DCG

Thanks for posting that Plan Maestro. While they've made a few decent acquisitions, Dell's capital allocation has been pretty dismal over the last decade or so.

Morningstar's writeup on Dell is a real good read that presents both the bull and bear case for the company: http://ibd.morningstar.com/ERR/500/DELL.pdf

True. People were saying the same type of things about RIMM's valuation..until the earnings started going away.

He actually spent huge amounts of money buying back stock at well over $20 a share, including several hundred million of his own money. I hate this company and think they make crappy products, but that said, I do think the stock is quite cheap at just over $10 a share. I don't think they're going to go out of business, and selling for less than twice their cash, the market is starting to act like that's the case.

I'm glad Samsung has to pay. Their entire smartphone business over the last several years has been built on building iPhone clones and not innovating on their own. Copying, to an extent, is part of innovation, but Samsung's business model has been to try to copy the iPhone down to a T. Android from the beginning has been mostly stealing ideas from Apple, but Samsung really took it to another level in trying to create iPhone clones. Samsung's public response to this is pretty weak as well, by saying things like 'Today's verdict should not be viewed as a win for Apple, but as a loss for the American consumer," Samsung said. "It will lead to fewer choices, less innovation, and potentially higher prices'. The irony of this quote is of course that Samsung has NOT innovated when it comes to phones and tablets, and it's also great that all their counter-suits got dismissed. They are bitter about money being taken out of their pocket. This is a big win for Apple (the win is more about protecting their ideas and processes, and not about the extra Billion in cash.

Same here.

Not a surprise, but SHLD is #6 on AOL's list of the worst companies to work for in America: 6. Sears Holdings (Sears/Kmart) Rating: 2.6/2.5 Number of reviews: 947/376 CEO approval rating: 30% for Louis J. D'Ambrosio One-year stock price change: down 19% Employees: 293,000 Sears, its stablemate Kmart and several small divisions do business through 2,172 full-line stores and 1,338 specialty retail stores in the United States. Sears Holdings Corp., which is controlled by fund manager Eddie Lampert, holds all these. Lampert recently was given a black eye by the press as he bought a $40 million home on Indian Creek Island, north of Miami. The purchase was made about the same time as Sears made the decision to sell 1,200 stores and close another 173. Sears Holdings has been through several CEOs since Lampert formed it via a merger of Sears and Kmart in 2005. Lou D'Ambrosio was made chief executive in February 2011, replacing long-time interim CEO W. Bruce Johnson. The CEO shuffle has not ended years of failures at Sears as it has struggled against other large chains, particularly Walmart Stores Inc. and Target Corp. Customers will not be surprised to hear that Sears employees think the company's "ancient systems" are in desperate need of repair. In addition to aging infrastructure, retail workers at both companies are unhappy with compensation. Sears employees consistently pointed to low starting salary and even lower annual raises. Kmart employees complained they cannot get enough pay as they are limited to fewer than 32 hours a week with shifts only "four to six hours long." In 2011, Sears' American Customer Satisfaction Index score was a 76 out of 100. Among all department stores and discount retailers, only Walmart received a lower score.

Used to watch it a lot, but hardly watched a minute of it over the last year or so. I like some of the exucutive interviews, but 90% of it is interviews with idiot money managers that have a trading time frame of 5 minutes. CNBC also thrives on trying to create panic, and they classify about 80% of what they say as 'Breaking News' with red banners flashing across the screen. That said, they cater to a majority of their audience, which is traders constantly looking for way to get rich quick.

I changed my Google password to be two-factor authentication after reading this yesterday.

Very impressive looking.

0%. I have a hard time understanding this company.

90% of their business is tied to Facebook. This quarter showed how Facebook making small changes can have a huge effect on their business. Gaming is an incredibly tough industry, as online games have a very short lifespan. Some suspicious insider sales this quarter as well.

DCG, you know as well as anyone that measuring over the short-term means virtually nothing. Fairfax's shareholder equity in 1999 was $155...at the end of 2011 it was $364...or about 8.2% annualized compared to the S&P500, which was down about -1.3% annualized, but with dividends broke about even. During that time, Fairfax also paid dividends in half of those years, so their return is closer to 9.5%. So, let's not focus on the short-term, and worry only if Prem and Fairfax can stay ahead of the indices over the long-term. Cheers! Understood, and I haven't sold a single share of Fairfax, but large investments in companies like RIMM are a cause of the stock sliding (or not moving).

That would be fine, except for him having this opinion since RIM was priced at around $55/share.

Prem has made a string of horrible investments over the last several years - in a time when the market has increased about 100%. Mediocre underwriting + awful investments = sliding share price.

Just when you think that this company is starting to regain momentum, they announce something like this to remind us that Balmer makes some horrendous decisions.

Exactly! I've been saying the same thing about Android tablets. Android tablets (& ice cream sandwich) are designed to be primarily used in landscape mode, and it looks like Microsoft is doing the same thing with Windows 8. This makes no sense to me. I use my iPad for often a couple hours a day, and I use it in portrait mode probably 99% of the time. Watching videos is really the only time I use it in landscape mode, and I don't use watch videos on it very often.

You're right. He seems to be very good at assessing the value of a company and the psychological state of investors, especially when a company is a good sell or in an activist situation on the short or long side. He may be more of the Jim Chanos type than the Warren Buffett type, but I could be wrong. Thanks for the book reference. I hope to learn more about him from the book. :) He has a very contrarian focus. He's been successful at selling into bubbles and buying during short-term panics.

You guys should check out Cuban's book 'how to win at the sport of business'. It is a collection of blog posts, and not a true book, and despite the awful title, it is quite good. He actually has more of a value-based investing style than you'd think. He's a real smart guy.

Here's the thing; if they're gong to start designing hardware, they have to stick to it for the long term, and cut out licensing the OS to other tablet manufacturers. It doesn't make sense to build hardware and license to other manufacturers at the same time. Google already found that out. They can produce a device that sells well for a couple months, until another hardware company releases something better.

Definitely not a macbook.

This company's website is pathetic: http://www.lee.net/

I'm a pretty big Mac guy, but I've been impressed with Metro on mobile. I haven't tried Windows 8 yet, but question how well it will translate to desktops. Currently, I think Apple has the right approach with having a different OS for mobile devices, but I'm interested in seeing Windows 8.

Huh? PUSH as not a valid stock symbol. Publix is a private employee-owned company.

Same here. A lot of the ideas posted on here are just out of my circle of confidence/in industries I don't understand well.