On the Block

Goodman Global Inc. (NYSE: GGL) has taken preliminary steps toward putting itself up for sale. The Houston-based manufacturer bills itself as the second-largest maker of heating, ventilation and air conditioning products for residential and commercial use in the United States. The company sells its wares under the Goodman, Amana and Quietflex brand names. Goodman has played this game before. Buyout giant Apollo Management and members of the Goodman family and management took the company private in 2004 for $1.4 billion. Two years later, Goodman’s owners took it public again. Apollo still owns roughly 40 percent of the company. Goodman posted $563.7 million in net sales during the first quarter of 2007, compared with $504.5 million during the same period a year earlier. The company has enlisted Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan to explore its options.

Air cargo specialists Kitty Hawk Inc. (Amex: KHK), North America’s only independent overnight heavyweight air freight transporter, may be looking to shake up its corporate cockpit. The company has hired Raymond James as a financial advisor. Kitty Hawk has three wholly owned subsidiaries, a fleet of Boeing freighter aircraft, and a 240,000-square foot cargo warehouse to transport its high-value and high-security freight. The company took in $42 million in revenue for the first quarter of 2007, up 4.7 percent from the $40.1 million it reported for the same quarter in 2006. But its net loss for those same two quarters also grew, from $8.7 million in 2006 to $11.6 this year. Kitty Hawk’s stock is in a bit of a nosedive as well. It reached its 52-week high of $1.13 per share on Feb. 1, and has descended steadily since, hovering around 30 cents per share in July.

Encysive Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: ENCY) may be experimenting with a new ownership structure. The company has retained Morgan Stanley to flesh out its options. Encysive, formerly Texas Biotechnology Corp., designs and develops new small molecule compounds to treat inflammatory diseases. The company’s stock plunged by more than 50 percent in June, after the FDA called Encysive’s hypertension drug Thelin ineffective. The Houston-based company then slashed its U.S. workforce by roughly 70 percent. Its market cap stands at $130 million. GlaxoSmithKline is marketing Encysive’s first FDA-approved drug, Argatroban, which treats heparin-induced thrombocytopenia.

Family Room Entertainment Corp. (OTC: FMLY), a Beverly Hills, Calif.-based entertainment production company, may be floating its subsidiary Emmett/Furla Films Productions Corp. Family Room acquires rights for books and film scripts, and Emmett/Furla produces the projects by supplying financing and hiring talent. The company announced that it was exploring strategic options on July 20, the same day CEO George Furla bought 10 million Family Room shares on the open market at $0.0006 per share, according to a company statement. Furla currently owns 228 million shares. The company produced “Narc,” starring Ray Liotta and Jason Patric, and “Love Song for Bobby Long,” featuring John Travolta and Scarlett Johansson, among other movies.