ragu

Mars, then?

Brilliant! Many thanks for sharing. Best, Ragu

Statutory warning: One year returns can be extremely skewed. In either direction. XIRR of 165.9%. Began the year with 98% in BH and ended it with 57% in FELP. Thanks to Picasso for his comment in the FELP thread about the market missing the incentives for the various actors involved there that caused me to dig deeper. Best, Ragu

I can only assume you haven't read the link to the complaint posted earlier in this thread. To recap: Net seller of APL securities until conversations with exec beginning July '10. Was provided information about upcoming asset sales and told not to trade on that info. Purchases began after first conversation, including significantly out of the money short-term call options. Attempted to influence exec when faced with a subpoena from the SEC. Seems pretty clear cut to me. Best, Ragu

Fair enough. I guess there's never really been anything, that I have seen, about him or the firm in terms of shadiness. With SAC and Cohen, for e.g., it was only a question of whether the prosecutors were going to have enough evidence. This is a surprise. To me, at any rate. Best, Ragu

Unbelievably stupid. I will never understand the motivation of something like this. And to do it at the fag end of one's career? How on earth do you turn rogue right at the end? Best, Ragu

I don't believe the agreement allows for a partial redemption. Cline may well choose to convert, but there must be enough capital to redeem all of the Notes before he makes that election. The agreement does allow for a Partnership Redemption and a Murray Purchase in conjunction, as long all the Notes are redeemed. Best, Ragu

I'd agree with this. Odds are that the structure of the settlement is what's being discussed, not whether there'll be one. Re. optionality too, I agree. It's what makes the risk-reward (very) skewed on this one. Best, Ragu

Picasso, Your note about the Market not looking at the incentives for Cline caused me to dig deeper into this. The fact that Cline elected to forego the the distribution on the common units in October (and waive any rights to receive them in arrears) made it likely that there would be a resolution with the bond holders and that remaining unit holders would be treated fairly in any such. So, I ended up buying. It's not done yet (a Murray buy-out of the rest is a non-trivial possibility), but thanks for bringing this idea to the board! Best, Ragu

Likewise. Which is why I have and will continue to stay away. Congrats to anyone that invested here and made money. Best, Ragu

Decent shout. Worth looking at this. Best, Ragu

ap1234, I am not sure the evidence supports it. Sure, the tone in the letters suggest caution re. the stock. However, I expect that comes from a desire (oft-stated too) to keep his current shareholder base mostly intact i.e. the price is at a level that potentially allows for continuing attractive returns. I can see your case if he'd actually issued stock for acquisitions at some point, but seeing as he hasn't... FWIW, I do think Mr. Market is not pricing in the risk of a big acquisition running into trouble. Given the lack of historical precedence here with respect to transactions of size, I am not sure this is warranted. I will pass on price, even if the rest of the pieces look as if they are well in place. Best, Ragu

From Exhibit (a)(1)(I) attached to the tender filing: Emphasis added to indicate what I expect will happen. Best, Ragu

You'd better believe it. These geniuses think Sardar originally sold the Lion Fund to BH for $4.2 million, not understanding (or deliberately overlooking, to make their point) that this was the general partner's capital balance at the time of the transaction. If I hadn't seen it, I would have refused to believe that such an egregious mistake was even possible. Clueless and deliberately misleading. They'd be an excellent fit on the board. Of CBRL's. Best, Ragu

"Dammed" fool?! (Pg. 37) Editorial standards, they are a slippin' at Berkshire. Best, Ragu