Parsad

Article on the BNSF deal and comments by BNSF management. Cheers! http://online.barrons.com/article/SB126170375980104937.html

Merry Christmas Daphne! Cheers!

Read Dave Patch's letter to the SEC: http://www.sec.gov/comments/s7-31-08/s73108-59.pdf Cheers!

Yes, I've thought about this also. He was buying it at 16-17 and now he's issuing it to acquire another company. So, the value wasn't there then or it's not overvalued now? When a company issues stock, that isn't necessarily indicative of the stock's valuation. You can issue undervalued stock, as long as you are issuing it for stock that is equally undervalued or even more so. So Steak'n Shake may still be undervalued...it's just that Fremont is probably equally undervalued or even cheaper than Steak'n Shake. Cheers!

Long-time WEST director and franchisee owner, Titus Green, has opened a new Western Sizzlin in Shelby, North Carolina. Cheers! http://www.shelbystar.com/news/shelby-43767-open-sizzlin.html

To all the readers and boardmembers of "The Corner of Berkshire & Fairfax", I wish you the happiest of holidays and a prosperous 2010! http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3084/3132775788_d7c87880dc.jpg?v=0 Downtown Omaha at Christmas Cheers!

Over the years whenever I started looking at a stock from a Lynch standpoint: i.e. what are people lining up to buy in the super-market - I've never seen one actually pan out. Not that I ever invested in any of them. That's exactly the experience I had. Lynch had some ideas, and they worked for him, but Buffett took it a step further...instead of "deworsification", Buffett used "concentration"...instead of "buy what you know", Buffett used "circle of competence". And then Buffett, and Graham of course, extrapolated exactly how you go about valuing a business and then applying a margin of safety...which is the core concept of everything Graham taught. It's the single, greatest lesson of my life! Cheers!

"Beating the Street" was one of the first books on the stock market I read. In hindsight, especially in light of the results I garnered after reading it, it was a book full of relatively useless and awful advice. There was no coherent framework for the intellectual pursuit of investing, and I did not fully grasp or undestand that until I read Buffett's letters and the Intelligent Investor. Cheers!

His paper trail goes back ten years...I've followed him for about eight after meeting Sardar and Phil in Omaha. He had an IT consulting business that he sold when he was 19...that's about as dot.com as he's ever been. The one thing I always noticed and admired about him in Omaha is that he kept a very low profile. Unlike most money managers who attend, and are constantly handing out their business cards, Sardar kept to himself and watched what was going on. He could have raised three times as much money as the Lion Fund was managing, but that was not his game. Cheers!

Unlike many other government bailouts, it looks like TARP will be profitable. Cheers! http://www.marketwatch.com/story/tarp-profit-at-least-16-bln-so-far-treasury-2009-12-23?reflink=MW_news_stmp

will someone chime in on Biglari's high salary? Is it deserved? Is it something to keep an eye on? Is he granted options? No options or benefits of any kind. He's underpaid at $900K a year...especially in light of what he's done at Steak'n Shake! He's saved thousands of jobs, as well as the company itself. Cheers!

Judd Bagley article on how several hedge funds, including Kynikos, Greenlight, Third Point & Maverick, are cutting all ties to SAC Capital as the rumours continue to spread that they are the next big target of investigators. Cheers! http://www.marketrap.com/article/view_article/91190/ghosts-of-fairfax-financial-now-hedge-funds-scurry-to-sever-ties-with-sac-capital

Hi Cardboard, Yes, Prem worked at Confederation Life, but on the capital allocation side...not underwriting. I'm not sure he would have gleaned any more insight into underwriting that Biglari could not gather from the long history of great property-casualty insurers, including Berkshire, Fairfax, etc. On the operations and administrative side, I think that is also why he is trying to keep existing management in place at Fremont, except for the CEO. People are worried that Biglari is going to spread himself out too thin. I don't think the general public understands that what makes Biglari tick is having his hands going on several projects at all times...and that he expects to be the best at virtually all of them, learning quickly and adapting. This guy needs to be busy...that's when he's at his best. Cheers!

Do any of those who know Sadar well, know if he understands the insurance business? This is a different animal than the restaurant business where a turnaround (like at Steak and Shake) can generate alot of free cash flows and the results can be seen relatively quickly versus insurance where the results are based upon promises someone made years ago. My understanding of insurance is that culture, reputation and discipline of the firm that wrote the policies (i.e. the promises) is important due to the opaqueness and time lag associated with the real profitability of the policies and most times the culture comes from the top. My question is given that situation, why would you buy a firm where you remove the top guy (who established the culture) and try to run a business based upon his promises? Does Sadar have a group of insurance execs he can call on for due diligence and/or who could possibly run this business? It is one thing to run a franchised consumer oriented business (where management can damage but not destroy a franchise) but quite another to an insurance company (where management is the franchise as there are few other moats in the insurance business). Maybe I am missing something. Let me know. TIA Hi Packer, I'm not sure they are entirely different...in the sense that the end result is the outcome of culture, management, reputation and execution. Ajit Jain didn't know much about the insurance industry when he landed at National Indemnity. He was an engineer by trade and worked at McKinsey. Prem had no insurance background when he bought Markel. Just like Sardar didn't know much about flipping a burger or laying out a buffet, he has a couple of characteristics that usually leads to success...understands hard work, suffers from a chronic case of determination, and has an uncanny ability to learn quickly. When the CEO works like a madman and sets the tone, that will usually attract someone of a like-mind that wants to earn his/her approval. He'll find people to run it well. Cheers!

Stull, Stull & Brody have started an investigation on behalf of shareholders into the price of the FMMH acquisition by SNS. Cheers! http://www.reuters.com/finance/stocks/keyDevelopments?rpc=66&symbol=FMMH.OB&timestamp=20091222230500

Overvalued isn't necessarily a bad thing. Sardar can use the shares and acquire businesses trading at a signficantly larger discount. Imagine if Fairfax had used its shares in 1998 and acquired C&F and TIG, and they had very few problems...we would never have seen the incredibly low prices we saw in 2003. The problem isn't if the stock is overvalued...it's always going to come down to whether Sardar is making good capital allocation decisions...FMMH at $24.50 is cheap if he gets it. I would be more concerned if he was doing things like buying a business like Steak'n Shake at $15 again as he did right in the beginning when management was slowly running it into the ground! Cheers!

I don't think Rick was probably trying to be overly critical, only that the reverse split has negligible impact on intrinsic value. That being said, I always find it peculiar how easy journalists find it to be critical, yet have never tried to do the same job as the person they are criticizing...in fact if they tried, they are often horrible at it...just take a look at Ron Insana or Fabrice Taylor. Cheers!

Hi Elltel, You can contact the Lion Fund (www.lionfund.com) and see if they'll give permission to view them on their site. As they are copyrighted materials, I have to request that anyone who does have them, make sure you aren't posting them on this site. Cheers!

Article on Buffett speaking to Burlington Northern employees. Cheers! http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=ah80tRfGp4Kk&pos=5

I'm assuming that he plans to keep current management in place. If not, this wouldn't be a good move at this time. There are only so many hours in a day and only so much one person can do. Well Eric, Sardar's kind of like Chuck Norris: - Sardar Biglari counted to infinity...twice! - Sardar Biglari is what Willis was talking about! - Sardar Biglari doesn't just break wind, his farts break the sound barrier! - Sardar Biglari is the reason why Waldo is hiding! - Sardar Biglari doesn't have just 24 hours in the day, time waits for Sardar Biglari! Anyway, I'm quite surprised to see him try and acquire all of Fremont. Let's see what the Fremont board and other shareholders have to say about the acquisition...is it a friendly acquisition, or will we see a battle? Should be another terrific case study. Cheers!

Fantastic interview with former Singapore prime minister Lee Kuan Yew. Enjoy! Cheers! http://www.charlierose.com/download/transcript/10681

Pardon the spellin' errrors as my screen jumps all over the place when I'm writing on this board for some reason and I can't look at it for long. Hi Dealraker, Click the "compatability" tab next to your address bar...it looks like a piece of paper torn in half. That will stop the screen from jiggling around when you type a post. If your browser clears all data and history every time you close it, then you'll have to click that each time before posting when you relaunch the browser. But that definitely will fix the problem. Cheers!

Filing today showing long-time value manager Mario Gabelli now owns 5.75% of Steak'n Shake! Cheers! http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/93859/000080724909000696/sns_00.htm

I put it on all three of our tabs, since it applies to all three companies! Cheers! http://www.canada.com/business/fp/When+annual+report+speaks+volumes/2359626/story.html

I put it on all three of our tabs, since it applies to all three companies! Cheers! http://www.canada.com/business/fp/When+annual+report+speaks+volumes/2359626/story.html