Liberty

Good read: http://www.philosophicaleconomics.com/2015/05/profit-margins-in-a-winner-take-all-economy/ Looking at just aggregate profit margin hides the truth.

http://www.transdigm.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=196053&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=2043926 W. Nicholas Howley, TransDigm Group's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, stated, "This has been a busy 60 days for our team. We closed two acquisitions for about $800 million in purchase price in the calendar month of March and announced the execution of a contract for a third deal last week for approximately another $500 million of purchase price. All three of these businesses are primarily commercial transport focused with significant proprietary and aftermarket content. All three acquisitions fit well with our consistent strategy and should yield private equity-like returns for our shareholders."

Or they'll stay cheap all the way to the next financial crisis ;)

http://boards.fool.com/markels-silver-year-31739090.aspx Notes from the Markel dinner.

Also would love to be able to buy a print of the poster online.

You're welcome. Another one: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-05-03/stay-tuned-for-cable-mergers-as-ceos-convene-this-week-real-m-a

http://www.wsj.com/articles/charter-expresses-interest-in-friendly-deal-talks-with-time-warner-1430678237

Here's Musk's presentation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVjW9XdPlhg

I might just get this for backup... We were thinking about backup generator for storms, but this seems to be much simpler solution. Might not last as long as a generator, but won't need upkeep, bigger natgas line, etc. Anyone sees any drawbacks with this for a backup use (in New England area if that matters)? I'm in New England as well, southern NH. I'm thinking about the last 4 or 5 years and we've lost power at my house for over 24 hours a number of times (the last one being Thanksgiving day) and for over a week once. I think a generator is still the only viable option. This battery solution would work great when you loose power for a couple of hours, but you would still need a generator for the longer term outages. Unless you plan to run an electric clothes dryer for a long time or have electric heat, the 10kwh model should last for quite a bit longer than a "coupe hours ".

Live Nation release Q1. Haven't had a chance to dig in yet, but Mr. Market seems to like it (up 7.5%).

Are you getting one (or more) for your house Eric? Sounds like a no-brainer in California, with such a big difference between the day and night rates. Yes I will be doing this. Not just the big difference in rates, but also the sky-high tax rates. Anything I save on my electric bill is tax-free imputed income. I believe if I spend $9,000 to get 3 of the 7 kWh daily cycle batteries, my bill will go down by $200 a month. I was just inspecting my electric bill a few minutes ago and figured this out. $200 a month is $3,600 a year at 33% capital gain/dividend tax rates. $3,600 a year is 40% pre-tax yield on invested dollar. That's risk-free yield of course -- not like the stock market! Invested capital is recovered (after-tax) in 3.75 years. And if you borrow that $9k at 1.5% with your IB margin, your ROE will be insane ;)

Are you getting one (or more) for your house Eric? Sounds like a no-brainer in California, with such a big difference between the day and night rates.

Yeah, how much sense these things make depends a lot on where you live. But eventually, they'll all be so cheap that they'll be worth getting almost everywhere anyway :)

http://ir.charter.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=112298&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=2042901

I might just get this for backup... We were thinking about backup generator for storms, but this seems to be much simpler solution. Might not last as long as a generator, but won't need upkeep, bigger natgas line, etc. Anyone sees any drawbacks with this for a backup use (in New England area if that matters)? Do you live somewhere that has time-of-use electricity pricing? If so, this is much better than a generator, because it can charge up at night when power is cheap and run your house during peak time when energy is expensive, paying for itself over time.

http://www.teslamotors.com/powerwall

Close? Not that I've found.

http://www.transdigm.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=196053&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=2042797 New acquisition, $496m (with some tax assets).

Frommi, it looks like you were right; timing is something you do well. Happy for you that you stopped shorting VRX right before it went up almost 10%.

I think Ackman is just trying to make it look better for those who bought at IPO, so that next time he wants to raise capital investors won't be reticent. He event mentioned something close to that on an interview that he did with the BBC (iirc) not to long after IPO.

TWC Q1 is out: http://ir.timewarnercable.com/investor-relations/investor-news/financial-release-details/2015/Time-Warner-Cable-Reports-2015-First-Quarter-Results/default.aspx Tomorrow CHTR. These results will probably have an impact on what kind of price CHTR gets for TWC if there's a deal.

It's good to see Bloomberg doing this. The media so rarely calls out the forecasters. Everybody usually has a goldfish memory.

Mr. Schiller stated, "My time at Valeant has been incredible, and I am very proud of all that we have accomplished together. Although I am leaving to pursue new opportunities most likely in areas outside of a publicly-traded company, I look forward to working closely with Mike and the rest of the management team to ensure a seamless transition of my CFO responsibilities and to continuing to serve on the Board of a company with enormous potential to deliver even more long-term value for shareholders." http://ir.valeant.com/investor-relations/news-releases/news-release-details/2015/Valeant-Announces-CFO-Succession-Plan-And-Additional-Executive-Appointment/default.aspx Ya, I guess they did provide what he was thinking of doing. I would like to know why though - maybe the Allergan fight last year with all the public company pressures and financial disclosures burnt him out? We'll probably never know, but it's a tough job. So many divisions all around the world, so many aquisitions, so much international travel, constantly making plans for restructuring and integrating. and then all of the media circus in the last year. This isn't a steady-state company where you can get used to a comfortable routine. I wouldn't be surprised if he was working almost a hundred hours a week. Maybe he just wanted to spend more time with his family and his kids, and spend some of his hard earned money. It's certainly not a job that I could do...

China mobile is such a monster : http://www.aboveavalon.com/notes/2015/4/28/china-mobile-is-a-game-changer-for-apple

http://www.cnbc.com/id/102573756 Charter, Time Warner Cable CEOs to meet next week to talk deal