Grenville

Interesting discussion. I wonder if part of the worry about either one's own or related IRA assets under management, would be the ability to pull fees. It would give one a way to pull money out of one's own IRA without paying the related taxes through management fees.

Not a lawyer, but you can track the case Perry Capital filed online at http://www.pacer.gov/. The case number is 1:13-cv-01025-RLW. The site requires a credit card to register but it won't charge you unless the charges exceed $15 per quarter. Awesome! Thank you. I see the respond by date for the government. I'm still looking for any scheduled date for responses. Is there a good way to know when new items have been posted or will be posted? I appreciate the heads up on the cost info.

Hi merkhet, Where can I follow this? Is there a court website that I can tack the progress of the case? Thanks!

That's a pretty big jump in short interest from the last report at 14mln!

It's funny how CNBC is reporting that he's already sold his stake, while in reality they have only put out a prospectus offering up his stake for sale. edit: Just saw that they also put in a poison pill a couple of days ago through a rights offering, which may have instigated Ackman's exit.

Fantastic. I wish I could get my hands on more cases. I'm definitely willing to pay, but I think they may only sell them to educators. They are available for purchase to the public. I've purchased a couple in the past.

Thanks for the links and the shortened version with just Buffett!

LUK just released an amendment to their retention agreement with Tom Mara, Justin Wheeler and Joe Orlando. The timing is a bit funny so I hope none of them are thinking about leaving. from the filing: http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/96223/000090951813000203/mm08-2313_8k.htm That would put the last date for payment at September 1, 2013. Why one would amend it on Aug 21 is a bit curious, but I'm sure I'm missing something and hoping its nothing.

A whole bunch of stocks on IB have been halted. Very weird.

Good talk with Amy Villeneuve, COO of Kiva Systems. The talk is more about her and her background and not so much about the company. She joined Kiva in 2010. The company hit 100mln in sales in 2011 and is now at 399 employees in 2013, up 120 from a year ago.

If the above analysis is correct, the margin of safety is that much stronger. Parsad hinted at the attractiveness of the guarantor vs. non-guarantor structure in this thread: http://www.cornerofberkshireandfairfax.ca/forum/general-discussion/for-all-of-you-sears-holdings-longs!/msg68797/#msg68797 How do you reconcile the stock buybacks in the guarantor?

I'm long, but it's a very small position.

Interesting tidbit in this article about Kiva after the Amazon acquisition. "Robots in southern Chester County? Yes." http://www.unionvilletimes.com/?p=17535 From what I understand, most of Amazon's warehouses don't use the Kiva robots, but follow AJC's post. On the other hand Quidsi companies like Diapers.com are all on the Kiva system. They may be the ones the article above refers to.

You mean most of the losses in the guarantor, right? Yes. I fixed my earlier post.

The reason I thought the guarantor/non guarantor structure was interesting is that it gives you some insight into how the company could be divided. When you look at the cash flow statement from operations in the 10Ks, you see 1bln in cash flow consistently from the non guarantor sub while the non guarantor guarantor has most of the losses. This could be interesting if in some scenario you split off the guarantor sub into its own entity. It also looks like a majority of the pension liabilities are in the guarantor sub. However, it's hard to determine how much of the 1bln number is dependent on the guarantor sub. In addition, when the company was buying back stock, it was doing it through the guarantor sub. In my mind, its hard to see a split of the two. People have pointed to the split financials as a source of value that resides hidden.

"Goldman faces losses on erroneous trades" http://www.cnbc.com/id/100975982

Warren Buffett thanks BofA CEO Moynihan for $5.3 billion profit http://www.cnbc.com/id/100971878

Did you ask him how he does it? Practice or technique?

In regards to the derivatives, the derivatives book is huge, but BAC has been slowly bringing down the notional size of the credit derivative book both on a gross and net basis.

Look at the cash flow statement in the 2010AR where the break out the different groups: guarantor, non-guarantor & parent

I don't think this is true. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treasury_stock "A company cannot own itself. The possession of treasury shares does not give the company the right to vote, to exercise preemptive rights as a shareholder, to receive cash dividends, or to receive assets on company liquidation. Treasury shares are essentially the same as unissued capital and no one advocates classifying unissued share capital as an asset on the balance sheet, as an asset should have probable future economic benefits. Treasury shares simply reduce ordinary share capital." I can understand the logic if it's the parent that owns treasury stock in itself, but here it's a subsidiary that owns stock in the parent. You might still be correct, but I think the distinction of a subsidiary owning stock makes it different. So does it mean the guarantor can buy back stock with all its capital and the debt holders have no recourse to the treasury stock? It's an effective way to dividend capital out of the guarantor sub to the parent since there are less shares of the parent outstanding.

I think the derivatives book was moved to the bank a while back. You can search the thread or the web.

Another thing I noticed when looking at the guarantor/non-guarantor stuff is that all the stock buybacks done in 2009, 2010, 2011 were done through the guarantor subs. If I understand things right, in the event of a bankruptcy of the guarantor subs, they would have equity in the parent and the non guarantor sub through the treasury stock they hold in the parent. They could sell that to fund claims and generate funds. It would be nice if there were better financials for the guarantor sub.

Update http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-08-16/bofa-plans-to-dissolve-merrill-lynch-to-simplify-company.html

A question for some of you: How come SHLD doesn't release separate financials for the senior secured 2018 notes? I looked back to when they offered the notes and couldn't find financials. I know they have the parent, guarantor, non-guarantor split in the 10Ks and 10Qs, but if I was a senior note holder I would want something a bit clearer to understand what backs up my debt. The details at the end in the 10Ks and 10Qs doesn't seem adequate. Is the reason separate financials don't exist because the senior note holders are comfortable with the fact that the inventory and receivables are there's first? Curious....