Future is now for Tenet

Shares of Tenet Healthcare rose on Thursday on word that the company has reached a global settlement with the Department of Justice. Tenet stock rose to $7.75 but has since come back down to earth, settling at around the $7 level. Optimists think the global settlement will be the opportunity the hospital chain needs to turn things around.

Pessimists, on the other hand, are scoffing at the idea that the oft-maligned company is going anywhere. Legal problems and subsequent credibility issues have dogged the provider now for the better part of 25 years, dating back to the company's earlier incarnation as National Medical Enterprises (NME). "The deal is the tenth settlement between Tenet and the Department of Justice in the last four year," comments the Tenet Shareholder Committee, the activist group of dissident shareholders that has opposed management for the past several years.

- read this statement from Tenet shareholder committee