Parsad

I just did a quick check on SEDI.ca and it doesn't show any selling by management or directors. Brian Hayward (director) acquired a few thousand shares in 2012 and Orest Smysnuik (CFO) acquired 16,200 shares in 2012 and another 17,650 in May of this year. I'm not sure what to make of the transactions for Madison, which are listed as "conversion or exchange" and not "acquisition or disposition". just going by information circular they sold down nearly 18% of their holdings in the past year. not exactly a bullish signal? http://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/madison-venture-announces-reorganization-shareholdings-213322648.html Don't automatically assume guys that people are selling when something changes. Dig deeper and do the research! Cheers!

A few of the articles today introducing the rest of the world outside of Canada to Prem. About frickin' time people paid attention! Cheers! http://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2013/09/23/meet-prem-watsa-the-man-riding-to-blackberrys-rescue/tab/print/ http://blogs.marketwatch.com/thetell/2013/09/23/meet-blackberry-acquirer-fairfax-financial-the-canadian-berkshire-hathaway/

You been sleeping SmallCap?! ;D Cheers!

What did he say about Exor? I might have missed that, as I stepped out to use the washroom for a few minutes. He flat out said that Pabrai Funds has a position in Fiat. Cheers!

Fiat. The 7-8 commercials, plus him saying "we have a position in Fiat" kind of gave it away! ;D Cheers!

Prem doesn't make a bid like that hoping to flush somebody out. Although, because the bid isn't much higher than the closing price, if anyone is interested, you may see them come out now. But he'll take it at $9 if no one else wants it. Obviously, the team thinks there is some value there, while everyone else in the world thinks there isn't any. Love it! I guess Thorsten will probably be at our dinner next year! ;D Cheers!

And what do you think of all the false and misleading information posted on this thread? How is it false and misleading?! Investors were analyzing the business...both bullish and bearish like any other thread. Cheers!

If that's what you think...so be it. Cheers!

Is this is real Pabrai Mohnish? He has an ID in this forum? Wow! :o Do you think Mohnish would be caught dead posting on here? Plus he could never write anything that eloquent without using the word "Dhandho" in there somewhere. Plenty of Pabrai groupies out there...they were throwing their underwear at him like he was Tom Jones this weekend. ;D Cheers!

Breaking news...pressure from CofB&F cracks Pabrai...will continue to open Chicago meeting to groupies and non-investors...says culture of Chicago meeting must be maintained! ;D. Cheers!

Today! This is it. Cheers!

Well, my love affair with this beautiful and fantastic city may be coming to an end. Was with Mohnish last night, and the subject came up that the Chicago meeting going forward will be investors only, and everyone else will be invited to the LA meeting. I guess I will be going to LA every September now only, and will have to find time to make a trip to Chicago outside of the Pabrai Funds AGM...the rest of you can keep New York...I love Chicago! So those non-investors attending this year...enjoy it, since it will be your last one in the Windy City. My only solace is if MPIC or any company we acquire ever has a U.S. AGM...it will be here in Chicago. We'll meet again my friend! ;D Cheers!

I think someone mentioned that McElvaine is selling to diversify more. It does bother me that Chou is selling though. This should not bother an investor at all, unless the person selling was in a control position and that could reflect something regarding the business. Managers buy and sell positions all of the time...could be to create liquidity to meet redemptions, or to narrow their ideas and concentrate them, or possibly take tax losses to offset gains from other investments, etc. Always rely on your own analysis and valuation, not what any manager (including me) tells you or does. There have been many great managers who have been wrong on valuation of an idea. In fact, it is certain that every great manager at one time or another has been. Cheers!

CBC is mainly focused on international and national news with some regional coverage. The newspapers owned by GVC are much more local in nature. There is some overlap but I don't think you can substitute one with the other. Yes, Tengen is correct. CBC has no bearing whatsoever other than competing for the same local advertising dollars that all of GVC's competitors fight for. Cheers!

I don't own BBRY, but after reading the report yesterday, I'm not sure how anyone can write off BBRY after one quarter's worth of data. They are in tough to be sure, and the outcome is unlikely to be good relative to the competition's size and dominance, but I think you need to look at least a year's worth of data, sales, and development to come to any accurate conclusion about whether this attempt at a turnaround will be successful or not. Those that are always "certain" tend to be oblivious to life's uncertainties! Cheers! 1, This is not unexpected information, we have been watching this stock for years. 2, It is not just this quarters numbers, they have forecast an operating loss for next quarter. 3, They will no longer be releasing subscriber numbers which means those numbers will continue to decline. 4, It is on enough just to look at numbers for a year, it is important to understand what those numbers mean. 5, You can always tell who is "certain" by the amount of predictions they make. 1, Investors have been watching Apple for years, but the last year and a half have not been one of glory...that doesn't mean Apple is finished. 2, They've pretty much scrapped much of the business plan for the past decade, and gone in a completely different direction...it's reasonable to assume that they will go through quarters of losses? 3, Probably because they are trying to focus on the longer term, not quarter by quarter. 4, I doubt if Apple's business plan in the first year Jobs took over the 2nd time around was anything but painful...look what happened there. 5, You are most correct here, and there have been more than enough predictions by pretty much everyone...the Apple thread is pretty much indicative of that! As I mentioned earlier, I don't own BBRY and do own APPL. But any supposition from a quarter's worth of numbers smack of hubris. Cheers! Hubris, indeed: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-09-20/blackberry-to-fire-4-500-write-down-up-to-960-million.html People who work in an industry have a deep understanding of it. They know how to read between the lines. Thinking otherwise is hubris. People in the industry know how the buying process works. knew that as soon RIM announced bad earnings, operators and companies would stop investing in RIM's gear. If you are a CIO and you deployed RIM companywide, then RIM shutdown the product, that would be the end of your career. Industry insiders know that. Simply looking at financials and plotting trend lines is not enough. I don't own BBRY, but do own AAPL. Funny how I got that right, since I'm not in the industry and don't know how the buying process works. You are correct, hubris indeed! Cheers!

Joey's parents should be awfully proud in raising such a fine human being! Cheers!

Or the ability to spell... :) It's easier for management to regain their stakes from bankruptcy than commons. What?! No where near bankruptcy. Management owns a ton of common (1/3rd of the company effectively)...that would be a pretty big hit. Cheers!

I think it is a problem ala LTCM - these guys quote Buffett but aren't able to follow-through. 10 times growth in revenues, 6 times growth in free cash flow, and almost 8 times growth in normalized earnings over the last ten years while outstanding shares grew by 3.5 times...don't confuse company performance with stock performance. There in lies the lesson. Cheers!

Ray Dolby passes. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-24075429

Can't wait to see what they come up with! Cheers! http://finance.yahoo.com/news/tesla-enters-race-build-self-010950299.html

Cheers! http://finance.yahoo.com/news/u-seize-manhattan-skyscraper-secretly-194800489.html

Early part of this year they thought their investment in Post Media would start paying off. Its been a hole for them with close to 0 ebitda to show for. The investment in that asset continues and these dollars could have been spent growing their 'essential information' business. So a huge opportunity cost as well. This acquisition has been a disaster so far. For all the leverage the company took, it has very little to show for it. But I guess that's the reason why the opportunity exists ... so in a perverse way its good all this is happening. You have to believe in the mgmt at the end of the day. Not that this is the investment I'm talking about, but remember that capex has been higher the last few quarters as they pour money into the Postmedia businesses which were under capitalized in the past. They could easily turn the spigot off and pay their dividend or debt, rather than pour more money into capex. Cheers!

Not a surprise, but I wish there was a bit more detail. Cheers! http://finance.yahoo.com/news/where-americans-rich-poor-spent-193609849.html

22 have settled. I can't believe all they got out of this was $14M in fines. What a joke! Cheers! http://finance.yahoo.com/news/us-sec-charges-23-firms-153100217.html

If you have the investment in a non-taxable account, and don't plan on exercising any of the options, I would just sell as it rises. One of the simplest and most effective investment tools is just simply averaging out of a position. It takes all of the emotion and guesswork out of the sell-side. We have it all in our funds, so there are flow through taxes to our taxable partners. I may also keep some of the shares after exercising the LEAPs, so I've just bought January 2014 puts as the price rises on a fraction of the investment each time, locking in the gains at certain hurdles and putting off the profits till next year. The position is now almost as big as our BAC and LUK position...10% of the fund...and we think there is room to run. I think it can get to $80 in the next few weeks. We're having one hell of a year for a fund that is 45% in cash! Our partners will be happy, and I'm quite happy to receive my incentive fees! ;D Cheers!