shalab
-
Posts
1,157 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Events
Posts posted by shalab
-
-
Another shortcoming at Microsoft is the obscene salary paid to the board members.
Microsoft Corp. said Friday that it had increased total annual compensation for its non-employee board members to $200,000, up from approximately $158,000 previously.
The 2006 retainer for members of its board of directors who do not work at Microsoft will include about $80,000 in cash and the rest in stock awards, the company said in a regulatory filing.
Another plus of the Buffett/Munger model is the keen understanding of human behavior and the role of incentive in shaping that behavior.
-
Ballmer is not 100% critics-proof, but to call for his resignation is far stretched.
Have to agree with this - Ballmer wants good things to happen to Microsoft, there is no question about it. When he took over from BillG, Microsoft was reeling from a disastrous fight with the DoJ and another one with the EU and a third one with the Korean government. It is to Ballmer's credit that he dealt with these in a way that it is no longer consuming headlines, the cost of these fights was tens of billions of dollars in fines, cost (business and opportunity) and then untold restrictions on Microsoft's businesses.
The beauty of the Buffett/Munger model is that they have been very ethical in their dealings and have had to spend the least amount of money in lawsuits. Good ethics makes for good business and less trouble.
Ballmer hasn't sold his Microsoft shares unlike Gates. He is paid a nominal salary and doesnt take stock grants. That said, the Microsoft hiring, promoting and spending hasn't been prudent in the recent past. Also, their model to sustain new innovations hasn't been stellar - it could have been done a lot more effectively than it has been done.
-
http://www.dataroma.com/m/home.php
Thank you Sanjeev for this pointer - it is in my to read list.
http://warrenbuffettresource.wordpress.com/
Nice site, very informative, I must say this is better than Schroeders - thank you for sharing.
-
Yeah, at 30 yrs, it doesn't even come close.
Can you please explain your thesis? You can compare random things - e.g: compare Microsoft and LUK or AAPL and FFH over random time periods which doesnt make sense.
-
scorpion - not sure what is your thesis...
-
>Fairfax is similar to BRK, but not entirely. FFH seems to be in that 1967 - 1970's Berkshire stage, buying insurance companies and increasing float.
FFH is like the BRK of the nineties in terms of market cap. It is already at 10 billion.
However, one has to respect what Prem Watsa has accomplished. He was an immigrant from India with little/no background in finance and then he built a company which has made money for so many and inspired many more. Comparison to Berkshire are not fair. It is a lot different than Buffett, who was into finance from the age of seven and would have succeeded no matter what.
-
-
He paid 8.54 per warrant. ( 1.2 million warrants at 10.245 million dollars ). You can now buy it at 30% discount to Chou.
-
Life insurance in-force does not equal float. Life insurance in-force is the face amount of all outstanding policies plus dividends. Float is a small fraction of $113 billion.
You are right - the float here is likely a small amount probably in the low single billions like the equitas deal.
-
-
Sun Life's reinsurance business has 70 employees in offices in Canada, the U.S. and Ireland. The unit assumes risks from life reinsurers and has life insurance in-force of $113-billion.
113 billion in float is a huge amount - not sure the terms of the transaction...
-
For all the brk fans - I think someone like Hamblin-Watsa running BRK investment operations would be a very positive thing. Or Klarman or Berkowitz. The BNSF investment is a good one - similarly increasing stake in KO, Dr Pepper or Pepsi would also be a good thing.
The BYD bet, I am not sure of it but Charlie may turn out to be right. China is not UK and definitely not Germany - so it remains to be seen how this will play out. The corruption index is also interesting - while Singapore is one of the least corrupt countries on earth China is one of the most corrupt. Also, the way Chinese system is going to evolve is going to be interesting. ( hopefully it will integrate well with the community of nations )
-
Similar to Sanjeev's poll, let us do this poll to see how people's portfolio is doing. Also, let us highlight the winners and the stocks that didnt move. ;D
For me personally, 0878.hk was a winner this year gaining 55%, I cleared SNS(BH) early on in the year with gains for the duration I held the stock, BRKB gained this year. FFH has lagged SP500 this year but has done better than SP500 for the duration I have held the stock. Similarly WFC has greatly lagged SP500 this year.
cheers!
-
I third this :-). I have done my analysis and will be happy to share it with the board. There is plenty of liquidity in most of these issues not to impact anyone.
-
-
This means that BRK can be a 400 billion company in another 8 years at 10% compounding.
-
It is no news. Goog has 80%+ share of the search ad dollar market share although the search market share may be lower in the U.S
-
>Unfortunately it's bad timing as China is clam down hard on land usage and real estate, they had to do something to show they're serious.
The very fact this is coming out is kind of odd - you typically see it resolved before it hits the news - especially in a country like China.
-
>I don't quite get what you guys are complaining, but it has relatively little impact to BYD in terms of production, earnings, or enterprise value impairment
This is not a good sign. In a country like China ( or many other countries outside the US as Microsoft found out painfully with the EU ) - you dont win fighting with the government. The fact that government is after you even in a minor way may be an indication of larger things to come.
-
Thank you Sanjeev - my memory is off on this one :'(
-
From Lion Fund annual report in 2009, ( for 2008 ), I got the below:
Our overall performance in 2008 was minus 28.1%. Over the last 9 years, The Lion Fund has
achieved a rate of return of 13.6% compounded annually.
-
Bronco - do you own fmmh.ob?
-
Looks like the short theory is playing out well. The rest of the market went up but NFLX went down.
-
With the antitrust case that seems not well grounded, it looks like this is pretty attractive.
Alice Schroeder Interview
in Berkshire Hathaway
Posted
There is no question she is smart and the reason she got chosen to write the biography. It will be interesting to see why she turned south and in the process lost some of her own reputation.