Ballinvarosig Investors

That to me sounds like the Board will fight the takeover.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/jan/11/50-cent-ramps-stock-on-twitter?INTCMP=SRCH Brings a whole new meaning to buying a $1 stock for 50 Cent!

Agree completely. You can dress it up however you want to, but China is still a totalitarian dictatorship.

That article about Biglari stealing Fremont was a hoot. For one, can anyone name me any thinly-traded company on the OTC market that trades at fair value? Secondly, the article completely ignores the two most recent quarters for Fremont. If you look at the last two 10Q's, you'll see that underwriting losses have ballooned in their personal lines business and that the combined ratio will almost certainly finish the year at over well over 100%. Ignoring book value growth (which really has only been a result of a rising market), does anyone really think that an illiquid insurer with poor underwriting really deserve a premium price? In my opinion, $28 (which is about book value, is what Fremont is actually worth). the $31 offer is a fair premium that an acquirer should have to pay. Disclosure: I sold up after the $31 offer was announced.

2010 was a great year, I think they'll bump it up. $12 for me.

I can't say I have ever understood why FFH holds Dell. When you look at where Dell is today, it's in exactly the same position it was back in 2000. In the mean time, the computer industry appears to have grown increasingly commoditized, where the lowest cost producers intensely drive down prices and margins. 11x earnings for something that isn't even growing doesn't seem cheap to me.

When I read statements like this, I am reminded by the immortal, and immensely influential words of Spike Milligan (a British-Irish comdien of the WW2-era).

Guys, there's no point comparing BH with a hedge fund just yet, most of its earnings are still going to be generated from the core Steak n' Shake operation for quite some time to come. What you really need to do is evaluate it against other restaraunt stocks, if you do that, you'll see that BH is good value (low price/book, high earnings growth, low price/cash flow, etc.). If you take the blinkers off, you'll see that BH is still good value, although I certainly wouldn't go as far to suggest it was spectacular value, like it was when the share price tanked a few months ago. I know some of you folks were keen on Red Robin, but when you stack the numbers up against each other, you'll see that they're quite similar, with the exception that Red Robin doesn't have the growth (it's in decline if anyting!) that BH has.

I sat on my hands for a long time with Steak n' Shake while it steadily produced knockout earnings, quarter on quarter. At one stage, I was ready to give up on ever getting Steak n' Shake at a fair price. However, we got the furore surrounding the compensation package, which subsequently annihilated the share price. I bought then, and I have promised myself that I will just leave part of my portfolio on this thing until something says otherwise. The compensation package will of course act as a dampener on future earnings, however the big picture is that you have a ridiculously talented guy at the helm of this operation who will make you money. The question you have to ask yourself is, would you bet against Steak n' Shake and Biglari? Assuming the answer is no, you then need to ask yourself why you're not investing with him. Sometimes you have to just take a step back and look at the big picture. Will Steak n' Shake make more money then what is it today? Absolutely. Will Biglari be able to invest the excess capital generated from the operation at a decent return? Almost certainly.

Shalab: BH is trading at about 10x FCF. That to me says that the market attaches no premium to the abilities of Biglari, his capital allocation skills, or his ability to grow the Steak n' Shake business.

Incredible results, look at the free cash flow, astounding. Company still looks undervalued even at these prices because there's nothing to suggest that Biglari is slowing down.

There's only one bank worth reading about - Trinity Bank.

http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1271245/000119312510254103/dex991.htm More crappy underwriting results from Fremont.

Mary Buffett too.

That's my experience too, the Kindle simply makes reading a pleasure. Don't forget, that the Kindle opens up a lifetime of completely free reading at Project Gutenberg.

Position sold out. Interesting!

CNA Financial bids $22 a share for rest of CNA Surety.

Maybe someone here is one of them :o Who is "them", then?????? ??? :P http://cornerofberkshireandfairfax.ca/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=1392 Back to Fremont Michigan. I see that FFH have bought FMR for 1.22 times tangible book value. That kind of offer applied to Fremont would give it a value of $32.65.

I am still waiting for my "Necker Island" moment. For those of you that aren't aware of the story, let me quote Wikipedia. Now I'm not saying that I'm looking for a Caribbean island, but I think the time to snap up a bargain will come. Having patience and the means to act quickly will be key.

Maybe someone here is one of them :o

http://www.chanticleeradvisors.com/files/102081/chanticleer%20investors%20ii%20-%20q3%202010%20letter%20to%20members.pdf

I don't really see a point in them, or the ipad for that matter. For me, I have a Dell desktop PC in the office for the day to day work, lots of memory, fast cpu and dual 21" monitors. If I'm traveling, I have a 13 inch MacBook. It's just as portable, does everything the ipad does and much, much more. My phone is my personal organizer/diary/mp3 player/feed reader/internet on the go/etc. device My ipod and netbook have been demoted to dust gatherers.

How did the DX handle the charts, tables, and graphs in a typical annual report? Did it read generally as smoothly as it would on paper? And, to finish my interrogation, how were the annotation capabilities? Anyone have experience with other e-book readers used for this purpose? The Kindle will do charts, tables and graphs just fine - no colour though. The screen really has to be seen to be believed. Just take a macro lens to both and you'll see why the Kindle is just so good. As for annotations, the Kindle lets you annotate everything but PDF. Like I said, the Kindle is a dedicated reading device and it does this very well. If you want to be able to "do more", then you should really consider a laptop/netbook/ipad.

I have had the lend of a Kindle DX and an ipad for the last few days. Two great devices, but they do different things. If you're looking for a device purely for reading, then the Kindle DX is the only way to go. The e-ink technology really is like reading off paper, I read annual reports off it for a good 5 hours on the trot with no problems whatsoever. Don't forget, when you buy a Kindle, you have free internet for life too. That is incredibly handy if you're on the move. The ipad is a more all-round device. If you're looking for a colourful, contrasty internet browsing experience with full multimedia, then it's great. You can watch films on it, muck around with apps, etc. the sky really is the limit. While reading off it is perfectly fine, my eyes just felt so much less strain with the Kindle. Personally, I have just ordered the Kindle DX for reading, and will stick with my laptop for day to day work. If you're a heavy-duty reader like me, your eyes will thank you for the Kindle ;D

He's gotten quite a bit of castigation for not being a "value investor", which is a little ironic considering some of these people engaged in shorting, a thing that even Ben Graham gave up on.