-digging analyst firm Muddy Waters is gearing up for a CNBC interview later today, and the network has been reminding viewers of this event throughout the morning. The firm is a very vocal critic of Focus Media, alleging financial fraud and all kinds of overstated numbers, so reminding investors of this analyst-to-management conflict is doing damage to share prices.

Now what: Focus Media shares have now dropped 41% over the last month amid the assault led by Muddy Waters. A number of private lawsuits have been launched as well, underscoring investor worries even further. Focus Media is not the first Chinese company in Muddy Waters' sights, and several others have failed to disprove the firm's harsh allegations. But the firm doesn't bat a pristine 1.00 either. Add Focus Media to your Foolish watchlist and stay tuned as this drama unfolds.

Interested in more info about Focus Media? Click here to add it to My Watchlist.

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Fool contributor Anders Bylund holds no position in any of the companies mentioned. We Fools may not all hold the same opinion, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. Check out Anders' holdings and bio, or follow him on Twitter and Google+. We have a disclosure policy.

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