OracleofCarolina

I find it interesting when researching OICO,(John Linnartz of Mustang Capital is Co-Chairman) that they recently introduced a new compensation agreement for their CEO. Do you folks like this one better than Sardar's proposed agreement? Mr. Lancaster. For 2010 and subsequent years while he is actively employed by the Company and in addition to his Base Salary as defined in his employment agreement, Mr. Lancaster will be eligible to earn a cash bonus equal to 10% of Free Cash Flow in excess of $3,000,000 annually, as adjusted by a charge of 15% on any Incremental Investment Capital (defined below). The charge for investment capital shall be applied annually year-over-year but shall be pro-rated based upon the month in which the invested capital is contributed by the Company. “Free Cash Flow” refers to the Company’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (“EBITDA”), less capital expenditures. “Incremental Investment Capital” refers to capital invested subsequent to January 1, 2010 pursuant to approval of the Company’s Investment Committee for strategic initiatives, such as the acquisition of a business or product line. The Committee has the discretion to exclude certain one time events such as the sale of assets from Cash Flows and to provide a discretionary bonus in addition to the Free Cash Flow based incentive.

Anyone have an idea on the status of SKFUF.PK shares? They stopped trading, will holders of these shares receive some sort of new share?

anyone else see Dash on CNBC today? He did not come off very convincing in my opinion..we'll see tomorrow but I would not bet on him winning a board seat..

Denny's board has issued a letter refuting the claims made by Dash. With the stock up 70% since January, I don't think shareholders will vote for them.

http://www.ivafunds.com/sites/default/files/downloads/Conf%20Call%20Transcript%20March%2031%202010%20(FINAL).pdf I consider Charles and Chuck two of the best money managers in the business and this is my "poor man's hedge fund". Worth it for me as I am able to buy at NAV as a registered rep.

Another 13g filed yesterday

How was he able to get all those shares?

http://blogs.wsj.com/deals/2010/03/03/whats-the-matter-with-dennys-just-ask-mr-dash/?mod=yahoo_hs Dash has a brief interview in the WSJ.

Anyone think maybe this is what Sardar was buying? Dash is trying to get on the board.

I thought you would be interested in the following story on WSJ.com. In Risky Year, Buffett Looked 'Into the Abyss' http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126056572135687829.html

I thought you folks would be interested to know the Freakonomics guys did a write up in the WSJ yesterday of the decision to go for it.... and ..guess what??? The Patriots made the right decision to go for it based on statistical reasoning!

Town hall at Columbia University and Buffett will be on CNBC through out the day!

Thanks for the heads up, I am watching now. Charlie Rose is one of the few shows I Tivo, most of the other "news" shows give me a headache.

Yep, I think is a well put together primer on value investing Even experienced investors will enjoy...I also recently read King of Oil which is about Marc Rich. Very interesting read as Rich pretty much invented the spot market in the oil trade and was always portrayed as an evil tax evader who did business with enemies of the US. The book dwelves into the murky world of international commodities trading.

Can Seaspan's competitor's do "slow steaming"?

Motley Fool Conversations latest podcast is with Alice. I'll let someone else post the link. I think you will enjoy as I learned some new things in the 1/2interview.

Barron's feels SHLD could go down 50%, can't say that I would argue with them. It is going to be interesting to watch though.

Tariq, u sure? Cascade was Gate's personal money and they are a reporting holder of Strategic Hotels, BEE, which is not on this filing.

I have also been very impressed by what Sardar has accomplished so far with WEST, FRN, and SNS, not to mention the Lion Fund. His letters are very Buffettish, concise,clear language with not much hint of an ego. I look forward to continue my modest : ) investments with him and I plan on going to the WEST meeting this year.

Don't have the link, but a great story on the hard work Howard is doing in Africa in helping the farmers.

I reviewed the presentation, all 60+ pages. I initiated a small holding in it on Monday at 2.32 Seems to have a favorable risk/reward tradeoff. Ackman did a lot of digging and i am willing to foolow him on this idea. Sure am glad i did not follow him on TGT though, the Leucadia guys lost a couple hundred million on that idea. I guess i just got lucky, usually if I see a situation where Leucadia and Ackman in an idea, i woulx jump in!

I am concerned about the long-term value of the water rights In that access to water is a political issue and PICO may be forced to sell at an unfavorable price. And according to the annual letter, their equity positions lost 41% last year. I like the concept of what PICO is doing but not in love with it yet. There was a NYT article recently on the water issue in Las Vegas and PICO was mentioned. I have not found the link yet, but if i recollect; there were lots of issues and bickering

I am fine with the ads, i don't see any harm. Thanks Sanjeev for all you do!

Speaking of SNS, with the share price dropping from over $12 to around $9, i am tempted to buy back in. I was originally in with an average Cost in the low $7s and sold out around $11.75. What are your thoughts?

There was a guy named Charles Ortel on there bashing Buffett's performance since 1998, he thinks BRK should be shorted, and the derivatives are a big mistake