Parsad

I can envision the ipad being a nice replacement for those overhead projectors with those acetate scrolls you write on. Who the hell still uses those? ;D Even Vancouver elementary schools don't use those anymore. Cheers!

Yes, I think this is what is happening. He learned a very tough lesson with the amount of redemptions he had to deal with. I think he may have been at the point where "how do even my long-term investors lose faith in me? Time to reduce that risk." Cheers!

A little slow eric. ;D Cheers!

You pretty much nailed that on the head Tx! Cheers!

No worries. Cheers!

Yup, looks like he is closing for now anyways. Cheers!

The real world investments are fascinating. Ultimately the price is 9x cash flow on this thing for a private illiquid deal. This speaks volumes, especially when I see a stock trading at 3x FCF and someone tells me the price is appropriate because the stock is illiquid. You are so correct! Don't forget leveraged as well. I suspect Premfan is buying cash, but many people would buy this property with a mortgage...generally 3-1 debt to equity. Even if your illiquid stock carries corporate debt, it is highly unlikely the leverage is greater than 1-1 debt to equity...often, you can find illiquid stocks trading at less than cash with no debt..which is what I'm buying right now. But investors, professionals and amateurs alike, stay away from these ideas because of their size and apparent illiquidity. Cheers!

Going through their previous press releases-- Yes, they do. Maybe this is just a way to save some money. It is probably relatively cheap to host it online. I am not sure how many people bother with calling in to hear the replay, anyway. How much would they save by having no replay...a few hundred dollars? No, I think they are trying to get more people to attend this call, as they probably deem the information to be important with the deal. Cheers!

Tim? In reference to ROE or equity...? Cheers!

I wonder why no replay? Does Markel normally replay quarterly calls? Cheers!

Here's a short article on the rumors. Cheers! http://blogs.barrons.com/techtraderdaily/2013/01/29/dell-spikes-on-report-silver-lake-willing-to-pay-15sh-msft-role-discussed/?mod=yahoobarrons

Article on delinquent student loans. Cheers! http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-01-29/overdue-student-loans-reach-unsustainable-15-fair-isaac-says.html

Don't disagree. I think he did, however, voluntarily waive his bonuses in 2011 when Jefferies was the target of unfounded rumors about major exposure to MF Global fallout. I'm also not a big fan of these huge compensation packages, but let's take a look at what shareholders are getting. The combined vehicle will have equity of $9B or so (I can't be bothered to read the presentation at this second), but assume that Handler achieves 12% on that equity into the future...that's about $1.08B pre-tax for shareholders to start with. Of which, Handler will be the largest, or at least one of the largest shareholders, in the combined vehicle. His compensation works out to about $20M a year. Nothing like Buffett or Munger's, Jim Sinegal, nor even Prem's, but relative to what he's achieved in the past, the industry in general, and the solution to Leucadia's succession plan...it seems to be fair. I would have loved to see him take a $1M dollar salary with no bonuses, but those guys are few and far between. Cheers!

Yup...tangible book...I mean it this time damnit! ;D Cheers!

Moynihan Calls For Renewed Focus on Customers. Cheers! http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/01/29/bankofamerica-service-idUSL1N0AXKSW20130129?feedType=RSS&feedName=financialsSector&rpc=43

Depends. If you have good management in place, then yes, it could operate quite well with you only on site some of the time. At the same time, being on site only on occasion, also opens you up to considerable fraud or theft if you are incorrect in your judgement. Not to mention your hotel's reputation for service, cleanliness, friendliness, occupancy and execution. I have a friend who owns a hotel about five hours from Vancouver. He lives in North Vancouver, but he is on site usually for two weeks of the month, even though he has good management in place. He has to be there and much of the administrative and book-keeping work is done on site, so it occupys a considerable portion of his life. He has a wife and two young children as well, so he's a very, very busy guy. You should also consider what competition is around you as far as the hotel is concerned. My friend's hotel is really the only hotel on the lake in the immediate area, and he owns the largest marina there, which is attached to his hotel property. So, his hotel has certain amenities that the competition cannot provide, since that zoning is not available in the future for any other properties near his hotel. Cheers!

Hi Ourkid, I hope Prem and Francis eventually merge Chou Funds into Fairfax and Francis rejoins Hamblin-Watsa...maybe even sits on the board at some point, as everyone is getting older. They could even rename them as "Fairfax Funds" and there is no reason why Fairfax could not have a money management business subsidiary. They all came from that industry, and they all know how lucrative it is, and how the leverage in the hands of good managers is pretty amazing. But who knows...maybe Francis likes his own little world away from the hub-bub! Cheers!

One of Google's advertising competitors, AdBrite, is going out of business February 1st. Small fry, but still shows how difficult it is to make a dent in AdSense. Facebook may have a shot. Cheers! http://allthingsd.com/20130128/sales-talks-fell-through-so-ad-exchange-adbrite-shuts-down/

The Fed will release bank stress tests on March 7th. Although, like last year, I'm sure news will start to trickle out well before the actual release date. Cheers! http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/01/28/financial-regulation-stress-idUSL1N0AXBXR20130128?feedType=RSS&feedName=marketsNews&rpc=43

I do not see how the math adds up. Since we know BAC has about $8 billion in deferred tax assets in its British subsidiary and we also know that most (or all) of the net income that will be used to retire the DTAs will accrue after the April lowering of the corporate tax rate in the U.K., we can assume that the DTAs are worth in the neighborhood of $1.84 billion to the parent company and its shareholders. With BAC's roughly 10.8 billion shares outstanding, this means $0.17 per share in net income will theoretically accrue to BAC over the next few years or sooner. At an earnings multiple of 10, this should add something like $1.50 to $2.00 to BAC's share price over the period when the DTAs are retired. In other words, how does something that is worth $1.84 billion amount to $1.5 to $2 per share of BAC. The author seems to be annualizing what should be a one time gain of $1.84 billion. Vinod Yeah, that does not make sense. Cheers!

Seeking Alpha article on the move of BAC's DTA book from Dublin to London. Cheers! http://seekingalpha.com/article/1137811-bank-of-america-s-deferred-tax-assets-worth-almost-2-per-share?source=yahoo

Short article on it as well. Cheers! http://finance.yahoo.com/news/warren-buffett-made-2012-bid-161701127.html

Just remember, if for some reason Fairfax needed Francis, I don't think it would take even an arm twist from Prem to get him there. And even though technically Francis does not work at Fairfax, I would not be surprised if he has a significant amount of input into Fairfax's investments simply as an advisor, shareholder, friend of the company and loyal sounding board. Cheers!

Some excellent analysis from Apple's latest quarter: http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2013/01/28/apple-stock-performance/?source=yahoo_quote Cheers!

Bloomberg article on Germany's Quandt Family, their investments and unfortunate ties to the Nazi regime. Cheers! http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-01-27/nazi-goebbels-step-grandchildren-are-hidden-billionaires.html