Parsad

Hi MrB, We already are! ;D Who do you think got the Fairmont Royal York to give us the Imperial Room? Wasn't me! They told me that they had no room available for the dinner, so somebody wielding a bigger stick had to make a call. Cheers!

Mac Jef Raskin started the Mac project: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jef_Raskin Here's the genesis of the Mac in his own words: http://www.azarask.in/blog/post/macintosh-project-genesis-and-history-16-feb-1981/ Mouse was copied from Xerox PARC. Graphic Interface again copied from Xerox PARC USB was an industry standard created by a group that did not include Apple: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB Apple was pushing Firewire over USB for a long time, they felt USB was inferior. iPod If I remember correctly, the idea of the clickwheel, which defined the iPod came from Peter Schiller, the VP of marketing Jobs lead the teams and shaped the products. He was instrumental in their creation. His biggest creation was Apple itself. He had a lot of time to shape Apple to continue to execute long after he was gone. My point was that Jobs didn't necessarily invent those things, but that he brought them to the masses in more practical ways. Edison didn't create the light bulb, but he did make it more useable and functional for the average household. Jobs did the same thing. There isn't a single person at Apple that has his ability to see projects through to fruition with that mindset. Very few people in business can do that. Cheers!

Hi Folks, So tentatively, we have the Imperial Room (main lobby level, near the Library Bar) at the Fairmont Royal York booked for the dinner on Wednesday, April 25th, 2012. I will post details on here as they become available. We will be almost certainly doing a dinner with cash bar, and the ticket prices will be roughly $85-90 with proceeds going to "The Crohn's & Colitis Foundation of Canada". Once everything is confirmed, I will be putting the event on "Eventbrite.com" and you'll be able to buy your tickets directly through there. I'm still working on the idea of having seats available for those that don't want to pay as much and don't want to partake in the dinner. But depending on how the room is structured, there will be a limited amount of those seats available, and they will be furthest from the presentation area...and the discount won't be particularly big excluding the dinner, so expect to pay almost $50 for those seats. I will try to arrange it so that coffee, tea, water and soft drinks are available to everyone. The main reason I'm pushing the dinner is because that is what this event was originally about, and the majority of shareholders and participants do really enjoy that. There is a certain sense of comraderie and goodwill that has developed between Fairfax shareholders (both private investors and institutional) through these dinners, and I think that sort of culture is important to maintain. There are only a handful of companies that enjoy that sort of loyalty and cult-like following...Berkshire is one of course, and I'm not sure there is anything similar in Canada outside of the following Prem has developed. We were all a part of that, and so that is the experience I want to retain for both new and old participants in our dinner. Cheers!

Carl, the Mohnish/Fairfax comment was meant tongue-in-cheek...that he won't sell with Prem on his foundation board. Not unlike ourselves, Mohnish has no loyalty to management, but would do what is in the best interest of his partners and fund. We both love Prem, but we have to manage risk and our funds without taking that into consideration. Cheers!

Article on Burlington Northern and Berkshire. Cheers! http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-17/buffett-s-burlington-exploits-boxed-asia-grain-up-29-freight.html

This sixth grader, who has a couple of apps already on sale, does a fantastic job presenting at Tedx. He says he was inspired by Steve Jobs, and you can see him channelling him a bit in the presentation. Cheers! http://ca.news.yahoo.com/blogs/technology-blog/junior-high-app-developer-pre-teen-tycoon-training-002455041.html

Don't know their batting number, but I would suspect your comment about it being in the 90's is about accurate. A few years ago, Munger said that Buffett has never allocated capital in Berkshire where Berkshire lost more than 2% of equity. So, not only is their batting average high, but their downside is generally extremely low. Cheers!

He also had at least 10% in a basket of Japanese net-nets, so I suspect he does not have to show those in his filing, just like his Fairfax holdings. Cheers1

No, because we've seen Microsoft running without the chief architect for the last five-six years. While Ballmer makes alot of mistakes, and he certainly doesn't have the vision of a Steve Jobs, he is smart enough to keep capex low and share buybacks high. And while Gates isn't involved on a day to day basis, Ballmer can give the largest shareholder a call anytime he wants to get some advice. Also with Microsoft what is the worst that can happen...the P/E compresses from 9 times to 7 times or 5 times? Eventually the market will have to realize that the moat isn't gone, just dented, and that Microsoft's cash flows aren't going to disappear overnight. In Apples case, my opinion is a premature one, but one that parallels Jobs' achievements over the years. He didn't single-handedly design anything there, but he certainly came up with the ideas. You name it and Jobs originally drew up the idea...graphic interface, Mac, mouse, USB, iPod, iPhone, iPad & iTunes. All his! And his relentless pursuit of excellence was incomparable to any other CEO in the modern era. He was Thomas Edison, but unfortunately Apple is not GE. Cheers!

Excellent article on Richard Rainwater and his battle with his illness. Cheers! http://management.fortune.cnn.com/2011/11/07/richard-rainwater-psp-fight/?iid=SF_F_LN

I hope so. I don't think there was anything wrong with his original investment philosophy. He got hit hard in 2008 because of the general market correction, correlated risk and not enough cash. The actual 10 stock portfolio wasn't the problem. You can have 20 stocks and still watch your portfolio go down if you don't have enough cash or there is correlated risk. Cheers!

He has not sold Fairfax as far as I know, and I doubt if he will for some time with Prem sitting on his foundation board and providing an annual donation of $1M. ;D Cheers!

I got the feeling that he might have after having dinner with him in LA the night before the AGM, but you never know for sure until you see the filings. Hey, what can I say...great minds think alike! ;D Cheers!

How are you so sure of that? Because Apple is not Walmart, Coca-cola or Berkshire Hathaway. Its products rely on innovation, ease of use for the user, marketing and game changing breakthroughs. Their business would be akin to a top pharmaceutical company, and unfortunately the top scientist, marketer, leader, innovator and negotiator is no longer there. They will continue to make money, but over time that edge they developed will disappear. It does with all of those companies. Look at Microsoft. Look at Dell and that's with the leader still there. It will happen to Google when Brin & Page are gone. It's why for the most part Buffett has avoided technology companies altogether. The moat develops very quickly and can disappear very quickly. Cheers!

It's a good letter. They are always good letters. And I'm sure Sardar will improve performance of the company stores to a degree. But he did exclude a couple of things from that letter. In particular, what were his returns on a couple of his longest held positions...Steak'n Shake (now Biglari Holdings) and ITEX? Of the four holdings he listed...Western, Friendly, Fremont Michigan & Penn Miller...the return on three occurred entirely due to the sale of the business, not any improvement in operations. What is stopping the current management of Cracker Barrel from doing the same thing? Especially without bringing aboard a hostile shareholder! With Western, operations actually did not improve that markedly, but he stopped the bleeding and created a sound balance sheet, while leveraging the takeover of Steak'n Shake by issuing warrants to existing shareholders and raising capital. Cracker Barrel's management hasn't done a good job, but what exactly will Sardar do that will be significantly different for the trade-off that will eventually occur once the Biglari Holdings culture takes hold...for better or worse! Cheers!

That will change quite dramatically over the next decade without Jobs. Cheers!

Um...so he's never heard of the enormously successful company called Paypal? I think his point was that Paypal and other third party payment systems rely on the same ACH network that the banks use to process credit card charges. Whereas Dwolla is setting up an entirely separate system that doesn't utilize that network at all. It will very difficult to displace the credit card companies or Paypal. I only put the article on here because I just like articles where entrepreneurs are trying to think outside the box and attempting to introduce disruptive systems. I'm a hard-core capitalist, and anytime you get anybody who is attempting something significant, it forms an intriguing case study...whether it succeeds or fails. Remember, at one time no one thought iTunes would do anything to change the music industry, or even that Paypal would succeed in taking market share away from other payment systems. Cheers!

The FBI probably isn't posting a profit either. Hey, let's get rid of them too! Eric, haven't you seen "J. Edgar Hoover" yet? According to Hoover, the FBI was the only government entity actually showing a profit through recoveries! ;D Cheers!

We haven't had Saturday deliveries in Canada for decades, and Canada Post is struggling with the same issues and losing money hand over fist as well. It's a combination of union wages, pensions, lower mail and package volume, and competition. The last two are a direct result of companies like Fedex and Amazon, as well as the younger generations penchance for email, texting and electronic payments. I agree with James that the postal service provides a crucial infrastructure program for rural communities, but I suspect even that will change a degree over time. Cheers!

Interview with Dwolla CEO, Ben Milne. Thanks to Frank for sending me the article! http://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/This-28YearOlds-Startup-Is-siliconalley-2539075670.html?x=0 I love his comment: No one has built a payment network in 30 years — since credit cards. Everybody has concentrated on how we build a portal for credit cards, from digital wallets to Square. We don't believe in credit cards. We believe in authorization and in lower cost transfers. Our generation actually understands that when you buy sh*t, it comes out of your bank account and you have to pay for that. Cheers!

Some comments by Goldman CEO Lloyd Blankfein. Cheers! http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-15/goldman-s-blankfein-growth-to-snap-back-.html

Google's Android, and I guess you could say Microsoft's too, accounted for 52.5% of smartphone sales in the 3rd quarter! That's alot of momentum Apple is going to have to compete with, especially without Jobs at the helm. Cheers! http://money.msn.com/business-news/article.aspx?feed=BLOOM&data-ipsquote-timestamp=20111115&id=14524165

The United States Postal Service lost $5.1B last year, not including a $5.5B payment owed to the U.S. government that was deferred. It's just another amazing example of how the internet has completely filled and killed another moat. Cheers! http://money.msn.com/business-news/article.aspx?feed=AP&data-ipsquote-timestamp=20111115&id=14529105

Some comments from Buffett on Bloomberg. Cheers! http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-15/buffett-says-investor-returns-are-terrific-as-americans-seek-scarce-jobs.html?cmpid=yhoo

Zenith CEO, Stanley Zax, has retired and his COO, Jack Miller, will take over. Cheers! http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Zenith-National-Insurance-iw-212080001.html?x=0&l=1