ElstonG

Very sad day, though I take some comfort in him graduating from living legend to part of the "eminent dead" that he always preferred learning from and spending time with, and that many will continue learning from his recorded wisdom and wit for many years to come.

Would love to read Todd's essay if anyone ever finds an excerpt/link to it. I don't need another copy of the full book so probably wouldn't buy it just for that (but will definitely grab from a library once available!).

Good critical POV / summary of the Liberty universe and its relative underperformance of late from a one time “believer”: https://yetanothervalueblog.substack.com/p/liberty-day-2022-its-time-for-a-change

Just to add to the chorus: this book is fantastic. It's really enjoyable to go year by year with Buffett and Berkshire, and as a relative novice I learned a ton about accounting and general business principles. 700+ pages and I could've read many more.

Thanks, gfp, that was a helpful/clear overview of the downsides.

(Newb question) Can anyone explain in a bit more detail why going over 10% ownership causes enough “hassle” relative to return expectations that it’s rational to avoid doing so in most cases? Ted references this in the interview and of course WEB has before as well, but given the smaller pool of investments that make a difference for Berkshire (due to size and other constraints), it seems weird to me that they’d defer allocating more money to a business that meets their criteria just to avoid various filings and some amount of bureaucratic headache. I know avoidance of bureaucracy is part of BRK’s culture and I applaud that, I am just trying to understand what would make > 10% ownership so annoying as to be willing to pass up what must be hundreds of millions in expected returns.

Thank you for sharing! I like many others have deep-Googled Ted and read basically everything that can be found so this is like Xmas in May.

This is pay-walled / you need to be a subscriber (I couldn't quickly find an open-source link) but there's a new profile of Greg Abel in the Des Moines Register today: https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/2022/04/24/midamerican-energy-holdings-greg-abel-chosen-ceo-berkshire-hathaway-warren-buffett/7295994001/ Update: I believe this is the same article (they start the same way) without a paywall in USA Today.

Apologies if there are threads about this already but I couldn't quickly find any. I'm curious for the community's opinions on the best business magazine(s) today for use by investors. For example, is Fortune better than Forbes? Are any of them still good? I am curious for actual magazines, rather than newspapers, since I already have a good sense of the best options there. I was inspired to ask from a 1997 (I think) clip of the Berkshire AGM where Charlie answered a question about recommended texts with something like (complete paraphrase from memory): ~"I've found business magazines [rather than particular books] to be the best resource for learning about a whole host of businesses." My impression is the quality of all the major ones has gone down since then, but if I'm wrong, I'd love to subscribe to a one or more based on community recommendations.

New topic but I’m curious if anyone has looked closely at / has opinions on Malone/Maffei’s executive compensation approach especially pertaining to stock option grants, which seem heavily employed across entities (especially for Maffei). I know WEB has decried stock option grants under certain conditions (e.g., if priced unrealistically or without a carrying cost / retained-earnings factor) but I am not expert enough to gauge confidently whether the Liberty companies have structured these in a more tolerable / shareholder friendly way.

There isn't a Liberty-sponsored mother ship security, but you could look at Gabelli's Media Mogul Fund (MOGLX) which is comprised of Malone's media org stocks. I have personally not looked at that fund closely and prefer to just create my own portfolio(s) so I can allocate where I feel the most conviction (or for example create a portfolio that matches Malone and/or Maffei's personal holding %'s across the universe of companies).

I’m curious how many invest with an explicit goal of maximizing expected contributions to charity, and thought I’d start a thread to share ideas or related thoughts. Personally, my primary motivations are financial self-sufficiency and simple enjoyment, but my secondary motivation is to accumulate capital beyond my and my family's needs that can be allocated to cost-effective charities (ie., those that do the most good per dollar) during my lifetime. I am a fan of the effective altruism (“EA”) community and approach when it comes to the latter (disclosure that I work for an organization that gives large amounts of money to EA-related charities and can be considered EA-affiliated). The main challenge I have is balancing the tradeoff of giving money away now, which cuts into my rather meager capital base, vs. waiting and letting it compound over time. While WEB opted for the latter, I obviously do not expect to be a WEB-level capital allocator, so that option seems less obvious when you consider arguments that a life can be saved in expectation today for ~$4,000 via donations to GiveWell top charities for example, or Peter Singer’s drowning person thought experiment. I’m interested in whether others have takes on “now vs. later” philosophies, or specific charities they recommend and consider high-impact (my personal favorite is GiveWell, which allocates across several global health charities). For those inclined, I think charity allocation strategy and debates can be as fun as general investment strategy and debates.

Curious how much weight the discount argument is holding for you relative to other buy factors. My impression is that management/shareholders have expected the discount to narrow since ~2017-2018 (when it was as high as 30% then too). That’s obviously not a huge amount of time to wait but it does make me worry I’m missing something structural in the assumption it’ll narrow and stay narrow. If reaching 80% is expected to be a catalyst, hasn’t the market known about the trajectory for years and wouldn’t we have expected the discount to narrow based on that expectation? (Sorry if I’m missing something obvious. I’m a beginner and excited by aspects of LSXMK - management and business characters of SIRI - but I don’t understand why the discount has persisted as long as it has.)

Edit: I see there's already a specific thread so perhaps better to post there (apologies should've checked first). I would be interested in member opinions on the value of QRTEA relative to current price, if anyone has looked at the company closely. There are plenty of takes on Seeking Alpha, but I’d much prefer to hear opinions from this group. It feels intriguing at less than 3x FCF and an explicit plan to return excess capital to shareholders, though I have no great insight into the future potential. Malone and Maffei both seem bullish (Maffei offered to buy out Malone’s supervoting shares at $13 recently, though I don't think that has actually happened). From Liberty’s recent Investor Day Q&A (about 3:14:00 in the video shared above): “John Malone: ‘Qurate seems from a pure economic analysis point of view to be undervalued. Just as a multiple of its ability to generate levered free cash flow. And the strategy of Qurate, which has been a balance of buybacks and, at the end of a season, looking at the cash position of the company and deciding whether or not special dividends are appropriate, I believe, has the promise of providing exceptional returns in the future.’ Maffei: ‘I agree.’”

Greetings! I am actually the individual who was interested in a John Malone / Liberty corner of COBF,so thanks @Parsad for creating this thread. I have been lurking for a while now but this is my first post. I am as interested in criticisms and complaints of the Malone / Liberty companies as praise, so while my bias is positive, the intention certainly wasn’t for a strictly fan-club conversation. I have a small amount of my portfolio across their universe of companies, premised mostly on their shareholder orientation and John Malone’s reputation (I also have a favorable impression of Greg Maffei who is now the day to day quarterback of a segment of these companies). Some of my confidence (which is relatively low but high enough to invest) in their abilities is the confluence I see with other investors I trust, primarily Weschler. That said, I find their capital allocation strategies and organizing structure (as a young and new-ish investor) fairly complex and am not sure how much is “talking the talk” vs walking the walk when it comes to financial discipline, long-term orientation and shareholder-friendliness, so remain skeptical for now and thought it would be useful to have a forum to discuss and gain insight from others. I consider the universe as something like (and limited to A shares here for simplicity but most have A - B - C/K share classes): Liberty Media tracking stocks for Formula One (FWONA), Sirius XM (LXSMA), and the Atlanta Braves (BATRA), managed by Maffei. Liberty Broadband, which primarily represents their interest in Charter (LBRDA), managed by Maffei. Liberty TripAdvisor Holdings (LTRPA) Liberty Media Acquisition Corporation (LMAC), their SPAC. Qurate Retail (QRTEA). Liberty Global (LBTYA), managed by Mike Fries. Liberty Latin America (LILA) Discovery (DISCA), which post merger w/ Warner Media won’t be “controlled” any longer by Malone but he’ll maintain a significant interest. Maffei as far as I know doesn’t own shares here and is more skeptical. Malone and Maffei both own significant stakes in Liberty Media, Liberty Broadband, and Qurate. Things diverge at Liberty Global, Liberty Latin America, and Discovery which are primarily Malone holdings and not Maffei. As far as I can tell Malone doesn’t own LTRPA and as far as I can tell most ownership of Maffei is due to stock option grants and non-cash compensation, not direct ownership (but I find it hard to tell so this might be wrong). Anyway, I’m just glad to see some interest already from the community in this topic!