Liberty

He could want to start his own company, or just retire though. Guys like that don't retire. He has 5,000 patents to his name. He designs the tables at the Apple cafeteria. He'll never stopped until he's forced. Starting his own company is possible, but what's the point? Apple is basically his company the way it's run, and he seems to love his team. Starting his company to do what? Design chairs? It's not like he'd have all the billions of capital and R&D capabilities and top engineers that Apple has if he wanted to do complex products that require hardware/software/services. He'd have to build it all up, and that's the opposite of focusing more on design, which is what he seems to be doing now. Edit: Gruber's take: http://daringfireball.net/2015/05/jony_ive_promotion_chief_design_officer

There are only a certain amount of waking hours in a day. If you spend X of those on 'Non-design', you can't spend them on 'Design'. By delegating some of the more managerial stuff to others, he gets more time to think about design. Maybe it means something else, but I think that it could just be what they're saying it is. Ive will no doubt go someday, and Apple is doing the right thing by creating a structure that will make it easier to transition, and by putting a bit more spotlight on the rest of the team (Ive was never alone in this). But Ive is still very young, he eats and breathes design and will probably never stop, and he'll never find another place that has a more design-oriented culture, where he can make a bigger impact on the world, or where he'll get more money. So I don't think he's in a hurry to go anywhere.

Indeed. They're projecting 8.3x after synergies, and they've telegraphed that their 800m model for synergies is very conservative, so I'm expecting more. Could end up being under 8x ultimately...

If you read the piece, you'll see that this mostly means that most of his managerial tasks will go to the two new people under him, freeing him to spend more time on the design stuff and traveling (partly to help design new flagship Apple stores around the world).

Liberty Ventures, along with Coatue, JANA Partners and Soroban Capital Partners LP, are funding the LBRDA investment. Doesn't look like we'll get rights.

Call about to begin. Press release and presentation: http://phx.corporate-ir.net/External.File?item=UGFyZW50SUQ9Mjg4NDc3fENoaWxkSUQ9LTF8VHlwZT0z&t=1 http://phx.corporate-ir.net/External.File?item=UGFyZW50SUQ9Mjg4NDc2fENoaWxkSUQ9LTF8VHlwZT0z&t=1

Very sad news...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/apple/11628710/When-Stephen-Fry-met-Jony-Ive-the-self-confessed-fanboi-meets-Apples-newly-promoted-chief-design-officer.html Ive to spend more time on design, less on managerial stuff. Can only be good. Nice piece by Stephen Fry.

The deal has apparently been signed :

That's the question. I don't think they'll have any trouble raising the money, but how will be the interesting part. I'd love a rights offering at a nice discount like last time. Ted and Todd at Berkshire are certainly paying attention.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-05-25/charter-said-to-near-deal-for-time-warner-cable-at-195-a-share Looks like charter might get it. It'll be interesting to see what kind of synergies they think they can get... Apparently: 195/share, 100 in cash. Brighthouse to be merged into Newco, EV over 80bn. Update: More details coming in. Breakup fee of 2bn, TWC shareholders can elect to take up to 115 in cash, and LBRDA will buy 5bn of CHTR stock at current price to help fund deal.

Thanks!

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/62e8e9e4-0243-11e5-82b9-00144feabdc0.html "Some of these people added that Time Warner Cable could reach a deal with either party before the end of the long US weekend, as markets are closed on Monday for the Memorial day holiday."

Both Pearson and Howley (of TDG) have been asked about this on conference calls a while ago, probably because both companies are fairly active with M&A and like to use debt. I don't remember if it was Pearson or Howley who said this (maybe both said similar thing and that's why memory is fuzzy), but the general idea is that if you are a mediocre acquirer who makes 10% IRRs on deals, if the price of debt goes up close to 10%, you're screwed. You lose your margin of safety and your returns evaporate. But if you get 20-30% long-term IRRs on your acquisitions, even if capital markets go through a rough patch and debt goes up to 10%-15%, you are still making very decent returns. It still makes sense to buy even with a higher cost of debt. The long-term part is especially important, because if you can keep growing your acquisitions, chances are that you can refinance your debt at better rates a few years down the line when capital is flowing more freely, so you can dump a lot of the carrying cost but you keep the good businesses.

http://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-creates-a-grade-school-2015-5

Onboard view from the recent pad abort test. 0 to 100 MPH in 1.2 seconds.

Have you guys read Iain M. Banks' early sci-fi stuff? I remember enjoying them quite a bit. Some highlights: Consider Phlebas Player of Games Use of Weapons

why not look at the sales of samsung watches? I don't think they're useful.

Most people who are interested haven't even had a chance to see the Watch in person and it has been backordered since 8 minutes after it launched in the middle of the night... Trying to proxy-gauge demand for a new product category that isn't available doesn't tell us much IMO.

I'm not Scott, but here are a few tips: if you're having trouble with something like this, I would recommend training up to it; start with something small, and build up your confidence with small successes. Say 'no' to a small thing first, or reclaim some easier part of your life, then move on to what really gives you trouble. Also, make sure you explain some of your reasoning to people, they can be understanding when things don't seem to come out of nowhere. Also, just for your general well being, learn to stop caring too much about what other people think ( http://waitbutwhy.com/2014/06/taming-mammoth-let-peoples-opinions-run-life.html ). Hope that helps :)

http://news.investors.com/business-industry-snapshot/051515-752854-aerospace-climbs-into-a-supercycle.htm?p=full And what comes at the end of supercycle? ;) All those planes keep flying for decades and require parts. TDG doesn't make its money on OEMs anyway. Unless you don't think the Chinese and Indians and Brazilians and Indonesians, etc, have as much a desire to fly as everyone else, I don't think RPMs are going down any time soon.

Thanks. I used to read a lot of fiction, but now I pretty much only read non-fiction. I need to free up more time to be able to do both :)

As I am sure you know, that only makes my viewpoint stronger because as the shareholder of Allergan Ackman would have benefited from Valeant issuing "too much" of their undervalued stock in that case. That's what I was saying. Ackman preferred equity to the cash because he knew it was a good value, and Pearson knew the same so he didn't want to issue anymore than he had to.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-05-20/altice-s-emergence-alters-cable-consolidation-equation-real-m-a

I've only read Cryptonomicon, but liked it quite a bit. Which would you recommend next?