Check printer companies are like restaurants serving trans fats. We all know their products are declining but if you're the only one left in a declining products business, it can become a booming company.

By Art Gillis www.artgillis.com

MFW stock was trading at about $19 a share when it announced the acquisition of John H. Harland, the check-printing company.The transaction closed today, about four months after the announcement, and MFW's stock is now selling at about $62 a share - three times more than when MFW was known as merely a licorice company and a check-printing company. (MFW owns Clarke American and majority stock owner of MFW, Ron Perleman, owns Revlon.)

Think of the possibilities. With one more acquisition (Deluxe), Ron Perleman could own the only company that offers licorice-scented checks to 70 percent of the population that has not yet converted to electronic bill pay.

How's your stock portfolio doing today?

Disclaimer: Art Gillis does not invest in stocks. He uses a professional portfolio management company to invest all the money he makes as a blogger so his grandsons can matriculate at Harvard and MIT some day.