brker_guy

I just want to share this with you folks. It is painting a decent picture of what will come in the telecom industry for the U.S. http://tfi.com/pubs/w/pdf/telektronikk_telecom.pdf ValueCarl, thanks for the kind words.

ValueCarl, As you have rightfully pointed out, they hold shares or have positive opinions of AKAM and GOOG. That's why they want to pump their views on that industry and use controversial companies like LVLT is their whipping boy and bash them. This same author from FOOLS put out an article 1 day prior questioning people what they saw in LVLT when LVLT reported. Then, when they read the news about the GOOG dark fiber acquisition, they started to have a different view. This is what I meant "cheery concensus". I used to work in this telecom industry back in the late 90s and early 2000. You wouldn't believe the kind hubris that went on back then compare to today. Today, I think capacity is about to be catching up to demands due to a few factors. One, you have consolidations. Two, you have the wireless and in particularly, the smart phones(iPhone, RIM, and Google phones) driving up demands. Three, you have HD video(video is the biggest hogger of bandwidth), and four, you have the political/net neutrality driving demand. If you look at what is going in China with GOOG and what the RBOCs are doing by capping usage and by giving priorities to their own traffic over others, I can see why the telecom industry will be in for a major change with GOOG being the biggest impact to supply/demand. In due time, I think the business model that LVLT has will withstand the test of time. They just have to refinance their debt to extend the lifeline. As long as they generate free cash flow and can stay healthy, they will make it. At some points here, I think there will be a Q/LVLT merger. Just my two cents...

ValueCarl, Over the years, I have found all of the talented writers like Bill Mann, Zeke Ashton etc have left to join value oriented funds or start their own hedge funds. What's left of FOOLS are writers who constantly asking for cheery concensus. I find more investment readings and investment intellectual elsewhere than at the FOOLS. They had their chance of making something big, real big, but they blew it. Too many thumbsucking events are taking place at the FOOLS.

ValueCal, "Their 16.2 percent control stake in Level 3 Communications(LVLT) and corresponding > 266M shares inclusive of conversions. Smart people doing stupid things?" Southeastern Asset Management increased its stake in LVLT by 25% as well. With GOOG's plan of broadband announced the other day, I believe that's why these super investors are anticipating this and are betting heavily? Let's not forget that if you look at the map of LVLT's network, you will see that they pass through of GOOG's data centers. http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/794323/000080798510000010/lvlt13g9.txt

Only in America, folks! Only in America, do we have scam artists like Dykstra multiple chances... Amazing!!!! ??? ???

Sanjeev, interesting link. There are a lot of university researches in this area of "Augmented Reality". If you google the words, "augmented reality", you will get millions of hits on this subject. The iPhone is doing a simplified version of augmented reality for navigation.

On the earnings CC last Friday, management mentioned about their trip to Europe to renegotiate the TNT deal this week. I guess the renegotiation is not going as well as they hope?

Josh, thanks for the link on the total return swaps (TRS). I read through the description, but don't see how that TRS = Equities there. Needless to say, that is a bet for Ackman. After his performance at the Target annual meeting which left him in tears and crying to the press, this is somewhat of a redemption for him...

I am confused. May be someone on this board can enlighten us with the meaning of "total return swaps with banks". I always thought that if you hold equities in a company, you have to report the total position with the SEC if it's 5% or more. So far, I can only trace 23mil shares. Not sure how that ever equates to $400MIL in gain... That's okay. If a pumper is here to pump, I just thought he needs to get his facts straight....

Ok, thanks. According to Yahoo, he only holds 23mil shares as of Sept. 30th. http://biz.yahoo.com/t/29/630.html Don't see how that equates to $400MIL in gain from equity.

I thought Ackman bought the notes of General Growth, not the equity?

I believe Jason Zweig had a nice article about this in the WSJ this weekend (subscription might be required)... http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125149410400267863.html I think Sanjeev might be right on his theory. Because of a low capital base, I usually do my fishing in the lower cap space. I notice recently that there are a tremendous run up on stocks in the microcap areas with HUGE volume for no apparent reasons. Also, the Chinese stocks that are traded here have seen the run up as well. I don't think many people can easily analyze Chinese-domiciled stocks trading here, but I notice that a lot of activities of huge run in these stocks. I think we might be due for a correction....

A really wonderful article and a true tribute to Susie and Warren's everlasting legacy...

If they can resolve the Buffalo crash issue, life will be looking up for them and us shareholders.

You have to love the age of Internet Video, don't you? Everything is right there for you to see without any delay or queuing... These videos are not very flattering to Cramer's credibility... This video is classic of Cramer & Co... Warning: Video contained some profanity at the end.

I will add another one to that lis Partner24: -Have some humility in life. It goes a long way

One Cramer's Celebrity stock pumpers is filing for bankruptcy. Wow, this is shocking! http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/money_co/2009/07/celebrity-financial-crash-of-the-day-former-major-league-baseball-star-and-lake-sherwood-resident-lenny-dykstra-filed-for-ba.html

The entire interview is worth listening to than the transcript read, I think. http://marketplace.publicradio.org/www_publicradio/tools/media_player/popup.php?name=marketplace/money/2009/06/19/buffett_lunch061909_64

Just want to share this with everyone... http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2009/06/19/mm_buffett/

Interesting news from LVLT today: http://lvlt.client.shareholder.com/secfiling.cfm?filingID=794323-09-97 A 20yrs contract... I wonder with whom...

May be you and I just read the wrong article, scion, but this is what I see, "It’s inconceivable that he would tell the Average Joe it’s OK to buy global when he isn’t" when I see he makes investment in BYD, SanofiAventis, Glaxo, and completely bought ISCAR into the Berkshire fold. I wonder where those companies are domeciled at. Are they not foreign? I don't know. May be I read the wrong tea leaf, but that's what I see, and here I see this article that cautions investors as to what Warren has been doing. The man only put down something in the neighborhood of $20BIL on different companies. May be the tea leaf I should be reading from Buffett is look at what I do more so than what I say? ;-)

I wonder what Alice call all of that money that Buffett laid out to all of those companies since last fall. She also questioned Buffett's reluctance to invest in foreign markets. I wonder what those companies like ISCAR, BYD and CNOOC(which he sold out and made a fortune on) are located. :-) This was an insane commentary.

I think everyone is reacting to what they presented at the annual meeting: http://www.atsginc.com/ir/2009-atsg-shp.pdf Those shares at 20 cents or so back in November look mighty attractive then, don't they? What I found interesting is that the DHL contract wasn't really too profitable. Insiders bought nearly $1 mil worth of stock recently. There were a few investment firms loading up their shares as well.

I think this article said it all about rating agencies: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-hiltzik2-2009apr02,0,6715662.column

Earnings for ATSG just came out this evening: http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/090323/20090323006264.html?.v=1