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Fairfax has nothing to do with it guys. Here is a primer on unsponsored ADRs https://www.investopedia.com/terms/u/unsponsoredadr.asp

Channelling my inner Boilermaker and selling a few Feb 8th 2019 expiry 200 strike put contracts on BRK.B for fiddy-cent (cue stock market collapse)

Just every time the CEO talks about his exit strategy for his investment, which is practically every earnings conference call, he mentions the comps that he looks at as acquisition candidates are all valued at 3-3.2x net revenues on an enterprise value basis. He convinced Biglari to hold off on forcing the Put deal at $6 until April next year. $6 per share is $45 million. Sardar isn't a charitable guy. Here's a recent one, but there are several like this one. Also mentions by the CEO that he's not getting any younger and 'doesn't want to be hanging around this place forever.' He's old, rich, and running this company is no fun. He's going to sell it.

Yeah - who knows why people think it's worth $17 million on an exchange and $13 million over the counter, but I got really interested today. I still think this company gets sold by next April. And I think they sell it for $50 million give or take. I wonder if they will quantify how much they believe SEC reporting is costing them beyond what publishing simple financial statements on their website will cost. SG&A is $2million a quarter so there may be a material savings. I owned some going in to today at $2.20 average cost. But I own a lot more coming out of today. 7.46 million shares outstanding. CEO has a bunch of his family's capital tied up in it and is getting old and tired. Sardar's put extension buys them a bit over a year of time.

This announcement from last year discusses Ajit's unsolicited offer to take over MAC's (South Australia's Motor Insurance company) run-off book. The offer was only good on a private, exclusive, no-bid basis. Doesn't say the premium or float asset/liability transfer, but it is over $300 million, since $300m of the insurance premium paid will remain in Australia, $100m will remain for at least 5 years. https://premier.sa.gov.au/news/warren-buffett’s-berkshire-hathaway-expands-into-south-australia https://www.insurancebusinessmag.com/au/news/breaking-news/berkshire-hathaway-to-manage-sas-back-book-of-ctp-claims-118716.aspx

If you liked Get Out (as I did) and Lakieith Stanfield (as I do) - he's in 'Get Out' and hilarious in 'Atlanta' - you might enjoy a movie we saw over the holidays called "Sorry to Bother You." Written and directed by Boots Riley, a first time filmmaker, it is pretty entertaining for a debut. It's not polished like 'Get Out' though. My Brother-in-law is one of those voting/nominating members for the film awards shows, so our family holidays have become a kind of mini film festival with 20-30 academy screeners to watch over a few weeks time. Really great to see stuff I wouldn't otherwise get to the theater to see.

Thanks for the post John. Always interesting to read Mr. Bloomstran's thoughts, even if dated. Takes me back to the beginning of 2016! A lovely time to be a buyer indeed. I think quite a few of us BRK-nerds were happily buying low-premium in-the-money LEAPs at the time. I guess some of you wild folks were even more aggressive.. It is odd that, even back in 2016, Bloomstran through the railroad wasn't paying out dividends to BRK, and relied on STB filings when BNSF has always filed individually with the SEC.

Funston probably convinced Sardar that he was going to sell the company by April 2020 and really didn't want to come up with the money to buy BH's shares at $6. I'm surprised Sardar agreed to it, but the implication is that they will get more than $6 when they sell. I had $6.50 penciled in as a high end in my notes, so personally I would have taken the $6 and moved along. But I guess if they are confident they will get more than $6 Sardar is willing to work with Funston for $200k... We'll see.. Maybe Funston will hire a second "millennial" to help him out. He's hilarious on the conference calls

Had to reply to this thread since my friend has decided to turn this into a little Mardi Gras side hustle business. The hottest "throw" of this year's Mardi Gras! He's selling all he can make... https://mardigraspenaltyflags.com

Charlie just dropped this same quote at the meeting. Fish where the fish are gentlemen Knowing Charlie, he’s probably thinking of ponds like China and would point out that ‘the Mungers’ have been fishing there for some time

Charlie liked it - https://www.wsj.com/articles/when-charlie-munger-calls-listen-and-learn-11548421209?mod=hp_lead_pos8

Here's a blog post with a look back on the BNSF acquisition almost 10 years ago. He's taken out over $30 Billion in tax free cash distributions (not including BNSF tax payments to parent). https://berkshirebuffettandbeyond.com/2019/01/15/10-years-since-bnsf/

Might be easier to get your fidelity account approved to purchase the Toronto shares directly vs. waiting for something to be 'fixed' on an unsponsored adr.

It was a brutal non-call but man, some of that Saints play calling at the end was killing me. Seems like we could have at least forced them to use their final time out while we still had the ball towards the end of regular play - instead a bunch of incomplete passes. And what the hell was Michael Thomas looking at when they the Rams got the interception on their ass on the ground. Thomas didn't seem aware of the ball at all. Sad end to the season, and a rough no flag - but c'mon Saints..!

Agree with a lot of what you are saying bizaro. Just today we got a review from another first time airBnB user. Shocking how many young people are still trying it for their first time. Regarding the AWS service, I'm curious if you experience the same thing I experience. I find that the databases for Hosts are really slow. Calendar, for example, seems to take forever to load - in the app and on a browser. Do you find that to be the case with Host Calendar?

Still curious on KYG. Is it K as in the common abbreviation for "contract"? Is this some type of contract that was entered into with misidentified or mistaken identity of the parties? do tell Thanks for posting this. What are KYJ And EC?

I don't even know if the numbers they throw around in public for "revenue" are their revenue cut from fees or the entire value of each booking (the vast majority of which is passed through to hosts). I am very much looking forward to seeing detailed financial statements.

Yeah, its always going to be tough. Warren will be the first to advise against selling if a family has a well run, profitable, large business with durable competitive advantage and attractive, predictable long term economics. Generation changes and liquidity needs (and sometimes capital raising needs) are the main reasons families sell. The Pritzkers had their spoiled children suing them in a public way - that helped. More and more, Berkshire will have to turn to public companies because of the need for very large companies to buy. It's hard to negotiate a purchase of a desirable public company at a sensible price. - side note: maybe a side benefit of all the giving pledge networking meetings.. It's tricky to donate at least half your family fortune if you don't create liquidity for the family enterprise

would assume EC references the Equity Committee but BG will know better

Its an American comedy movie called "City Slickers" John - Dazel references "Your One Thing" http://www.collierbiz.com/Articles/OneThingCitySlickers.htm

Here's one that would be a good fit for Berkshire - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J.M._Huber_Corporation Anyone who has passed a construction site in the last decade and seen Green sheathing and black tape is seeing a very popular Huber product called the Zip system. It's an alternative to house wrap and it is very popular. They also make a very popular subfloor that we use called Advantech. It's particle board, but it has so much resin in it it basically comes out waterproof (at least for long enough to put a roof on something, which is also done with Huber decking in a rust color.

I used to wonder about that one too. The best I can come up with is that he doesn't love the financing side of the business, which results in $38 Billion of debt on the balance sheet. I know he owned some stock at lower prices and sold out when it broke $100 per share or something like that. Maybe he tried to buy it over the years and it wasn't available at his price. Or maybe that wild-man Howie told him there wasn't durable competitive advantage and Warren wouldn't want to be 'banker to the farmers' when the shit hit the fan. Cue John Deere / Berkshire buyout announcement tomorrow

A bunch of realtors wouldn't want to cut out investment bankers would they? Heresy Seriously though, the investment bankers probably still get paid on most of these bolt-on acquisitions

yes part II is out but probably not when that person edited Howard's wiki page. What I gathered from the historical Warren Buffett documents they published was that Warren and Susie were supportive when it was about abortion and stopped supporting the controversial figure when he moved towards being controversial. "Once supported" is another way of saying "stopped supporting." But we all know Charlie is racist so I'm sure Warren and Susie are/were as well. I mean, who's not? What a hypocrite this Buffett joker

New CEO for HomeServices, Peltier moving up to Executive Chairman - https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190116005196/en/HomeServices-America®-Expands-Executive-Leadership-Team http://www.startribune.com/homeservices-of-america-taps-new-ceo-to-lead-expansion/504437412/