Parsad

Fairfax files amendment to original filing on lawsuit, and gives more detail about the judgment against Capgrowth. Cheers! http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/915191/000095012309050993/o57491sctovtza.htm

Excellent point! We should ask David Letterman the same question. ;D Cheers!

Fairfax's 3rd Q results come out after market close on October 29th, with a conference call to follow the morning of the 30th. Cheers! http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Fairfax-Announces-Conference-iw-4280660897.html?x=0&.v=1

The injunction asked for by Capgrowth Partners regarding the ORH/FFH merger has been denied by the judge. Cheers!

Looks like WEST has started releasing shares of SNS to partners of Western Acquisitions LP as proposed in the merger agreement a few weeks ago. Cheers! http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/93859/000119380509001957/xslF345X03/e605940_ex.xml

And the list keeps rolling... Insider trading charges against Galleon founder: http://www.cnbc.com/id/33343625 Cheers!

Another long-running Ponzi scheme...this one in San Francisco. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/10/15/BARS1A6AMQ.DTL Last Friday, some company called "Cirplus Futures" was shut down eight floors below us. I believe it is also another fraud or embezzlement. Crazy! When the tide goes out...Cheers!

I spoke to Donna Haines at SNS Headquarters, and she didn't know if they were going to release the traffic numbers seperately from the 10-K this quarter. Normally, the traffic numbers are out a week after the quarter end, so I'm guessing since it is the fiscal year-end, they won't be released seperately. Cheers!

Great work Max! Cheers!

although they are very senior and its unlikely that I will ever meet them Anyone can meet Prem briefly at the Fairfax AGM each year in Toronto, and all you have to do is look for the big, tall Indian guy in Omaha each year to find Mohnish. Ajit Jain is a bit harder, but you can usually find him in Omaha as well. Cheers!

Successful or not...I think BYD may very well be another venture that Berkshire is stepping into that contradicts what they've said in the past...airplanes, technology, derivatives, etc. Capital-intensive, few moats, weapons of mass destruction, etc. Cheers!

They seem to have a track record long enough to show that they can perform in good times and in bad. You're correct, but it only takes one mistake to wipe out a string of successes...especially utilizing leverage. Cheers!

On the side note - Does anyone know, which IIT Prem went for his undergraduate? Prem went to IIT - Madras. Interestingly enough, Ajit Jain went to IIT - Kharagpur. Neither knew each other during their university days, but got to know each other through the insurance industry. Funny, how one single-handedly made more money for Berkshire than anyone except Buffett, and the other did the same at his own company. Both are true gentlemen as well. Cheers!

You should ask yourselves how much leverage (if any) was used, and were there outliers? Claire Barnes is a terrific manager, but some of that result is from being in the hottest market over the last decade. Paulson almost certainly uses some leverage and had the outlier of making a killer return the last two years betting on the demise of the credit bubble. Cheers!

They may be tailoring the menu by region, and whether they are franchised or company-owned. Franchisees may be given more leeway on what they may or may not provide on their menu. Cheers!

This is hilarious. Anyone who has read Black Swan knows Taleb's opinion, that the nobel prize is a joke and should be considered an insult if won. Taleb's generalizing. I'm pretty sure Woodrow Wilson deserved one for creating the precursor to the United Nations, as did Martin Luther King and Mother Theresa. If anyone's visited Poland lately, Lech Walesa probably deserved one as well. Cheers!

There was a time when winning a Noble Peace Prize was a reward for a lifetime of dedication and work for the betterment of humanity. Now its been reduced to a political prize awarded on the basis of ideology. Its significance is insignficant. I agree, but let's not completely disregard the significance of Obama's selection. The sheer magnitude of how the world views the U.S. between this administration and the previous administration is like night and day. While a hammer fist works some of the time, I believe goodwill usually leads to greater long-term alliances. Cheers!

I'm sure Bill Clinton is just pissed as hell today! This guy won in one year, what Clinton has sought for so many. I'm sure Bono is about to make a call asking for money. My brother and I were talking the other day about Bono. We believe if Bono from the 80's (that made the Joshua Tree) were able to travel time to the future and meet Bono from today, he would kick his ass and tell him what a sell-out he's become. Even more so, why is U2 allowed to shelter their money offshore, but ask international governments for theirs for humanitarian aid? At least Oprah gives away millions and millions while asking for other people's money. Anyway, that was my rant on Bono. ;D Cheers!

I believe no sitting U.S. President has won the Nobel Peace Prize while still in office since 1919 when Woodrow Wilson won and previously President Theodore Roosevelt won in 1906. Cheers!

Simons is retiring, but he will leave his investments intact within the fund. Cheers! http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=apValkFCAG9w

Incidentally, the first thing Sardar did was get rid of virtually all of SNS's long-term debt and increase the amount of cash in the holding company. Lampert could have used all that cash now, and Sears still has quite a bit of debt. As far as operations are concerned, if anyone could turnaround a broken down restaurant business like Western Sizzlin and turn it into the cash cow that it is now, they've got some real operational business skills. Cheers!

The Sears brand isn't nearly as bad as you guys are making it. The department store model is suffering, but the brand is actually the only thing keeping it alive. Lampert's mistake was spending billions buying back tons of shares well above book and at a small discount to intrinsic value. The Steak'n Shake model is a successful one and one that can be replicated and expanded. Sears is a business where Lampert needed to reduce the footprint by a hell of a lot more. The fact that SNS isn't selling any other company-owned stores or existing franchises should tell you about the viability of their business. Sears should have closed down another third of their stores over the last few years. Cheers!

Is this some small-time fund manager or an attack by disgruntled shorts. Anyway, Capgrowth Partners (which I can't find anywhere) has filed a class-action lawsuit against Fairfax regarding the ORH offer. Cheers! http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/915191/000095012309049298/o57399exv99wxayx5yxiy.htm

You could of said the same thing about Fairfax.more so I think than sns, over the last 4 years and been perfectly rational but last two summers you could have picked up shares for sub 220. It doesn't make any sense but no one knows what some other idiot will sell their shares for. I would say SNS at $4-5, was comparable to the period when we had the opportunity to buy Fairfax sub $100 in 2003. It was brief and won't happen ever again. Alot of us on the old board said that at the time. I believe "Lotsofcoke" still holds his shares that he purchased for his children's trusts at $58 back then, along with the sub $4 shares in Marvel he bought...another company that you now definitely won't see at those levels, since they've been acquired by Disney for what would be about $52/share today. Cheers!

I do like the company becoming a holding company, but it's still unclear exactly what Sardar's plans are for the future. One other question: What is Sardar's current role with his hedge fund and how is his time divided among that and SNS? Keep in mind that people are often quick to try to find the 'next Buffett' and most of the time they do not pan out. Look at Eddie Lampert. Him running both his hedge fund and Sears/K-Mart has had bad results for both his fund holders to Sears Holdings shareholders. When looking at companies like SNS, Buffett's quote "When management with a reputation for brilliance tackles a business with a reputation for poor fundamental economics, it is the reputation of the business that remains intact" comes to mind. I don't think the book is completely out yet on Lampert. And I was quite surprised Mohnish is negative on Sears right now. I think they will be in tough with commercial property prices and leases over the next couple of years, and the department store business is dying a slow death, but he's smart enough to work his way through this. It wasn't worth the $200 per share people were paying in the past, but it certainly was worth more than the $30 per share people were selling at a few months ago. The story lies somewhere in the middle. Cheers!