Conn’s Inc. is a specialty retailer with headquarters in Beaumont, Texas. As part of the Electronic Stores business sector, they trade on NASDAQ. Their current market capitalization is $368.06M. The company has a rich history being in business for over 110 years.

Conn’s began in 1890 as a small plumbing company, selling products for the trade. They were a one-store organization until the 1960s when they branched out into a multi-store operation. By 1994, they were a $100M dollar company. Total revenues for the quarter ended April 30, 2008 alone were $218.6M.

The company’s product lines consist of consumer electronics, which are approximately 31 percent of their business. They also sell major home appliances, which account for 28 percent of their business. These electronics include plasma and LCD flat-panel televisions, DVD players, camcorders, and digital cameras.

Conn’s sells computers, video gaming, and other small electronics, which account for 12 percent of their revenues.

You know your company is one with a rich history when your original name had the word “telegraph” in it. That’s the case with FTD Group Inc., who we know as the flower people today. The original name of the company, founded in 1910, was Florists’ Telegraph Delivery. They were the first flowers-by-wire service in the world then. Today, they are one of the largest floral companies in the world.

With headquarters in Downers Grove, Illinois, Florists’ Transworld Delivery Inc. (FTD) trades on the NYSE as part of the Specialty Retailer-Other business sector. They are a provider of floral-related products and services to consumers, retail florists, and other retail floral products providers. They operate in the United States, Canada, the Republic of Ireland, and the United Kingdom.

The company began when fifteen American retail florists came together and agreed to exchange orders for out-of-town deliveries. By 1914, they had adapted the now-famous

Lehman Brothers (LEH:NYSE) is one of the nation’s major investment banks. Lehman was founded in 1850 and has a rich history on Wall Street. However, Lehman’s stock price has been taking a beating this year as they have been painted with the same brush as Bear Stearns. There are rumors floating around Wall Street nearly every day about how Lehman is rapidly running out of liquidity and Lehman’s need to go to the Federal Reserve’s discount borrowing window on a regular basis.

All investment banks, including Lehman, are built on two items - liquidity and trust. When either of these items is lost, investment banks cease to exist and the best that be hoped for is similar to what happened to Bear Stearns-an arranged takeover by a stronger firm. Lehman’s efforts to raise fresh capital have caused the markets to fear that Lehman is going down the same path Bear Stearns