Parsad

They will settle in both cases. None of the parties want to risk walking away with little to show or nothing, so they will settle on mutual terms at some point. It's a game of chicken, and eventually someone always gives in a little. Cheers!

Is it Nick Snyder...from Morris Snyder Management? If so, yes I know Nick quite well. He's come to our Fairfax dinner for the last couple of years. Very nice guy! Cheers!

You see maybe my weekend rant achieved something :P You psyched me out! ;D Cheers!

Is Eddie buying Berkowitz's brother-in-law's house next door to his? ;D Let's just hope Berkowitz remains flying solo, because I think he's best on his own. Although a strategic partnership around SHLD would be a good idea. Cheers!

Another great article on Mohnish and his Dakshana Foundation! Cheers! http://www.forbes.com/sites/halahtouryalai/2012/06/06/turning-slumdogs-into-millionaires-one-hedge-fund-managers-quest/

We took all of our BAC puts off on Monday...up 144%! ;D Cheers!

Very good parable! Cheers!

You could take most of the cash out, if they were within Fairfax and had access to a $50M line of credit. As well, if they eliminated the direct business altogether...have no friggin' clue for years now why they are even in this business...and you would have a company that cycles through their inventory about 38-40 times a year. Margins are better in the affiliate business, with no inventory risk as their purchasing is not very good on the direct side. If they just stuck to the affiliate business, kept expenses tight with none of this legal expense, they would be profitable every quarter (except the third as they ramp up G&A/Technology for the big 4th quarter), and could run the business solely on internal cash flow and if necessary the line of credit...and that would be on slim margins of about 1.5-2% net. Cheers! I could also see Prem and Francis doing a straight debt deal to buy in stock as was suggested. OSTK basically has no debt at the moment. Prem and Francis have been recent holders of OSTK debt. If they did a straight debt deal they could put a chunk of money to work at reasonable rates. (Say even $60M at 9%). It costs about $5.4M annually. The cash gets used to buy in stock of which both Prem/Francis amung the largest holders. The buyback concentrates a larger piece of the pie into their hands, raises the stock price significantly given the high short interest, puts $60M more to work in a safer part the capital structure at a reasonable rate. Everybody wins! Yup, that works too, but I have a hard time seeing Byrne agree to a 9% yield. He probably would be looking at 7.5% at best, otherwise something like this would have been done by now. It would just make sense, and I think it hasn't happened because Fairfax probably wants a higher yield for the investment risk than Byrne is willing to pay. Cheers!

They had live tweets at this site. Nothing terribly unusual, but a couple of funny quotes. Cheers! http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-business/post/live-tweets-warren-buffetts-speech-to-the-economic-club-of-washington/2012/06/05/gJQAR0MeGV_blog.html

...Unless Europe Causes It! Warren has hedged his comments. Cheers! http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-06-06/buffett-sees-no-u-s-recession-unless-europe-causes-it.html?cmpid=yhoo

It's a big investment for Larry Sarbit as well. He discussed it in some detail at the presentation I went to a few months ago here in Vancouver. He mentioned something about looking at other items outside of movie rental and coins, but didn't elaborate on exactly what. Cheers!

Great little clip! Couldn't agree more with Marks. By the way, John's site is really becoming I think one of the best sources for value investing interviews. Cheers!

You could take most of the cash out, if they were within Fairfax and had access to a $50M line of credit. As well, if they eliminated the direct business altogether...have no friggin' clue for years now why they are even in this business...and you would have a company that cycles through their inventory about 38-40 times a year. Margins are better in the affiliate business, with no inventory risk as their purchasing is not very good on the direct side. If they just stuck to the affiliate business, kept expenses tight with none of this legal expense, they would be profitable every quarter (except the third as they ramp up G&A/Technology for the big 4th quarter), and could run the business solely on internal cash flow and if necessary the line of credit...and that would be on slim margins of about 1.5-2% net. Cheers!

I don't think it is that far fetched an idea. I do recall a Byrne interivew (couldn't have been that long ago) where he said he doesn't see himself doing this (running overstock) the rest of his life. In other words, I got the impression this is an investment for him, and not so much a passion for him. With the right marketing and mgmt, this company could be much more valuable that it currently is. I think FFH would be a nice fit actually. Frankly, I think the preference would be for Byrne to oversee things, but let others, including Jonathan Johnson or Stormy Simon run this thing. You've got Tim Dilworth in place now for marketing as well. Fairfax buys Overstock, puts Byrne in as a vice-president to oversee the company, as it would be the largest non-insurance business we own based on revenue, but Byrne delegates authority to Jonathan, Stormy & Tim on a day to day basis. Cheers!

You'll be able to get fresh ground and brewed Starbucks coffee 24 hours a day now at many places. Starbucks has inked a deal with Coinstar to put their coffee in thousands of kiosks. Cheapens the brand, but slowly becoming as ubiquitous as Coca-cola. Cheers! http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-06-05/starbucks-unit-in-coinstar-kiosk-deal.html

Yup! Or that Fairfax is buying them out. ;D That would be one hell of a squeeze. Not sure why Fairfax hasn't even approached this idea. They are looking for businesses that are expandable and will grow. They've already held this thing for years, and it's selling for a fraction of it's revenue, while Fairfax paid far more for the shares. They have access to capital that would allow it to grow...Sam's already on the board...and the ownership group is tightly structured. Why wouldn't Byrne be interested in owning Fairfax shares in lieu of Overstock shares? His company would have found a permanent home and he would still directly benefit from its growth. He would also continue to run it. Just makes sense for Fairfax to buy them out and it would be win-win for both parties. Cheers!

I agree! They should be going after this guy, but at the same time, they created the loopholes he's exploiting. This guy is like Mr. Potter from "It's a Wonderful Life" and he wants to own the whole town...damn the ethics! Cheers!

Interesting article on land developer Gary Morse, and how he used tax free municipal bonds to build his empire...borders the line of what is ethical and what isn't. Cheers! http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-06-04/hidden-billionaire-morse-a-man-behind-curtain-at-villages.html

Smaller, regional community banks. Cheers! http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daniel-gross/treasury-seeks-raise-270-million-auctioning-tarp-bank-193601578.html;_ylt=Ag1vyKIV98SuyM.DFGggw4aiuYdG;_ylu=X3oDMTQ0dDNtdGs3BG1pdANGaW5hbmNlIEZQIFRvcCBTdG9yeSBSaWdodARwa2cDOTU4NzlhM2YtZTI3Zi0zNGEwLTg1M2QtMzhmNWQ4YzQ2YzVmBHBvcwMxBHNlYwN0b3Bfc3RvcnkEdmVyAzU1Mjc1ZmIwLWFmNGEtMTFlMS05ZmY5LWI3OGRiZjY2MjVmOA--;_ylg=X3oDMTFpNzk0NjhtBGludGwDdXMEbGFuZwNlbi11cwRwc3RhaWQDBHBzdGNhdANob21lBHB0A3NlY3Rpb25z;_ylv=3

I agree. Cheers!

Maybe, but we saw a pretty significant squeeze two years ago when the short position was almost this high, and more recently we saw SHLD spike from about $30 to $70 in a couple of months on some good news, because their short position was about 60% of float. Cheers!

About 50% of Overstock's float is short right now. Any good news in the slightest, say a repeat of the results from Q1 into Q2, and you are going to see one hell of a spike! Not sure who the nutjobs are, but they may lose a fortune. Just crazy to take on such a massive short position. Cheers! http://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/ostk/short-interest

Thanks Zarley! Cheers!

That's what I was thinking, but the article is linking Berkshire to Berkshire Partners. Cheers!

Does anyone remember this occurring? Apparently Berkshire has a stake in Party City...from 2004! Don't remember hearing anything about it. Cheers! http://www.marketwatch.com/story/thomas-lee-buys-majority-stake-in-party-city-2012-06-05?siteid=yhoof2