giofranchi

GrafTech Enters Into Definitive Transaction Agreement with an Affiliate of Brookfield Asset Management http://seekingalpha.com/pr/13537206-graftech-enters-into-definitive-transaction-agreement-with-an-affiliate-of-brookfield-asset-management Gio

Fantastic quotes! :) Thank you very much, Gio

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/endo-to-acquire-par-pharmaceutical-strategically-expanding-generics-business-to-a-top-5-industry-leader-300084670.html Gio

Evidently, Malone doesn’t fret much about a pay for performance compensation agreement: in 2014 he has agreed on paying $350 million to his closest CEOs. http://seekingalpha.com/news/2529096-malone-ceos-enjoy-highest-salaries?auth_param=7i5hb:1alj8ru:3af1b1f31436f27120d428235a206706&uprof=25#email_link Cheers, Gio

--Charlie Munger --Warren Buffett Gio

https://fundooprofessor.wordpress.com:443/2015/05/17/seven-patterns/ Cheers, Gio

Who said that?! What about the founder of Facebook? Or the founders of Google? Even Bill Ackman for what I know at 48 is richer than Buffett at the same age... This is not to say they will become richer than Buffett... Just to say that "no one will ever be like Buffett" is not carved in stone! ;) Cheers, Gio Hello Gio, I wasn't very clear in my writing. Thanks for questioning me on it. I didn't mean from the standpoint of accumulating wealth. Gates has been kicking Warren's ass for twenty years on that. I also don't mean it from the standpoint of a start-up and timing the next technological wave like a Gates or the Google's founders, my sentiment was from pure capital allocation, I don't think we'll ever see another Buffett. His 73 year track record, that's right, not the 50 year, he started at 11, I don't think can be duplicated. Again, he never invented anything or disrupted an industry, it was just extremely focused and disciplined. There is also a time bias it may or may not be easier in the future. Greenblatt, Ackman, Soros, you can go on and on, their rates of return were impressive for many years but a 70 year track record? Rockafeller Sr was the richest man ever (share of gdp), I'm not sure the government (at least in the west) will allow another Rockafeller Sr type of wealth, and sure there will be plenty of mega-billionaires in the future, but if you take the durability and his performance, especially at gigantic sums, Ackman and all these other guys give capital back, Buffett has kept it and hasn't distributed it back. It's enormously easier to compound when you give a large amount of capital back like a lot of hedge fund managers. Finally, the man quit taking carried interest in 1968! Another man with a 75 year track record, and more than half of it without carried interest, and without distributing back and therefore his universe got smaller every year? I'll be dead before someone that can eclipse that. Your point is taken to never say never, if someone told me in 1962 (when he first started buying) some kid from Omaha would take a near dead textile firm and turn it into $360 billion with a terribly inefficient tax code, I would have thought the guy was on some serious drugs! wescobrk, I think you have understood what I meant… But let’s just be clearer: think of a person who is as rational and ambitious as Buffett, but with the advantage of having Buffett himself as an example, and therefore with the advantage of avoiding the biggest mistake Buffett has done. For instance, think of a person who is as rational and ambitious as Buffett, but who doesn’t make the mistake of buying a business like Berkshire was in the ‘60s, and then devoting 10+ years trying to fix it. What could such a person achieve? Who knows, right? This seems to be the fate of all human records: to seem unsurpassable… until one fine day they are simply overcome! ;) Cheers, Gio

As I have always said, I will take business results as they come. If they will be worse than I expect, I will change my mind about Biglari. You can be sure about that! In fact it becomes quite easy, once you stop trying to judge character flaws, and you just concentrate on business results! ;) Cheers, Gio

Who said that?! What about the founder of Facebook? Or the founders of Google? Even Bill Ackman for what I know at 48 is richer than Buffett at the same age... This is not to say they will become richer than Buffett... Just to say that "no one will ever be like Buffett" is not carved in stone! ;) Cheers, Gio

What has he done to prove otherwise? Paul, I can only say that to be a BH shareholder is not easy. It requires that you come to your own conclusions about what's rational and what's not. For many reasons it is a unique company, therefore not many truly meaningful examples to refer to out there! My advice: if you have the time and the inclination, study BH business results closely, and ask yourself if such successes could be achieved by anyone who is not supremely rational. Cheers, Gio

I think there are multiple reasons, but the most important one imo is because he is very bright at allocating capital. Generally, people are not. Even very successful people who excel in their field of endeavor. And when they meet someone who is as capable as Buffett at allocating capital, they gladly follow him/her. Furthermore, Buffett is intelligent enough to give them complete freedom in whatever they do best, he says: do whatever you feel is right to achieve great results, then when it comes to capital allocation just leave it to me. Why not? Cheers, Gio

Sincerely, I have found the April 2015 issue of MAXIM much more interesting than I had thought it would be: The essay “HUSTLE” by Philipp Meyer has made me discover a great writer that I hadn’t previously heard of, “TOTAL BALLERS”, “THE NEW KING OF VEGAS”, “THE BIG PAYBACK”, “SLACK ATTACK”, and “KISS KISS BANG BANG” are all interesting articles that could have appeared on Forbes or Fortune, I also enjoyed “INFORMER” about online dating! ;D I think I am buying the May 2015 issue too. ;) Cheers, Gio

Thank you DTEJD1997, it is now very clear to me why you are short such a business model. I just wanted to dig a bit deeper than I had done before, to more clearly realize which are the differences between a business model you are very skeptical about and the one I am deeply involved with instead. And now that I think I have found many, I am a bit less worried! ;) Cheers, Gio

Aberhound, Watsa has prepared Fairfax to thrive in an environment with the following characteristics: 1) Stocks go down and stay down for a long time (with equity hedges that appreciate more than the decline in their portfolio of equities), 2) Treasury yields keep going down (with the 10yr bond yield approaching 1%), 3) And deflation setting in. If this environment never materializes, Fairfax will make some money imo, but not much. Therefore, it is simple enough: do you think 1) + 2) + 3) might ever come to pass? Or do you think there is no risk at all? If the answer is: no risk at all, then stay away from Fairfax right now. Cheers, Gio

Yeah! That's what I am beginning to understand... And why I have said I had no clue what for-profit education in the US actually is! ;) Cheers, Gio

Honesty: 100%. I take any hint I might be doing something dishonest more as an insult to my intelligence than to my morality. ;) Value: we constantly strive to do the best we can, and right now everyone involved seems to be quite satisfied, but of course I cannot guarantee for the future… Cheers, Gio

Ah! The great thing is that what applies to happiness also applies to time and space! ;) It is just that relativity, when applied to happiness is so much more intuitive than when applied to time and space… Because we experience it every day, like your article clearly explains. Gio

I have just bought much more of BH. The idea someone as dedicated and hardworking and successful as Biglari will try to make money for himself without giving a damn for all other shareholders strikes me as both an insult to Biglari’s intelligence and one of the silliest reason a stock could fall so much as BH’s has fallen recently. I am never in a hurry, but I am really curious to see how this will play itself out. Cheers, Gio

[amazonsearch]The Elegant Universe[/amazonsearch] For those who are interested in the qualitative ideas behind Special and General Relativity, Quantum Mechanics, and String Theory, without the heavy to digest mathematics that underpin those theories, [amazonsearch]The Elegant Universe[/amazonsearch] is a very good read. And I am enjoying it a lot! Cheers, Gio

WOW...!! I can only say that imo education might be “corrupt”, but doesn’t have to. We need good jobs, sure! But good jobs are always changing and with them the knowledge and the practical tools which are necessary to achieve a performance that might get better and better. We call it “life long education” (and it is not just a slogan!). Some people don’t need any help, others do. Some companies give help to those who need it, others don’t. And I hope master schools like ours might always play a significant role. Salini-Impregilo is by far the largest construction company in Italy. They came to us asking for a master course specifically thought out in order to train their future employees and managers. They work around the globe and they create good jobs. Yet, they also need skillful managers who have been accurately trained. Cheers, Gio

Hi cobafdek, We offer 1 year master courses for people who have already studied 3 years of engineering (first level master courses) and for people who have studied 5 years of engineering (second level master courses). Our master courses are both on site and online. They cost 6,500.00 – 10,000,00 Euros for those who want to follow on site, 3,500.00 Euro for those who want to follow online. The first 6 months are of lessons: after 5 years of engineering people have lots of theories but very few practical tools. 6 months are clearly not enough to fill in all the gaps between theory and practice, but at least we strive to get our alumni acquainted with those tools which might turn out to be the most useful for their future professional life. The second half of the year is an internship in some construction companies, engineering firms, or real estate developers, which are the so-called “industrial partners” of ours. It usually is a great working experience, that many times (though not always, of course!) results in an ongoing working relationship between our alumni and our industrial partners. I think it is a win-win situation: our alumni need a real project to work on for their master thesis and want to get to know companies which are leaders in their field, on the other hand our industrial partners have very motivated people who work within their organizations for 6 months at almost no cost, with much time to evaluate how good and reliable they actually are. People who enroll in our master courses generally come from wealthy families, therefore they pay cash without the need of a mortgage. Government is not involved at all. Cheers, Gio

Rust Belt Capital, Let me ask you one last question: do you think a diploma is useless, because the content of the courses is so poor, or you think a diploma is useless regardless of what students actually learn? Thank you, Gio

Thank you Rust Belt Capital, If half of that is true… I really had no clue what for-profit education in the US actually is! And I would agree it is a shame. Gio

DTEJD1997, I don’t follow ESI, but I guess if they have been accused of fraud by the SEC, something very serious and bad is going on there… I cannot tell, and I don’t really care. Instead, I would like to know why you seem to be so negative about for profit education in general: 1) Is it because you think those schools teach their students nothing truly worthwhile? 2) Is it because you think a diploma is useless? 3) Is it because you think companies are not interested in hiring students who graduate from those schools? 4) Is it because their courses are too expensive and don’t offer any value at all? 5) Is it a combination of 1) to 4)? You seem to be knowledgeable of the sector, and I am asking because right now my company is doing very fine… but I might be missing something and I might encounter obstacles down the road… Whichever warning is thoughtful and justified might also be very helpful and therefore is very welcomed! Thank you, Gio

--Miyamoto Musashi, a 16th-century samurai who had over 60 confirmed kills with a sword. A quote I have found in the April 2015 issue of MAXIM!! ;D ;D Cheers, Gio