DCG

The bag of chocolate probably won't depreciate as fast as SHLD's brand & real estate.

Spent a good hour or so at Best Buy today playing around with the many tablets they have available. -My main takeaway is that the iPad mini is incredibly impressive. This was the first time I had seen one of them in person, and you really need to see/use one to really get how nice of a device it is, especially compared with all the other 7" tablets out there. I was pleasantly surprised by the screen on it. While it's not a 'retina' screen', it is noticeably better than the iPad 1 and 2. I'm sure they'll release one with a retina screen next year. This mini is real light and compact, and I really like the shape & design of the casing. I'd love to see a future iPad with the same small bevel as the mini - so you'd still have the 9.7" screen, but a smaller device. Also, I played around with probably 15+ different android tablets. While I think Android phones are pretty good, I'm really unimpressed with all the android tablets out there. I've yet to see an Android tablet that can really rival the iPad (especially taking into account the abundance of great iPad apps). -The Kindle Fire HD and the Nook HD+ are good options for people looking for a tablet to use primarily as a reader. I really like the 9" screen size of the Nook HD+, and was impressed with the screen quality. The big drawback of the Nook as that there are pretty much much no customization options, and you have no access to Google Play (same thing with the Kindle Fire). There's no way to even download Amazon's Kindle app to the Nook (w/out jail breaking it). Regarding the Windows 8 tablets out there...eh...some of them look really nice, but I found Windows 8 to be pretty confusing on some of them. While some of the tablets have a Home button (that functions similarly to the iPad - bringing you to the home screen), many others don't have any buttons. I found myself inside apps, and had a hard time figuring out how to get out of them and back to the home screen.

Probably just because they're friends.

People have been talking about their 'undervalued' real estate assets for years. The value comes from actually selling the real estate. The real question is whether there are buyers for all these buildings.

Except for the fact that their actual business is pretty awful. I wish they'd complete dump K-Mart and try to liquidate some of the real estate. Don't own any currently. My point is/was that a 'perfect value trading stock' would be a strong business at a cheap price. Re-reading txlaw's post, I think I missed the word trading. In that case, yeah, SHLD does seem to trade in a consistent range. There are a lot of risks to the underlying business though. And regarding the 2nd part of my post, I have some faith in the Sears Business (and portfolio or brands), but think K-Mart is a dead business not worth keeping. I would like SHLD more as a much leaner company with a focus on its strong brands and what I view as its core business - tools, hardware & appliances.

Except for the fact that their actual business is pretty awful. I wish they'd complete dump K-Mart and try to liquidate some of the real estate.

Anyone read this yet? Does it offer anything new and different from all the other Buffett books out there?

So I assume they are having retailers deliver their products to the store? It's interesting, but not sure what they're ROI will be on that.

not sure this is worthy of it's own thread, but ok.

hmm..not exactly sure why he'd want this company.

So all the bugs with Android will be more visible and the pixelated apps designed for phones will look better? :P

Leave it to Google to announce new tablets (& a phone) on a day when all the media is consumed with the hurricane. They really suck at marketing.

Not sure how to possibly answer this without knowing what prices of individual companies would do.

We love to pick up deep valued bargains. But our greatest success has been investing with owner/founder CEOs who have most of their fortunes in their companies, great long term records, and a history of treating other shareholders fairly. This narrows the field. BRK is basically a collection of these types of companies.

Thanks for posting. Einhorn is a really smart guy, and does solid research.

I've said this multiple times before as well, but this is exactly what's wrong with Android. In my own experience owning an Android phone (which was a Motorolla phone), they stopped supporting Android updates on the phone after only 10 months after I bought the phone (with a 2-year contract). Then app developers updated their apps for the newest versions of Android, which caused them to work horribly on the version of Android I had. Had use an Android phone that had become close to a brick for nearly a year. Sounds like they've done very little to resolve the fragmentation problems with Android.

So..there must've been something funky going on with my browser for a few days when I posted this. Videos appear to be playing fine now.

I live in Burlington, VT - about 40 minutes from the border. Was just up in Montreal last weekend though. Love that city. I know pretty much no French though.

And Tom Gaynor is not Warren Buffett when it comes to investing.

So, while I can honestly say I haven't had any problems with the Maps app, the lack of integration with YouTube is pretty frustrating. I have the YouTube app, but you cannot watch most videos through the browser. So when people post YouTube videos on things like forums, you can no longer just click and play them. I see them waning to control maps, but don't really understand not renewing the contract with google for YouTube.

http://microfundy.com/2012/10/05/znga-long-thesis/ I have never seen a company bleed talent as quickly as Zynga. yeah..that's my main concern with them too.

Trading for just over its level of cash now though.

I think companies like Qdoba and Moe's Soutwest Grill have a better chance to take away business from CMG than Taco Bell. CMG has build a strong brand, but it's a pretty easy business to clone on a local level. We have a Chipotle, Moes and a local company called Burrito Loco in my town, and they're all essentially the same thing.

Agreed. Taco Bell has no effect on CMG's business and I don't see that changing. I think CMG is a very good company, but it is trading at a pretty steep valuation. CMG's market cap is a 3rd the size of Yum Brands. Yum has over 38,000 total locations & $1.3B in annual profit, while CMG has around 1,316 locations, and $214M in annual profit.

One thing I think (haven't really heard other people mentioning this anywhere) can be a big catalyst for computer (especilly laptop) sales is 4G-compatible laptops. As 4g/LTE ges rolled out on a wider scale, there is the potential for people to ditch their current ISP, modems and routers, and connec primarily through mobile broadband.