Parsad

Any company making acquisitions could do the same. Be it Berkshire, Fairfax, Markel, Microsoft, Google, Dell, etc. Cheers!

Here's another analysis of Dell using the same theory...assume the PC business is worthless, and do a valuation estimate! Cheers! http://seekingalpha.com/article/897521-dell-too-cheap-to-ignore?source=yahoo

Ha, ha! I know Kraven, I guess it could have been higher, but the main point was to just eliminate the spam. Besides, they are better off giving up 5 supersizes at McDonalds and using the board instead. More meat, less fat! ;D Cheers!

Hi Folks, After considerable discussion and thought about this, I finally had to implement a one-time $10 fee for new members. First, I resisted the idea after originally posting about it here and hearing from many of you, so I started changing the registration questions every couple of weeks...that helped briefly, but after one spammer gets in, they start flooding the registration with the correct answers. Normally, I clear out the registrations every week that made it past the forum spam filter, but my brother got married last week, and I was briefly on and off on here, and there was suddenly over 80 registrations piled up...and those are the ones that made it past the filter! I finally had enough and had to implement the one-time fee for new members, as I cannot spend so much time running through the posts and registration. I don't think a $10 one-time fee would be onerous to any potential membership that will be able to use the board for free for the next 10+ years. But it is high enough to stop spam registrations! New members will follow the normal registration process by clicking on the "Register" tab above the log-in. After they have registered, they need to click on the "Donation" tab and pay $10 through Paypal. The email of the member registration and the email on the Paypal payment should match. If they don't, then the registrant should just note in the payment that they registered under which email address. Once the payment is received, the registration is approved and the member can use the board forever. Thanks very much! Sanjeev

Article on John Malone. Cheers! http://finance.yahoo.com/news/meet-the-largest-landowner-in-america.html

Under existing Basel 3 requirements, they are already above what is needed. There is some discussion regarding whether they tighten rules even further against risk-weighted assets, in particular derivatives, but that has not been finalized yet. If tighter requirements are needed, they have until 2019 to build the capital, so they don't need to hit that level anytime soon. Over the next couple of years, they could shrink their book further, sell off some more assets or even build capital through existing cash flows. Cheers!

Berkshire owns majority stakes in two other railroads other than BNSF, through Marmon and Mid-American. Cheers! http://www.joc.com/class-i-railroads/stb-orders-berkshire-hathaway-divest-two-railroads

Go to jail...do not pass go...do not incriminate Steve Cohen. Cheers! http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-09-28/ex-sac-analyst-said-to-plan-guilty-plea-in-insider-case.html

They are selling more PC's through SME channels. Consumer demand for PC's is waning, but their end-to-end users are buying more for their businesses...so as a percentage of revenues it remains flat or slightly elevated. They discussed this in their Q1 2012 Conference Call. It may be possible to continue to sell significant amounts of PC's as they increase the commercial & SME client base. So those saying that DELL's PC business is dying are correct...but only from the consumer demand side. Businesses are still buying laptops and desktops...for now anyways. Cheers!

There was no basis...he flat out said that "Fairfax is a fraud and he thinks it is a zero." I was there at the first Value Investing Congress in New York when he said it, and have not/will not ever attend another one because they allow jackasses like him or Herb Greenberg to speak! And no, having other speakers like Mohnish or Guy that I respect does not make it any better. Who you associate with says alot, and people like Chanos or Greenberg are like the stuff I usually wipe off my shoe on the grass after stepping in it! Yes, I hold a grudge better than Buffett! ;D Chanos assumed Fairfax's offshore subsidiaries were involved in hiding gigantic reinsurance losses, which wasn't true. There were insurance losses, but they were in the open and not hidden in any offshore subsidiary. He was getting information from these "contracted researchers"...I'm guessing that one was working as an analyst for a research firm, releasing reports ahead of publication to hedge funds, and is now dead...and the other worked as an analyst for a large Australian hedge fund, used to call up large shareholders and tell them to sell their FFH shares, and now runs a blog. These cretins were also the ones behind the articles by Peter Eavis, Herb Greenberg, Fabrice Taylor, et al. I can't believe these morons are still employed...says alot for business journalism! Cheers!

James, I would agree with you here, except: He called Prem a "fraud" in front of hundreds of hedge fund managers and in the media. That wasn't just outsourcing the research, but libel and slander. He's not some small shop lackey, but had billions under management and a very high profile...thus not only was it unprofessional in every manner, he was completely culpable alongside those that were manipulating the stock and information in the media. Cheers!

When we checked Chanos' average back in 2004, I don't think he was right on 2/3rds of his ideas. In fact, the numbers looked like he was wrong on most of them. But hey, "negative correlation to the indices" was how his purpose in life was explained to me by those that liked the guy. His clients were willing to pay very large fees for that service. I would have thought low-cost Bear ETF's would have put him out of business by now. Cheers!

It's been pretty brutal. And a number of players have been put in dangerous, compromising positions. With these refs, you don't know what is going to happen, because players are playing fast and loose with the hits. I've seen a lot of retribution hits during play, and roughing after plays. The professional refs are much better at getting this stuff under control. Cheers!

So far five former hedge fund managers at SAC have been tied to insider trading allegations brought about by the U.S. government. But still of course this isn't a firm with a culture of unethical and illegal conduct! Cheers! http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-09-25/sac-capital-fund-manager-said-to-be-uncharged-conspirator.html

We are loading up. It will be one of the best investments we make in the next couple of years. Cheers! Why is this your best investment? See post in thread below: http://www.cornerofberkshireandfairfax.ca/forum/investment-ideas/ostk-overstock-com-(short)/msg86861/#msg86861 Cheers!

We are loading up. It will be one of the best investments we make in the next couple of years. Cheers!

Remember his thesis on Fairfax? This guy gets too much press and far too much praise. Cheers!

Not much good press since I sold my shares! ;D Cheers!

Berkshire now owns 17% of Media General after exercising their warrants. Cheers! http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-09-24/berkshire-exercises-media-general-warrants-has-17-equity-stake.html

They also had a very funny print ad comparing the iPhone 5 to their phone. Cheers!

Japan had and continues to have restrictive immigration policies. They had an aging population, poor demographics and little immigration. Who was going to buy their houses after the bubble? While the U.S will/may face significant difficulties, I think the fact that more people coming to the U.S., as well as existing residents, will sop up much of the excess housing inventory and slowly elevate prices. Inflation is going to be a bigger problem in the U.S. than deflation. Cheers!

I believe he did discuss AIG and it was just a comfort thing...anyone else who was there, can you confirm that. I've got the Pabrai Funds presentation, Annual Report, Dakshana Report and everything else floating around in my head right now. Cheers!

If you are dealing with Canadians primarily...start with Prem! Cheers!

That is the funniest thing I've read all week! Beautiful. I heard another one this weekend which would be apropos..."Quite the shame! Alot of horsepower pulling in the wrong direction." Cheers!

Great cartoon pic,...seems to me, that Mohnish & Guy are the Muppet Show's old men from the balcony,... almost like WeB & CM. Buffett & Munger are the old men from the balcony. Mohnish and Guy would be Kermit and Fozzie! ;D Cheers!