dwy000
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Posts posted by dwy000
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4 hours ago, Saluki said:
Just an FYI, the Seagrams Bronfmanns are the branch with the crazy sisters who were in the NXIUM sex cult in NY. The Brookfield Bronfmanns were the branch of the family that was squeezed out of the liquor business and went into real estate and became Brascan, which became the basis for Brookfield. "The Brass Ring" is a book that has that story and is excellent. It's out of print but I have a copy sitting in my office somewhere. If I go in person anytime soon, I'd be happy to mail it to whoever wants it or bring it to the Omaha for the Woodstock for Capitalists meeting.
Thanks. I read the Brass Ring a long time ago when, as a jr banking analyst, we supported Cockwell/Eyton at Brascan. And went to school with a couple of the Bronfman kids (from the liquor side). It was a good read but a bit aged now.
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37 minutes ago, Xerxes said:
I read the first one, in the same year that came out. I think Buffett also mentioned the book in his AGM couple of years later.
The second is great story about all the effort that went to float CN as a public company. I really enjoyed it.
Unrelated to railroads, the author of the first book, Howard Green, also wrote about the story of TD Bank went to expand its business in the United States. It is a great story. Too bad, I read it many years after its publication.
Another book by Howard Green, which a new one, covers the latter years of Bronfmans/Seagram dynasty.
I have not read this one, but do intend to.
Thanks! Hope those last two come out in print - I'm not a fan of e-reading. But great recommendations!
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1 hour ago, Xerxes said:
The original Canadian National and CP did have a lot of fat in them. I would argue that the work that Hunter Harrison did was needed but ultimately perhaps taken too far by others.
CN was a crown corporation that was privatized in the 1990s. So you could imagine that the journey from crown corporation to a profitable business needed some pushing by none other than Michael Sabia and Hunter and the former BBD chief (whose name escapes me)
CP for a longest time owned a string of hotels (the famous Fairmount) and it was run like a royal court. Some of that was taken out pre-Hunter I think. Just to show how unwieldy they were.
Xerxes - what are these books (can't fully see either one) and are they any good?
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2 hours ago, tnathan said:
Thanks everyone for the thoughtful replies. I moved into tech to get better WLB (was working 70 hours a week previously doing PE due diligence) but now that I'm here the bureaucracy is what I am hoping to avoid in future roles. Perhaps I'm best suited to work for a startup where there aren't so many stupid tasks!
at your age (or what i assume is your age), with a b-school background you're going to be working 70 hours a week at whatever you're doing. With a good chunk of it being face time or make-work to prove your mettle. Hours at a start up will be worse but at least the work will be more diverse (and the pay much worse).
If you're going to work 70 hrs a week at something, make it something you at least enjoy doing or that it's providing the benefits to get you where you really want to be. Once you get on the treadmill, it's really hard to walk away from the money despite the dipwads you're working with.
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17 hours ago, ratiman said:
The first words of the first chapter are "A school in Connecticut once held a "Day devoted to the arts" . . . " WHO CARES? I can't imagine an introduction less likely to get the reader hooked.
It picks up in the 2nd chapter with the car chase scene
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Thank goodness it's back. My wife was looking at me like "why are talking to me about detailed stock analysis?"
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Try "On Writing" by Stephen King (yes, that Stephen King). I have no interest in being a writer and only picked this up because somebody gave it to me but I couldn't put it down. Shows what a good writer he is that he could make almost a textbook interesting.
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I was really surprised at how much I enjoyed this book. It's part biography and part insider details of the take private transaction back in 2014. I originally bought it thinking it would be a rah-rah, run of the mill biography about how he overcame diversity through hard work and his own greatness, yada yada yada. But I don't think I've read a business biography since Snowball that was staying up late to read and couldn't put down. Dell's back and forth with Carl Icahn is worth the price in itself. He doesn't hold back about his views on Icahn right down to his wife's cooking.
I'd heard about his dorm room days starting Dell but I didn't realize how entrepreneurial he was from early teen years and this was despite being raised rich and against his parent's wishes.
Anyways, it's a great read and pretty good insight into the person as well. Highly recommend.
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13 hours ago, Xerxes said:
Thanks for your thoughts, certainly GE Aviation has been an incredible company with the reach and the moat they have had. Great company, means great people.
My comment was mostly about the corporate level of GE. The Alstom deal was almost comical.
Reading this book, it make me really appreciates what we have with Berkshire Hathaway. I have every trust in Greg Abdel, but I hope Buffett's shadow won't imped him like Welch's shadow impeded Immelt.
I would be a buyer of GE Aviation stock once it spins of Healthcare and Power (*cough* Alstom *cough*).
Agreed. Actually Healthcare is a decent business too although they had to sell some crown jewels in the biopharm business to Danaher.
I wanted the book to go into Alstom better - in hindsight it was a disaster but at the time everyone was calling it a coup. I wanted to understand the rationale for it - esp after selling NBC cheaply.
Aviation is an incredible business. There are really only 2-3 credible players so its an oligopoly. Good tailwind (no pun intended) too.
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Having worked there and knowing many of the players I was a little disappointed that there wasn't a little more substance to the book. There was a decent amount about culture and Welch and how Immelt operated and his personality (which they nailed). But I wanted to know more about the background to much of the M&A and the troubles in Power that almost brought them down, and the rationale behind the software debacle, etc. These were not dumb people and while the bureaucracy could be overwhelming, there were a lot of really, really smart people and there were a lot of things that were done right. It took a new culture to realize it.
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I read this coming out of B-School as a "must read" at the time (along with Liar's Poker). Not only is it simply a great read, whether you're into finance or not, but it's also a good primer on the use of of leverage in business. The most important takeaway for me, however, was to see just how much of the activity was driven by ego and FOMO. Some of the smartest, most experienced investors out there, doing things rational people wouldn't do in order to be deemed a "player" or the king of the hill. It's like Robinhood meme stocks but with LBO's.
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A very Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone here. I can't think of a website or board where I have learned more or found more opportunity than CoBF - and it's due to the quality and integrity of the posters. Thanks all!
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Not a recommendation of a single book but 150 recommendations from business leaders for their favorite book of the year. Some really surprising entries in there and I've added a bunch to my (already too long) reading list.
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I bought shares of Charter earlier this year and foolishly used my phone instead of walking up to my desk. I put an extra 0 on the number of shares because I was also watching a low priced stock separately. About 10 minutes later i realized I bought 10x the number of shares I intended to. I panicked, ran up to my office and sold the extra shares. Through sheer luck it had ticked up and I made more in that 10 minutes than the whole week. By accident.
It confirmed I would never make a good day trader.
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2 hours ago, CorpRaider said:
I am reading cable cowboy currently and it seems like they are going to blow up from too much leverage. Like legendary business genius paul allen's charter did. NGMI
I don't want to spoil the ending for you but they don't blow up and Malone does just fine (pretty well in fact).
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How bad is it that I saw Netflix was coming out with a movie called Red Notice and my first thought was "The Rock seems to be an odd choice to play Bill Browder"
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I liked the book but it really was an ego trip. Zell has had a number of high profile failures along the way but you would never know it from the book. A lot of the business detail was glossed over - I wanted more dirt on the backroom negotiations and aggressive structuring he used but it wasn't there.
It's a quick and good read but there are better biographies out there.
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Verizon spun out their old landlines to Fairpoint a long time ago using RMT. I remember getting shares in Fairpoint and couldn't blow them out fast enough.
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can you frame it a little more? Are you referring to short term movement due to a re-juggling of the shareholder base or are you referring to the long term returns of spinouts in general using this structure?
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Just my 2 cents but I would agree with Gregmal. It's highly unlikely newbies will plop down $50 if they can't see what they're buying into. I suspect most people on the board would follow and read for a while before feeling the need to join and respond to a post or comment on a stock.
Either way, I'm in to stay whatever is decided.
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so much for the great exodus I guess. Record population in NYC with increase in all boroughs.
New York City’s Population Booms — But Not for Everyone, Everywhere - THE CITY
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Don't drink there yourself. Ever.
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3 hours ago, Spekulatius said:
Sold some more ABEV and the remainder of my GD.
(I am keeping my defense exposure in LHX, NOC and LMT)
Sold off my few shares in OGN (MRK spinoff)
Spek that's at least 3 "what are you selling" posts in the past week. Are you sitting on cash or selling to buy something more appealing?
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7 hours ago, Longnose said:
Today I was talking with a friend and he brought up Chuck Feeney. The billionaire who gave it all away. Its a pretty cool story for anyone who isn't familiar or who wants to look it up. Then we got caught up talking about being charitable. I've always wanted to be more charitable with my money and i like hearing about how others do it. Pabrai talks about giving away 2% of his net worth every year. Some of my relatives have tied charity into their Christmas instead of giving out gifts they make donations to foundations in the name of all the kids/grandkids. Then you get into the challenges of giving it away effectively. I've been to a few charity events and donated to some of those causes but I always feel like I'm donating to a black hole. I know Bill Gates talks about the challenges of trying to solve the worlds toughest problems and using money wisely to do that can be a challenge.
Anyways, I'm not sure what I wanted to get at here other than I hope to be more philanthropic in the future and admire many charitable people in my life.
Probably depends on how much you're talking about. If it's small amounts, giving big tips and small donations are meaningful to the recipients and you get much more direct impact. But once you get into the $000's you probably want to make a larger scale, broader impact. If you have the time (which many times is more impactful than straight up $'s) it might be preferable to get involved with a charity or activity that supports a cause you believe in. And once you are involved it's much easier to give funds because you know where its going and can see the impact. It's a win-win for both you and the cause.
I must admit I don't understand those who don't take the taxable deduction though. It's basically free money that can increase the amount of the gift if you re-donate the tax savings as well.
Railroads
in General Discussion
Posted
Buffett sells stocks. A lot. I get being a long term investor but if the business changes, the price gets too high or management changes for the worse, there's no point holding on and risking losses for no reason.