Liberty

I agree with your points regarding demographics. About the content I have some worries: Howard Stern is now available on Youtube and Soundcloud (not sure why his contract allows this?) and sports are available from multiple sources such as TuneIn as well. So I agree that SIRI has more firepower than most players (but less than Apple), however how relevant is this when content isn't just sold to one distribution channel? Howard Stern on youtube is just short clips: https://www.youtube.com/user/HOWARDTV/videos If you get something else, it's probably copyright infringement and could disappear at any moment.

Podcast about the SIRI-P deal: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/audio/2017-06-13/pandora-got-siriusly-outnegotiated

The supply of bitcoin is fixed (and declining as people lose access to them..), but the supply of cryptocurrencies in general is infinite. That'll be an interesting dynamic to see in action over the coming years and decades..

What's unique is the bundle at a relatively low price and high convenience, which is especially useful to demographics that skew older, richer, and more rural (long commutes, less tech savvy). For less than a buck a day you get tons of curated music styles at the push of a button, plus lots of talk radio with some of the most popular hosts, plus lots of sports. It's available everywhere, you don't need to worry about data caps or battery levels or tapping 5 things to start the app and find what you want every time you get in the car, etc. Sure maybe some could save a couple bucks a month by using some app while hopefully staying around cell towers, but to most of the target demographic it's just not worth it. The main competitor is free FM radio. CarPlay and Android Autos will make it easier to have content owners that go directly OTT with an app, but SIRI can pay people like Howard Stern and sports rights holders a lot more than they'd get trying to build a subscriber base from scratch. Competition will keep existing, and SIRI can take advantage of some of those techs to try to reduce churn and make customers stickier/offer more value, like probably some content deal with Pandora.

On Friday, tech tanked, but financials were up iirc, so no big surprise that BRK was also up. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Buffett is very likely the source of that personal information. I don't remember having any problem with it being in the book. He's human, I'm human, we all have our stuff. I feel like I get him much better as a human being thanks to the personal stuff than if all this was about were his business dealings (there's plenty of books about those). To each their own I suppose ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Some good counter arguments in the vic comment by Bluegrass, not sure if you've seen it.

The Tim Ferriss Show: #244: The Quiet Master of Cryptocurrency — Nick Szabo https://overcast.fm/+BmGV410hM

https://www.amazon.com/Zero-Notes-Start-Ups-Build-Future/dp/0753555204/ Just finished reading this and enjoyed it a lot. Lots of clear thinking in it. Whether you end up agreeing or not with various points, I think it's worth reading. t's very hard to summarize or get the gist elsewhere since the essay style builds things up step by step, so f.ex. talking about step 9 doesn't really give you what's in the book.

SIRI has invested in Pandora: http://investor.siriusxm.com/investor-overview/press-releases/press-release-details/2017/SiriusXM-to-Make-480-Million-Strategic-Investment-in-Pandora/default.aspx

http://uk.mobile.reuters.com/article/idUKKBN18Z0BP

Ben Thompson on WWDC: https://stratechery.com/2017/apples-strengths-and-weaknesses/

Now Verizon apparently considering investing in Pandora if SIRI doesn't snap it up soon: http://nypost.com/2017/06/04/verizon-mulling-pandora-investment-if-siriusxm-deal-fails/

On a related note, here's a good explanation of the "Lump of Labor" fallacy by Marc Andreessen. I was familiar with it, but never seen it explained to the second, third, and fourth level effects the way he does, which makes it a lot more useful as a model to think about things:

Good presentation about markel: http://valueseekerinvestments.blogspot.ca/2017/06/markel-corp-mkl-brief-overview-38.html

That's exactly the kind of stuff that happens in non-linear systems when tipping points are reached. Almost nothing happens for a while and people extrapolate that in the future, and then you reach a point where, for example, solar makes sense in certain parts of the world with subsidies, so it accelerates. Then it makes sense in a wider range of locations with subsidies as prices keep falling, so it accelerates further. Then at some point it starts making sense almost everywhere without subsidies, and in parallel storage is getting cheaper and cheaper, and adoption goes through the roof because there's simply no reason to build more expensive and dirtier things. We're still in the early days of that curve, so people better get ready for even more action on that second derivative. F.ex.

New $10m or more acquisition: http://www.csisoftware.com/2017/05/volaris-group-a-constellation-software-company-completes-acquisition-of-asset-management-software-provider/

http://www.transdigm.com/mobile.view?c=196053&v=203&d=1&id=2278225

I'm just posting a link, I don't believe anything to specific about commodities, especially not about where they'll trade. The only thing I know is that the secular trend over the long-term will be for fossil fuels to go away because EVs/batteries are improving and solar is improving year after year after year. At some points the trends cross and it just doesn't make sense to have ICEs or operate coal plants and eventually gas plants. I don't know when that'll be, but it's coming, and it won't be a linear change. There will also be at some point a price put on carbon, or at least a removal of fossil fuel subsidies, that will accelerate their demise. BTW, did you predict the oil crash a couple of years ago?

https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2017-oil-projections/

Doesn't look like the Chevrolet Bolt is too much of a threat to Tesla so far: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-06-01/chevy-s-bolt-creeps-along-while-tesla-readies-for-a-sprint

In CHTR piece the NY Post also says the Verizon looked at SIRI, though no bid yet: http://nypost.com/2017/05/31/cable-giant-charter-snubbed-a-buyout-bid-from-verizon/

Apparently Verizon tried to buy CHTR: http://nypost.com/2017/05/31/cable-giant-charter-snubbed-a-buyout-bid-from-verizon/

Bob Magness had a pretty good deal on John Malone for a long time...

More reports of a "Siri speaker" Echo-like device: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-05-31/apple-said-to-ready-siri-speaker-in-bid-to-rival-google-amazon