Jurgis

Used car buying thread: http://www.cornerofberkshireandfairfax.ca/forum/general-discussion/off-topic-what-was-your-used-car-buying-experience-like/msg314475/#msg314475 I'm gonna be negative: Unless you learn some serious car-buying-fu, you gonna get screwed mediocre deal at best. From personal experience, I get probably $Xk worse prices than the pro-car-buyers from the thread above. There might be no-haggle prices/places that work somewhat. Maybe people will point to some. I think you are contradicting yourself a bit in your OP. You want to get a great deal, you want to get great tips and you don't want to spend time and effort to master car buying. I don't think it works like that 8) Good luck though 8)

Direct link: https://s1.q4cdn.com/579586326/files/doc_downloads/2018/2018-Fairfax-AGM.pdf (unless they change it).

The continuing saga of GILD shows how incentives are screwed up in pharma business: you cure a disease, you lose your customers and business, your stock goes to shithouse. Even if you charge megabucks for cure. Lesson learned: don't cure diseases! ::) https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/04/curing-disease-not-a-sustainable-business-model-goldman-sachs-analysts-say/ ArsTechnica article is pretty neutral. You can imagine reaction from less neutral sources. ::)

Really great book. I haven't finished it yet, but it's already one of the best. ... And pretty much every single CoBF thread (maybe not counting some arbitrage threads) is heavily contaminated by Halo Effect (both positive and negative and sometimes both at the same time!). I am tempted to write "Halo Effect" every time I post on company thread... but perhaps I'll resist. 8) ;D

Regarding 5G, it's mostly moody Mr.s CoBFs. 8)

Nice writeup. Although you probably should not have disclosed the source of the info publicly. Sources are to be treasured. 8) I'd suggest to edit it out, but it's your blog and your call. 8)

Berkshire structure - a company holding investments - makes very little sense from tax standpoint. It started to make more sense when it became (re)insurance company and started holding operating businesses. Munger (and Buffett?) has said this repeatedly. And yet there are still people doing this... Everyone apart Buffett charges fees, since everyone likes to get paid - the more the better. Buffett is one of very few people who believes that he's paid enough through his stockholdings and does not need to charge extra salary/fees/etc.

I'm confused by this one too, but I don't own a dog. --- On another note: "Then there was the time in 2001, when Mr. Son threatened to set himself on fire in the offices of the ministry unless an official prodded telecom giant Nippon Telegraph & Telephone to lease optical-fiber lines to SoftBank, for a broadband network it was building." https://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2013/12/14/why-regulators-dont-scare-softbanks-masayoshi-son/ You never own a dog, the dog owns you. Most humans just haven’t it figured out yet. I thought this was only true with cats. 8)

This. But really tough to achieve unless he had someone like that for a long time and had strong and close relationship with that person.

Yes. Just celebrated 20 years. Cheapest (?) and most convenient (?) way to get all the movies that the SCREWED UP ... sorry ... streaming services don't have. 8) They are cutting on inventory though. There's more and more stuff that is "not available" with no availability date. :'(

Well, at least you have bragging rights, right? Or is it worse to be right but have made almost no money than not to have invested at all..? :-\ Nah. I'm happy I invested. I'm happy to have made some money. And I'm happy to tell people that I have a legit 30x bagger. 8) It's like that 70 year old who had sex with 20 year hottie told the priest at confession: "Telling you? I'm telling everyone!" 8) ;D Additional disclosure: it's dinner-tab sized because I sold a bunch at 2x and 10x and whatever... Well at least it's not like AAPL/ARMH(Y)/GOOGL/FB/Hansen(Monster) where I sold everything at minor percentage gains or even losses at various times.

I am positive on DIS, but I don’t think that DIS streaming channels will be much of a competition for Netflix. Netflix offers you a tremendous amount of content to watch for $10/month whenever and however you like. DIS will offer you some of their content, as well as sports (via ESPN) in segmented plans (I suppose). It will be a much narrower and spezialized offering. AMZN is the real competition to Netflix. AMZN lineup was crap a year or two ago but they have been adding shows and movies rapidly. If it was me, I'd cancel Netflix right now (actually keep their DVD service, but that's that). My wife does not allow me to cancel Netflix though. So I guess that's the moat... :-\ Disclosure: I still have about 30x bagger on NFLX ... on a dinner tab sized position. :'(

There is already Viacom thread: http://www.cornerofberkshireandfairfax.ca/forum/investment-ideas/viacom-(viab)/msg280239/#msg280239 You misspelled the ticker in thread header. The best would probably be to delete this thread and continue the old one. Good luck.

Based on my experience and the data that Zillow provides, it’s not good enough. I think if they were to make this a business, they would then have to sent an assessor over to each property to adjust the values generated from their database, but then again, what would their advantage be over a local who as access to their public data, Redfin’s data, the MLS and local knowledge. Local knowledge is where the rubber hits the road. Anecdotally though, as a home owner I am concerned that Z-estimate - similarly to tax assessment value - becomes an anchor for buyers. When I was buying a house, our RE agent told us not to look at tax assessment value when considering whether the price is good. But people do and we did - at least partially unconsciously. I think the same thing is happening with Z-estimate. Which concerns me, since I see my house IMO unfairly underestimated because of variety of factors. But then maybe I won't sell for another 20 years, so maybe I should not be concerned. At least unlike stock market I won't get any activist investors buying parts of my house and trying to push for the value rerating or LBO. ;D 8)

I had a tiny position, but sold it on the announcement that they are starting to speculate on flipping houses.

Why do you think you are late with Liberty Ventures? GLIBA is still buyable and some people argue that it has the largest discount. You probably need to dig either this thread or Liberty (companies, not person ;)) threads for analysis of discount. Disclaimer: I have GLIBA and LBRDA.

It's possible that someone sold all shares but 1 in trade(s) two weeks (or more) ago and just got to put in sell order for last share. It's also possible that they kept 1 share for the same reasons you guys buy 1 share - for getting info from company - and then decided they don't need/want it anymore just around the moment when you put in the order. It's also possible that it's a small/inexperienced/whatever investor who only bought 1 share... and then sold it. Pink land is a land of wonders. 8) I've heard that in the past MMs used to sell you 1 share on limit orders on purpose to screw your commissions. This is likely not the case for pink stock with no trades though.

OK. I think the "official" transfer was previously announced to be 2022, but with Vivendi news and the Africa case who knows. Good luck.

So then what do you think about succession issue? I.e. his son taking over Vivendi already ( https://www.reuters.com/article/us-vivendi-agm/billionaire-bollore-anoints-son-yannick-as-new-vivendi-chairman-idUSKBN1HQ2I4 ) and other pieces - I think it was announced - is it next year or in two?

I'll just +1 vinod1 posts. 8)

They post their top holdings here: https://www.orbis.com/uk/institutional/strategies/global-equity I am a client so I receive a monthly report with the details, but I know for a fact that they used to publish a monthly factsheet showing all the holdings, or at least the top 10. They have just completely revamped their website, logo, presentation etc. so frankly I also feel a bit lost navigating their website now. Thanks.

Can you post a link? I can't find this. Or do you have to be a client?

As Bloomberg says, this is likely a common scare tactics of French police/authorities. They arrest a bigwig financier and let them sweat a bit for a day or so. (I sometimes wish US FBI/etc. did this too ;)). So it might be opportunity to buy (more). I might be more concerned with succession than with the arrest, although who knows. I sold most/all of my shares in ODET.PA. It is likely a mistake on price though, so don't follow me. 8)

Hey you can have it both ways...doesn't have to be just one specific way: - I like Omaha, but I'm pretty sure I'd enjoy the French Riviera or Monaco too - I like going for a ride on a Yacht...but I'd never pay for one - I love posh hotels...not because they are posh...but because I can get a good night's sleep...and I stayed in some pretty shitty hotels when I used to go to Omaha and didn't have much money. Has anyone stayed at the Red Lion on 72nd during a Tornado storm with sirens blaring and the front desk saying "You should be ok in your room!" - Supermodels...who would say no...but I'm perfectly fine with models too! ;D - I like cigars and I like $3 Egg McMuffins! Caviar is yummy too, especially with champagne, but I prefer when it's free! Cheers! Sanjeev is true value investor and gentleman. 8)

Caveat: must like thinking and reading. Caveat: productive thinking and reading can be exhausting even if you like them. So maybe not work by definition, but nonetheless work in terms of how long and how much you can do.