Parsad

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

That could be one of the dumbest financial articles I've ever read in my life! This guy looks like he puts up stories for the shorts. - The first comment...$50M isn't much to do anything with...so apparently Buffett and Walmart started out with billions and Sardar doesn't have a chance to compete. - The second point...so if McDonalds is suffering, then SNS is necessarily suffering...but the last quarter's results prove the opposite...same store sales and traffic are up huge at SNS. Their market is also different than McDonald's global market. - The last point, that at this time next year SNS could be looking for a buyer...rubbish! Cheers!

Do you mean Ian Jacob, the fellow who actually worked at Berkshire Hathaway, or Byron Trott, who was the analyst at Goldman Sachs that started his own fund? Jacob's fund is called the "402 Fund LLP" and Trott's fund is called "BDT Capital Partners". No idea what their results were in 2009, but they both started their funds after the markets crashed, so they must have done fine. Cheers!

Maybe everyone thinks SB is Buffett now. Story is just beginning, not ending. The free cash flow numbers were fantastic at SNS. I give SB credit, but not too much credit. He can't be deemed a great allocator of capital like Buffett...yet. I think the publicity, excitement over 4Q results, reverse split (very Buffett like o/s # of shares), etc...cause the rise in stock. Probably some of that involved. While the company isn't dirt cheap, it isn't expensive either. I am more curious to see how this 10% investment in the insurance co. (MI) plays out. Is it just going to be a 10% interest? If you follow Buffett - he bought a ton of little insurance companies in the 1970's (and after he bought National Indemnity). Will SNS use FLOAT? I think his intention is over time to be involved directly in the insurance business, so he will use float at some time. Whether Fremont is a potential target or some other insurer, I don't know, but he will probably be in insurance when the time is right. Will it be like Berkshire, with a combination of investments AND wholly owned subsidiaries? Or just a food chain that makes investments? I think he's already gone that way already...take a look at WEST (restaurants, real estate, investment management, passive investments)...and that is soon going to be a subsidiary of SNS, as well as all the businesses within it. People here should remember that the Berkshire textile mill wasn't the bread and butter for Berkshire Hathaway...that would be Blue Chip Stamps...with which Buffett acquired so many other core businesses in the early days. Steak'n Shake is the engine and the holding company, but Biglari will use that currency to buy many other businesses. Cheers!

Another article on SNS. Cheers! http://stocks.investopedia.com/stock-analysis/2009/Steak-N-Shake-Serves-Up-New-Directions-SNS--BRK.A-WEST-TXRH-MCD-RRGB-FMMH1218.aspx?partner=YahooSA

That's what I always thought! Cheers!

Steak'n Shake put out a press release: No fractional shares will be issued...cash will be exchanged for fractional shares. The new reverse split stock will start trading Monday morning. Cheers! http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/the-steak-n-shake-company-news-release-79572527.html

Not a bad idea by PETA as many customers are now aware of such things and make choices accordingly. Although, at the end of the day, it is going to come down to which is higher: cost of change or potential lost revenue. Cheers! http://www.peta.org/mc/NewsItem.asp?id=14027

Hi Folks, It was Alnesh and myself who asked the questions and represented The Polonitza Group. As part of the largest outside shareholder group in ITEX, I will have to remove any posts made on the board commenting on the company, as we continue to try and work with management to create shareholder value. The article from Compounding Life is fairly complete, but there is quite a bit of information that is missing as well. Since it is an outside link, I'll leave it and you can make what you will of how the meeting went. All I can say is that if you are a shareholder, I recommend that you attend the AGM's of the companies you own. Naturally every shareholder is a part owner of a public corporation, and you have every right to make your opinion heard...be it by letter, email, attending the AGM or through proxy votes. Cheers!

According to the research firm below, the shadow inventory of foreclosed homes increased, even though sales of homes have been brisk. You have Opt-A refinancings up this coming year as well. Cheers! http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=auKSnUtGaDC4&pos=7

In that way, I'm kind of disappointed in Buffett and how much he goes on CNBC. Friggin' Joe Kernan with his rotten toupee is probably one of the worst business journalists I've seen, and he asks the dumbest questions of Buffett. I remember Kernan, David Faber and Carl Quintanilla sitting around a table saying silly things like is Overstock.com even around anymore...is Byrne even relevant...etc. I couldn't believe the stuff I was hearing. That was before the naked shorting stories hit the fan and became common knowledge. Cheers!

Here's the website if you want to take a look. Cheers! http://www.berkadia.com/berkadia/Home.aspx

It's not going to be any easier or harder to move the stock with the reverse split. WEST had a liqudity problem because Sardar, Dash & Shawn Sedghat owned well over 50% of the company...not unlike Sears and ESL. All former WEST shareholders and current Lion Fund partners, combined with Sardar, Dash, Sedghat, Cooley, Linnartz, etc, will own only about 18-20% of Steak'n Shake. If someone wants to buy a million dollars worth of Steak'n Shake, they will have no difficulty whether the stock is at $12 and 28M shares are outstanding, or $240 and 1.4M shares outstanding. Cheers!

Hey Zorro, What are they talking about folding up my fund into Berkshire? If I were them, I wouldn't put much stock in anything I say! ;D There seems to be some other stuff they're writing in past threads...some really negative stuff by Randy Foo and Art Vandelay. Randy is Tiddman or Randall Tidd from www.tiddcapital.com, if you guys didn't know already. Not sure why he's dissing Sardar or me, but to each his own...although I think people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones! At least he was smart enough to eventually buy Fairfax, Western Sizzlin and Steak'n Shake. No mention of how our bet from the Motley Fool on "Fairfax or LVLT" is doing after all these years. Or the 51% of investment capital he lost in his fund in 2007 and 2008! Cheers!

The compounding will remain the same...nothing changes. If Biglari's average cost to buy was $11/share, then his average cost jumps to $220/share. Instead of SNS starting at say $3/share, it starts at $60/share. You get several things happening by the reverse split...increase in long-term investors, free advertising (how many stocks are in the three digits, articles), lower listing fees and custodial transaction costs. It's also cheaper for shareholders to buy shares. Cheers!

NY Times article on SAC and the recent investigations. Cheers! http://www.cnbc.com/id/34445954/

You snagged the bottom tick on this one huh. Yeah, we snagged it right at the bottom. We bought a ton of the $2.50 and $5 options when it was trading in the $3-4 range right around end of November 2008. So the $4.94 is with the option premiums included, otherwise the average cost would have been even lower. Cheers!

However, I am not completely convinced that with this cash, that he is going to be able to allocate well enough to justify the premium that is attached to SNS. The one argument I would make that people always negate when it comes to smart people and their overvalued company stock prices, is that they can always issue overvalued stock and acquire companies that are trading at a larger discount to intrinsic value. Biglari isn't stupid. He's not going to issue undervalued stock...in fact he does the complete opposite...and he'll issue overvalued stock if he finds something worth buying that is accretive to shareholder value. People should only buy Steak'n Shake at a level they are comfortable at, and allocate only a portion of their portfolio that they are also comfortable with. We haven't sold a single share that we've bought at an average cost of $4.94. We plan on holding our stock for years and years going forward. That being said, we aren't adding any more right now either. Cheers!

The Indianapolis Business Journal has an article on the Steak'n Shake 20-for-1 reverse split. The article calls the move unprecedented for a stock that is not distressed and trading well above $1/share. Does anyone else know of a company that has ever done this in this situation? Did Teledyne do the same thing at one point? Cheers! http://www.ibj.com/steak-n-shake-reverse-split-makes-perfect-sense/PARAMS/article/15146

I think almost certainly that will be paid out in cash. Cheers!

Some of you may remember those scenes from Minority Report were Tom Cruise and Collin Farrell manipulate a floating computer touch screen, or the Gap advertisements that interact with passing customers...soon to be a reality. Cheers! http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/12/12/Genius-Level-Innovations-in-Computing.aspx

Christopher Browne, of Tweedy Browne fame, died of a heart attack today. http://www.globeinvestor.com/servlet/story/GI.20091214.escenic_1400168/GIStory/

Extraordinary quarterly sales numbers for the 4th quarter! If some of you ever wondered why I set up a seperate tab for Steak'n Shake and Biglari, I believe what he has done in the last year should provide an answer...an absolutely remarkable case study for all MBA and CFA classes in my opinion! Remember, this is a quarter where even McDonald's suffered. Cheers!

Article by CNBC on how so many ex-SAC traders usually fail when starting funds seeded by SAC...I'm guessing it's the culture at SAC that creates the problem when these guys go out on their own...wrong intellectual framework, develops the wrong culture and they end up doing stupid and risky things. Cheers! http://www.cnbc.com/id/34415536