Grenville

Agreed. A step in the right direction. Bad actors need to be taken down. I appreciate Prem going after these guys. Capital markets need to be free functioning, they are important to capitalism.

Thanks for posting! I wonder what happened. BAM reduced their stake from $50mln to 10mln and Markel from 100mln to 70mln. Do people think investors in BAM pushed back, wondering why they were investing in BB? It would be interesting to know what drove the change.

Eric, You might find this interesting: http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/11/the-100-000-battery-that-could-help-hotels-save-bundles-of-money/281194/ Battery storage to deal with utility price increases. It is more commercial.

Thanks for the nugget on Sangart. Ian Cumming sold a good chunk of stock and dropped below reporting requirements. I doubt we'll see his holdings in the proxy. He sold 4.2mln shares of 22mln at $28 on 11/1/13. I would have preferred he stay a holder of LUK. I wonder who picked up his shares. http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/96223/000093041313005196/c75504_sc13da.htm

Thanks for posting. Here is the Joint Status Report filed by Perry Capital on 11/6/13. Still reading it, but it does outline a new coordinated schedule. Joint_Status_Report_11-7-13.pdf

Interesting. Thanks for posting, I'm surprised to see Markel and Brookfield.

OTC trading resumed

I've decided to sell down my stake in Fairfax and I wanted to share with the board members. I've owned Fairfax since 2008 and attended the AGM since 2010. I've also read all the AR's since inception and have a lot of respect for what Prem has built both in terms of companies and people. My issue has been with position sizing with respect to shareholder's equity. I've asked questions related to this at the 2010 AGM and this year at the dinner. Below are my questions and the responses I got from Prem. I went back to my notes to post here. 2010 AGM: "How does FFH decide its max position size for an investment in the common stock portfolio? Is there a general rule based on % of equity? For example when WFC continued to decrease in value to $10, no additional shares were bought. -->Answer from Prem (from my notes): 5 to 10% range at the high end in relation to book value. 2013 Dinner: "At a past AGM you mentioned the max position size for an investment was 5 to 10% at the high end. The position in Blackberry at cost using YE SE was 11.5%. What changed to allow such a large common stock position relative to past guidance?" --> Answer from Prem - Referred to Paul Rivett to confirm position size and then answered that they were just averaging down into the investment. Recent comments re Blackberry $9 offer " To Reuters: “We wouldn’t put our name to such a high-profile deal if we didn’t feel confident that at the end of the day that our diligence would be fine and we’d be able to finance it … Short term these things fluctuate, there is speculation one way, there’s speculation the other way. We never pay too much attention to the marketplace.” Mr. Watsa said Fairfax won’t put in anything more to the offer than the 10 per cent of BlackBerry it now owns. “The 10 per cent is like $500-million,” he said. “It’s a significant amount of money. We’re going to bring equity partners and we think the company will be very well capitalized.” http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/top-business-stories/fairfaxs-prem-watsa-fires-back-at-skeptics-as-doubts-over-blackberry-deal-mount/article14540650/ The fact that Prem & Fairfax are investing an additional $250mln after already investing 880mln after all their comments at the meetings and in the press related to this deal were too much for me. I understand that 1.13bln is not much in relation to assets, but it's huge related to shareholder's equity. The position size was huge related to equity before this additional investment and now it's bigger. Some may say that this additional investment is in the form of debt so it's safer, but to me it's an additional investment. I would much prefer Prem & Fairfax putting this kind of money into better businesses, but I understand it's not their specialty. I just think if you're going to go after turn arounds you need to be disciplined on how much money you put in, especially when that's what your telling your partners.

Interesting day seeing all of this with the SAC plea.

51,854,700 shares at $17 = 881.5mln + 250mln = 1,131.5mln

Appreciate the links! I'm a huge fan of Danaher. Here is a book that talks about Danaher as one of it's examples Repeatability: Build Enduring Businesses for a World of Constant Change by Zook & Allen http://www.amazon.com/Repeatability-Enduring-Businesses-Constant-Change/dp/1422143309

Remarks Adapted From Comments Delivered by Timothy J. Mayopoulos, President and Chief Executive Officer, Fannie Mae http://www.fanniemae.com/portal/about-us/media/speeches/2013/speech-mayopoulos-2013mba.html?p=Media&s=News+Releases&from=RSS

Amazon owns Kiva Systems, the robot company. They bought them in 2012 for $775 million cash, so it's good that they are actually doing to deploy them. They also bought Quidsi (Diapers.com, Soap.com, etc), which was a big early user of Kiva's order picking robots. I am aware. It is the first time they have mentioned deployment. Amazon is very stingy with specific numbers or details in both their releases and the conference calls. I find it interesting that they are providing such granular detail on robot deployment.

In the Q3 2013 release, Bezos mentions the deployment of 1,382 Kiva robots to 3 fulfillment centers. They haven't referred to the Kiva robots before from what I can remember. They also raised the min on free shipping to $35.

Really enjoyed Jim Millstein's ideas for housing reform just now.

Awesome! Thanks.

I'd go as well if it were on a Friday or Saturday. Just checked my calendar and unfortunately it's a no go for me. I'll take notes and post them here. Zillow said there is a webcast as well. Thanks for the heads up on this. Do you know where we can find the link to the webcast?

Is there news that's causing FNMA and FMCC to move so much this morning?

Wow. It's crazy how he's attaching his name on the storefront and attaching his name to the brand. It makes sense based on his past actions, but seems a bit over the top. It reminds me how Ferrari's and Mazerati's are signed by Pininfarina on the side....

Davita is a good example to see how things work. It's held in a bunch of places including the pension plan. Here is the 13G for Davita http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/927066/000119312513235829/d543063dsc13ga.htm The 13F for June 2013 http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1067983/000095012313006925/xslForm13F_X01/form13fInfoTable.xml

Not sure what dataroma does, but if you look at the 13F it does specify where the shares are held and it does include the pension shares. The annual report does not include the pension shares as they aren't directly part of Berkshire's investment portfolio. From the 2012 AR:

Thanks for all the responses! I appreciate the first hand experiences and insights! Also, when watching the interviews on CNBC with Warren from yesterday, there is one where Buffett refers to the hiring at Benjamin Moore that resulted in the most recent leader change. In that clip he says he "concurred on who was put in." I feel more comfortable with the whole thing. Thanks!

As a shareholder and observer of Berkshire, I enjoy any opportunity to learn more about the individuals at HQ. The article below suggests some not so great things about Tracy Britt. She is on a number of boards within Berkshire, so her ability and reputation are important both now and for the future. Any thoughts, am I worrying too much about the suggestions in the article. Any one else have any additional information about Tracy. http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/the-exchange/warren-buffett-big-blunder-172615856.html

Leucadia raising 750mln in Senior Notes at 5.5% due 2023 http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/96223/000093041313004943/c75331_fwp.htm Press release: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/leucadia-national-corporation-announces-pricing-of-senior-notes-offering-2013-10-15?reflink=MW_news_stmp

Congrats! Kudos to your wife for sending in the book. Pretty nice gesture by Mr. Buffett!