John Hjorth

Added a bit again today to SCHO.CPH, but not much.

Sempra Energy Aquisition of Oncor Announcement. Please note - as I understand things - the deal structure appears to be different than the Berkshire bid, and there is no prior consent or approval from regulators etc - at least it appears so. Somehow, we still need to know what happened about the court ruling today.

WSJ: Sempra Energy Reaches Deal to Aquire Oncor.

Extract from Aquisition criteria, Berkshire Annual Report 1995: Extract from Aquisition criteria, Berkshire Annual Report 2016:

Thank you for sharing this, longinvestor. +1 ..It's a bluff to try and squeeze Berkshire to pony up a bit more. Given that this has been playing out for four years already, time is not on Elliott's side. Oncor has already come out saying that should this deal fall through, any future offers from Berkshire would likely be for less than this time. Who knows, Buffett may relent and pony up a nickel more as an act of good faith, and can say "They wrung out the last nickel from us" and Elliott goes away happy(not). I don't think that BRK ponies up anything more. This is not just about value it's about setting precedent. BRK would rather walk away than pay more because if they pay more they'll have a bunch of Elliott types trying to vulch on all they're future deals. The nickel thing was for Mid-American and that was a transformative acquisition for BRK and I bet they really wanted it. Oncor is no such thing.... so not even a nickel. After thinking about this carefully, in perspective of Berkshire's future deals and the way Berkshire in general is doing its deals, I agree with it in full, and I also consider it very important. - - - o 0 o - - - So, an Oncor deal monday, or no Oncor deal at all. Thank you all.

There will be a court ruling on the Berkshire offer on coming monday, right? I have somehow more or less lost track of the important dates in this potential deal, tried to find it by going back in this topic.

Added a bit to SCHO.CPH today, but not much.

Thanks for that elaboration, Richard, In that light, sleepydragon's post makes sense to slow me, also.

I'm not sure I understand your post here, sleepydragon, What kind of conflict of interest are your referring to here? If I remember correctly [i may not], Mr. Buffett gave an interview at an Allen session/gathering, where he talked about that he considered WFC a better bank than JPM, but he had bought 1 million shares in JPM personally. [Needless to say, that I have since been puzzled about that statement.] I don't have the actual link.

Please consider this a topic split from the Google topic in the investment ideas forum, ref. request from KJP. - - - o 0 o - - - The Economist: The email Larry Page should have written to James Damore.

Thanks, globalfinancepartners & longinvestor, - I would like to see that USD 100 B in cash and T-bills [-and counting!] reduced "just a bit" and converted to earnings! -Chess it is.

I see some moves by Elliott described and covered in the "General news" topic by provided links, and some "counter" messages from Berkshire. Thank you to fellow board members for that. Yes, we are in the final stages of a game of Chess here, involving billions of USD. As I understand things, Future Energy Holdings has been in bankruptcy for about four years. Here I understand "bankruptcy" as "being under creditor protection". [i hope I have understood the phrase "bankruptcy" correctly here.] My question here is: How long can this go on? Here, where I live [Denmark], a company cannot exist for such a long period without a solution to its debt/liquidity problems without being "declared dead", meaning going into forced liquidation, managed by a liquidator, who has power to wind up the whole Holly-go-Molly, thereby enforcing losses on creditors.

This is an entity, that connects economic idiots with people with cash, to make money. These entities run lean, and internet based in most cases. You can complain by leaving - by paying your balance [if you can] and close the card account. The above is meant in general terms. I'm not by that calling you an idiot, mbreject, nor even indirectly implying that you are. In our household we have a few of those cards, too, because of the built in perks. I can't even get automated monthly payment in full of the balance [because the card issuers don't want us to pay monthly balance in full, so that they can charge interest on the balance], so I pay them manually - monthly, and in full, so we get our perks -, without any interest expenses on the card.

Just about a month ago, I received the book from Amazon. I must admit, that I have severe problems with this book. I don't "like it", as posted earlier in this topic by Jeff. To me, there is a material difference between "don't "like it"" and "dislike it". I have to carry back Rishi's review on Amazon to here - I hope you forgive me for doing this, Rishi: I'm trying to express, that I consider this book - for me, about five years into this non-zero game - the lever to get to be a better investor, in a style going forward, that fits me personally. It's fairly easy to read the book, I suppose, but to read it, with the intent to adopt, adapt and thereby improve as an investor, is a totally different matter. It's exhausting - very, - but at the same time good! - - - o 0 o - - - The Lady of the House has actually taken notice of the process going on with me. She: "What is it with you, and this book, that is following you everywhere?" She has just noticed, that if my name was Linus van Pelt, this book would be my security blanket. - - - o 0 o - - - The quote in this topic of Rishi's review is meant as a compliment. So are my other personal comments. - - - o 0 o - - - The next thing is that I consider the price of the book ridiculous, compared to the value it provides to the reader. - That's meant as a compliment, too. - - - o 0 o - - - Thank you for sharing your inner thoughts about investing here - in this book -, Jeff.

Thank you for doing this split, longinvestor, - it's a great idea & initiative - for future ongoing discussion and information sharing about the insurance parts of Berkshire here on CoBF. - - - o 0 o - - - I have attached a screen shot from the latest Berkshire Q-10, p. 24, lower part - please focus on the "Berkshire Hathaway Reinsurance Group" line. What do you see?, and what do you think about what you see?

Thank you, gents, I'm actually trying to educate my self a bit on this matter by reading a lot of stuff about the situation. So I try to post what I find on my way, that I suppose could be of value for my fellow board members, too. I try to keep my posts right now without expression of personal opinions. However, I must say, that I also have expressed in another topic my concerns about this situation, and the needle in the feelings spectrum for me is moving in the "worried" range right now, with velocity towards "scared". - - - o 0 o - - - This is definitely very, very bad & ugly.

From fas.org: Richard L. Garwin: "Strategic Security Challenges for 2017 and Beyond".

As always, I take your posts too seriously, Sailor! - - - o 0 o - - - Edit 1, & off topic: I really hate your investment style, being invested in NVO and a PBM at the same time is to me bordering to racketeering.

You are being fooled here, DooDiligence. The Twitter account is not confirmed.

Great stuff, thank you for sharing, rkbabang.

globalfinancepartners, During the years, it has come to my attention, that you have a really deep and detailed knowledge, understanding and view of insurance operations of Berkshire [consistently & continuously hard work, to cut it to the bone .... - out of pure interest]. Personally, I would really appreciate, if you would share with me and our fellow board members the temperature of the Berkshire insurance operations, as you perceive them right now. For my part, it would be really appreciated. We have a separate topic for the 2017Q2 on here, that I hope you will use, instead of this "general news" topic, so that what is on your mind does not "drown". Thank you in advance, if you're in on it.

I sincerely hope you buy them all, Jurgis. - - - o 0 o - - - I haven't been that worried since the havoc in Europe after the fall of the Iron Wall.

It reads like you are having a bad day today, DooDiligence. I hope that's not the case. In case, just do a bit charting of your NVO US ADRs today on your Mac, and you will likely feel better.

Aye Aye, sir. [: -) ]. Ordered the book the day you posted that, just got confirmation, that it'll arrive tomorrow. - Never go down on unread books [margin of safety, in some weird kind of way]!

My visit to Indexville ended the weekend before the last, while reading The latest memo from Mr. Marks : There They Go Again . . . . Again.