Parsad

Parsad, most of these shows are available online now on the network websites. Simple S-video cable solution along with a laptop. New TV's can even do this on wireless or through the built in browser. As for the cable internet. I am still paying them on that. Thanks Blaine! I'm going to look further into it. We spend $285 a month on high-speed internet, the full-package of Telus Optik TV & a land-line with free international calling. I haven't been able to justify it other than my family enjoys it, but I've always been keen on trying to get the cost down or eliminated. In the past, my only solace was to get Telus to throw in a free laptop and two new PVR's every three years. My renewal is coming up, and I would like to cut the chord. Cheers!

When you are constantly fearful of others usurping your position, it doesn't matter how old you are. Every move from when he got control of Steak'n Shake has been to solidify that control. Buffett created loyal shareholders through mutual respect and enormous humility...as did Prem. That's not what is going on at BH. What does Berkshire Hathaway's name represent to Buffett...his worst investment mistake! What does Fairfax's name represent to Prem...fair and friendly acquisitions! What does Biglari Holdings name represent to Sardar? ;D David Lau sent me a quote from Ghandhi yesterday: Keep your thought positive, because your thoughts become YOUR WORDS. Keep your words positive, because your words become YOUR BEHAVIOR. Keep your behavior positive, because your behaviour becomes YOUR HABITS. Keep your habits positive, because your habits become YOUR VALUES. Keep your values positive, because your values become YOUR DESTINY. If I read that right now, and looked at much of what has transpired at BH outside of the economic gains, I would be shitting myself right now if I was a shareholder! Cheers!

Einhorn wanted the cash. That's it. No long-term involvement as a shareholder. He's a parasite who wanted part of the cash hoard. Once that is paid out, he would be gone. Cheers!

Unfortunately, my family is hooked on shows on channels like HGTV, Food Channel, various sports channels, and Indian programming channels. Is there any way to get those on AppleTV and Netflix...in Canada? I want to watch my Canucks, NBA, NFL & Tennis through the year. And we would still need wifi in the house. We all have cell phones, I have an office phone and we could probably use Skype for long-distance, so we don't really need a landline. It's mainly those channels and the wifi that we need. Cheers!

You also said if you were the CEO of Apple, you'd run the company around whatever David Einhorn says to do, which ruined your credibility in this thread, IMO. That would be the dumbest thing to do...cater to Einhorn! Look, a few months ago people were clamouring for Apple to blow through their wad...figuratively! ;D Well they didn't. And now the stock is in a place where they could retire 20% of it with half the cash hoard, while still doubling the dividend with operating cash flow. Listening to Einhorn would have cost Apple more money. They have an opportunity now to do something significant with excess cash, and if the stock goes down further, it will only increase shareholder value by deploying it now, rather than earlier. Investors have a very impatient mind when it comes to excess capital...do something now is their mantra...that's not always optimal! Cheers!

Glenn, don't you know that this company has no moat and is not a very profitable business! ;D That Patrick Byrne is one crazy mofo...it will never make money. A couple of guys from the Motley Fool OSTK board can kiss my ass, along with Sam Antar, Gary Weiss and Tracey Conen. Five straight quarters of profitability! Cheers! Hi Parsad. I used to own this stock when it was extremely cheap at $5 and sold prematurely between $7-10. Would you be able to expand on what the moat here is? I am having trouble seeing how OSTK will be strong and thriving 10 years from now as Amazon gets larger and larger. Thanks. Their margins and operating costs are lower than Amazon's. Like Costco, they will make money and exist even though Walmart is the dominant player. Cheers! Do you mean to say the margins are higher? I haven't done much research on Amazon, but one concern I have is: what about them willing to expand at all costs; so you said that their operating costs are higher, but it seems as if they don't really care to make much income at all in the short run. And in the long run, if they are large enough, are you afraid of them having the scale advantage over OSTK? Also, AMZN is building distribution centers in major metropolitan areas, so I'm wondering what are your thoughts on them providing quicker shipping than other internet retailers in the future, which may provide a threat for OSTK. Thanks! No lower margins. They should really be running at 2-2.5% net profit margins since they are not the dominant player. They will also have to focus on the niche market...specific age brackets...women 35-60 is ideal for them. If they do that they will grow market share in a very specific area and they will not have to concern themselves with Amazon. You know a very good analogy would be this message board. There are so many message boards out there correct...far bigger than this one? But we've grown readership about 40% a year for the last four years on here. If we tried to be all things to all people, it wouldn't work and we would lose our niche. We have a very specific mandate and that allows us to build our base of members. Overstock has to do the same...they do not want to take on Amazon head on...it would be a very short shelf-life. They need to focus on a niche market, keep margins and costs low, and appeal to a very specific demographic. Cheers!

$1.00-1.20 a share in 2013 earnings. Give it a 15 times multiple and you get $15-18 for this year. Adjust that number based on how you think they can grow it...if better than 10% annual growth in revenues, give it a 20 times multiple. If less, give it a lesser multiple. I think if they focus on the direct business, keep costs low as they are doing, they can grow at 10% annually for at least 10-15 years...that's relatively conservative considering the size of the market and how small they still are. But they have to keep the retail aspect fresh year after year...very difficult unless you are the dominant player like Amazon where people go to you regardless. Cheers!

Continues to go up! Cheers! http://finance.yahoo.com/news/natural-gas-surges-fresh-2013-162642127.html;_ylt=AjMP0Ni2Vbn0b_DmG4hXWraiuYdG;_ylu=X3oDMTQ4MjFiZ3VnBG1pdANDTkJDIFRvcCBTdG9yaWVzBHBrZwM0OGY3NGU3OS1iNTY3LTM4M2EtYjEzZC1iMTNhOTE1NDZlMTEEcG9zAzIEc2VjA01lZGlhQkxpc3RNaXhlZExQQ0FUZW1wBHZlcgNmY2ExNGNmMy1hODQ3LTExZTItYmZlZS0xZDFiNTgxMzUzOGQ-;_ylg=X3oDMTFkcW51ZGliBGludGwDdXMEbGFuZwNlbi11cwRwc3RhaWQDBHBzdGNhdANob21lBHB0A3BtaA--;_ylv=3

Two years ago I had surgery on April 4th. Didn't walk again for a couple of months. Last year we were in California house hunting April 1-15th. This year I turned 40 on April 10th (day of the meeting) Perhaps the right time will come along. Toronto is a good place to spend you 41st birthday. Eric, if you come I promise to have a birthday cake ready for you as well. The whole crowd will sing Happy Birthday! ;D Cheers!

Glenn, don't you know that this company has no moat and is not a very profitable business! ;D That Patrick Byrne is one crazy mofo...it will never make money. A couple of guys from the Motley Fool OSTK board can kiss my ass, along with Sam Antar, Gary Weiss and Tracey Conen. Five straight quarters of profitability! Cheers! Hi Parsad. I used to own this stock when it was extremely cheap at $5 and sold prematurely between $7-10. Would you be able to expand on what the moat here is? I am having trouble seeing how OSTK will be strong and thriving 10 years from now as Amazon gets larger and larger. Thanks. Their margins and operating costs are lower than Amazon's. Like Costco, they will make money and exist even though Walmart is the dominant player. Cheers!

Controversy seems to have started after his hedge fund was acquired. In return he got this sweet pay package and then the name change and putting picture of himself in all the SNS restaurants-both obnoxious. Having a cap on pay of $10 million is something I could live with it. I might be wrong, but I rationalize this as the price that needed to be paid in order for him to give up the pay he would have gotten running his hedge fund and also to have him committed 100% to BH long term. Don't forget "Biglari Designs" as well. That cap will only stay as long as they don't have the votes to remove it. It will go eventually. Incidentally, think about the people who have left Biglari Holdings. People who were there from the beginning when he wanted to take over Western Sizzlin, then helped him turn around Steak'n Shake, and then the manager whose fund business he bought. How many people have left Buffett, the Markels, Prem et al? You can count them on one hand after 20, 30, 40, 50 years of business. If the stock tanked, I would buy some, regardless of Sardar, because at some point it will be a value. But once that cap is removed, a greater portion of the intrinsic value of the company gets reallocated to Sardar. Buyer beware...make sure the margin is adequate with BH. Cheers!

You are probably correct. With no dividend, the preferreds buyback and share buyback under tangible book, Tier 1 Equity under Basel 3 will easily get to 10% by the end of the year. They only need 8.5%! I think you are going to see the big dividend in 2014, since buybacks won't be quite as attractive above tangible book (yes, I think it will be over TB this year) and the preferreds will already have been redeemed. I suspect large increase in dividends, buyback of Buffett's preferreds and a smaller share buyback next year. Cheers!

Glenn, don't you know that this company has no moat and is not a very profitable business! ;D That Patrick Byrne is one crazy mofo...it will never make money. A couple of guys from the Motley Fool OSTK board can kiss my ass, along with Sam Antar, Gary Weiss and Tracey Conen. Five straight quarters of profitability! Cheers!

Two years ago I had surgery on April 4th. Didn't walk again for a couple of months. Last year we were in California house hunting April 1-15th. This year I turned 40 on April 10th (day of the meeting) Perhaps the right time will come along. I think you should make some time and come next year. I'd like you to present and do a short Q&A if you are up for it. Cheers!

Too bad I didn't go because he didn't reply to the email I sent him. Actually when are you going to come? Alot of people were asking if you were coming this year. I said I don't think so, but we're all waiting for him to show up one year! Cheers!

Gary actually came to our dinner with Prem this year. Cheers!

These guys are not futures traders. Their incentive is to help the gas producers. By saying that the gas price will stay low, they can convince the government more easily to approve LNG export, which will benefit gas producers. Export or not, I think gas price will unlikely stay this low. There are only a few producers with all in cost around $4. Most producer's all in costs are around $6. A proof is that even the gas price has increased to over $4 now, the dig counts are still dropping. Yes, you are correct here. I think you will see $5-5.50 natural gas by the end of this year. I don't see it staying below $6 for a decade...darn near impossible as conversions ramp up, large exports begin...even if you have rigs increase again, the pendulum has already started to swing the other way. I think I said a couple of years ago on here that natural gas will turn in a couple of years...we are pretty much there! Cheers!

Parsad, Did not understand why you are getting such low run rate earnings if you exclude legacy expenses. Total costs associated with LAS are running at $13 billion (using 4x Q1 numbers and including litigation). They are projecting $2 billion as normalized run rate for these expenses, so even if you put this at $3 billion we are looking at $10 billion in savings annually or about $0.6 EPS right there assuming a 30% tax rate. That gets you to $1.4. Vinod Hi Vinod, I'm talking about what the reduction in LAS would through 2013 only. Yes, going forward the amount of savings will be even larger. I don't think they will get to the $2B LAS level until the end of 2014, but the costs should continue to come down considerably in 2014 as well. Cheers!

Because he hired Alan Greenspan as an advisor! ;D Cheers! Gold remains a long-term position for Mr. Paulson. In 2008 he hired Alan Greenspan, former chairman of the Federal Reserve and a fellow alumnus of New York University's Stern business school, as an advisor. According to people familiar with the fund, Mr. Greenspan argued that the huge expansion of the Fed's balance sheet would ultimately lead to rapid growth in credit creation by the banks, sparking higher inflation.

Frankly...a hell of alot better than I expected! Take a look at the numbers other than legacy loan servicing. They are up across the board other than global banking...to be expected. Each dollar of new business is driving more money to the bottom line compared to old business. The balance sheet has gotten even stronger! People are complaining about revenue...do you want to make more revenue or more net profit? Growth is only as good as the quality of the business...they are getting much better quality business, while growth is flat. Look at the return on capital numbers in different lines of businesses...all improving pretty much. Expenses are coming down, legacy issues will slowly disappear, good business will continue to drive profits and the company is leaner and stronger. What the hell is there to complain about? I'm buying LEAPS! Cheers! I share similar thoughts. If .80 cents is the run rate earnings, then they are priced at <15x and they are significantly underperforming given their balance sheet. Given time, the income statement will reflect the strength of the balance sheet. 80 cents is the current run rate with a large overhang of legacy issue expenses. Run off those costs and you are looking at somewhere around $1.05-1.15 in earnings for 2013. Add in what you think is adjusted decrease in global banking profits due to Europe...and you are looking at another 5 cents. So a reasonable view of earnings for 2013 is somewhere around $1.10-1.20. And this is all in a low interest rate environment with reduced spreads. If they just keep doing what they are doing, slowly grow revenues but at acceptable levels of profitability, they will be priced accordingly. Cheers!

Frankly...a hell of alot better than I expected! Take a look at the numbers other than legacy loan servicing. They are up across the board other than global banking...to be expected. Each dollar of new business is driving more money to the bottom line compared to old business. The balance sheet has gotten even stronger! People are complaining about revenue...do you want to make more revenue or more net profit? Growth is only as good as the quality of the business...they are getting much better quality business, while growth is flat. Look at the return on capital numbers in different lines of businesses...all improving pretty much. Expenses are coming down, legacy issues will slowly disappear, good business will continue to drive profits and the company is leaner and stronger. What the hell is there to complain about? I'm buying LEAPS! Cheers!

Now I know where those votes against Prem came from! ;D Patience my friend, patience! Cheers!

The bubble is starting to burst at the seams. Cheers! http://www.cnbc.com/id/100646465

Article on Francis Chou. Cheers! http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/canadian-managers-us-bond-fund-posts-dramatic-results/article11239431/

I think it's too early to say anything. There are massive amounts of area still to be drilled. The ending of the article pretty much states as much: While the Miss Lime play may end up redefined, at least for the time being, with a much tighter contour, its size still remains enormous. The ongoing highgrading of drilling inventory around the most productive sweet spots is a natural and necessary process. The good news, the play may start to deliver much stronger operating reports from select areas and may surprise to the upside with a regained momentum. Cheers!