CorpRaider

Yeah, it is interesting. Seems like really Netflix is sort of just a different bundle, with a much better interface and software. As for what I've been buying...more TLM this morning. I better hope this deal doesn't blow up.

Yeah, what's been up with Discovery? Think its just generalized angst about the perceived impending doom of the cable bundle as evidenced by recent announcements from HBO and AAPL?

Yeah me neither. Thanks a lot for bringing the blog to my attention.

I've done that with new cars as well. It works really nicely. I imagine it is harder to do it with used cars, but probably doable especially if you're looking at a common model. I've tried to use the power of competition in hiring home contractors, but have had much less success.

I've looked at Kraft 4-5 times over the past couple of years and passed, but I wasn't able to factor coming in and gutting the sucker and then levering up the earnings yield. I also feel like GIS might eat their lunch with the Annie's brand, if they keep the organic bona fides in place.

If I had to bet, it looks like they are about to Grexit, stage left.

I like KMX but it never gets cheap enough for me. Or it hasn't in a long while.

If the drachma comes back, I might be taking a Greek vacation, so long as things aren't dangerous.

So, the potatoes...what can I put on them? Olive oil and sea salt prior to baking? Nothing? No butter, cheese, bacon bits and sour cream, I presume.

I have no problem with active owners. I doubt WEB does either. But there's a difference between being an owner that keeps the principal-agent problem in check and being an activist who's focused on forcing corporate action to get Mr. Market to recognize value to the detriment of the actual intrinsic value of the company. For example, Jeff Ubben, an activist that I highly respect, was absolutely right to point out that Dan Loeb's push to sell off part of the Alibaba stake may have been a bad decision that primarily benefited Loeb and not the long term owners of YHOO. The question is, what type of active ownership does WEB not like? Clearly, he's cool with the 3G variety. Not so much with the buy 'em and flip 'em mentality that's all about earning that fee. Yeah, as you know its just a tool, and like any other it can be used well or poorly. Obviously active investors are beset by the short-term focus that plagues the investment community, generally. As usual, it is all about the incentives. In that case, if I recall, I think Loeb was at least helpful in highlighting the asset and kicking off a discussion. Turning to the example that kicked off the discussion, GM. Yeah Wilson's two year options are short. I wonder what the vesting period is for the options in GM's management compensation program. That still doesn't mean they should be allowed to horde capital so that they are guaranteed a job in perpetuity no matter what happens with the business or the industry. I hope Wilson can at least get them to look at buybacks rather than dividends.

He probably really doesn't seem them as a grave health threat. W/R/T the compensation/agency problem, the only solution I see is an active owner who lets the agent know his role. We could do with a whole lot more of that if you ask me.

I'm reading the most recent biography about Hetty Green...meh. She was real cheap and seems to have straight up lied under oath many times.

Weird story bro.

Well all that junk about activists and PE shops is just marketing to me (or more accurately to managements and potential sellers of businesses). Seabury Stanton learned about how passive Mr. B can be and all he did was chisel him a little on the greenmail. Carl got AAPL to do what WEB advised what....a decade ago? Just saying, I doubt he has a problem with that. Winters, however, deserved to get nuked.

Damn, maybe I need to read this again. haha!

I will say Becky Quick did kind of push back a lot more this time with Mr. B. It was pretty good. Didn't you end up criticizing the compensation plan as well (non-critical, critical thing that Icahn highlighted for the world)? Also she sort of got him with the "oh evil PE shops are really LBO shops with tons of debt." Aren't you deeply and warmly in bed with 3g on a number of LBOs? Oh...well yes. Winters was actually outperforming until recently. Not as bad as I would have expected with his huge fee. I suppose he just annoyed me with the hyperbolic computations he came out with initially, and then he compounded it by continuing to bring BRK into it. Once he got the kind of tepid support from WEB, he should have let the man alone.

Buffett has been hanging out with Jay-Z too much. He said "keep my name out yo mouth, Winters."

Yeah, he should have let it go after the first round and after Buffett sort of chastised Coke along with him. Especially given his poor performance, high fees and the math errors in his original position on the compensation plan.

Winters shouldn't have brought Buffett into it after the initial response. But yeah, he just curb stomped him.

Bound and determined to find way to piss away their S/H capital, I mean grow into new areas. Awesome thing is dual voting structure means its even easier for them to tell outside S/H to go get stuffed.

R.I.P. Recent interview with Betty Liu from Bloomberg, after he got his diagnosis was really striking to me. He seemed really at peace.

I keep struggling with this question, but I think Merrill clinches it for me. I've read some accounts that MerrillEdge has ~$128 billion AUM with its robo-advisor. Venture capital shops are going insane over $1bil right now.

I believe Phil Goldstein has been active in a number of small and micro caps outside the CEF space. I've been toying the with idea of making a checklist type requirement that an owner-operator or activist or some other controlling non-passive shareholder must be in place before I invest in a company.

I agree that the traditional mutual fund, with the tax, cost and fee drags, is almost obsolete. I probably would never expect a large percentage to outperform over the long term (I mean, mathematically, as Jack Bogle has long pointed out, the average fund will underperform the index by its excess costs). I can, however, buy into the arguments that it has been even harder for the active value guys, with better processes and good long term track records, to outperform in this ripping extended bull market. Mr. Buffett, obviously, has been talking about this since the days of his partnerships. Then again, a simple, cheap, value strategy like RPV has managed to do well versus the indexes over the same period.

Avon declined to engage in discussions even after COTY (backed by BRK) raised bid to $24, if memory serves. The AVP board had a new spiffy CEO from JNJ, who was probably thrilling them with tales of a turnaround to come, so one can somewhat understand. Bart Becht is running Coty directly currently and both Coty and AVP cited good performance of their strategic partnership in Brazil in the most recent quarter (basically, as I understand it, plugging COTY products into AVP distribution). Disclosure: Long AVP.