Liberty

Munger: 'I think the reason why we got into such idiocy in investment management is best illustrated by a story that I tell about the guy who sold fishing tackle. I asked him, “My God, they’re purple and green. Do fish really take these lures?” And he said, “Mister, I don’t sell to fish.”' z/h is just looking for readers...

And if you go back hundreds of years it goes up most of the time too. How embarrassing. ::)

http://www.transdigm.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=196053&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1989275 There's also been some new about the COO: http://www.transdigm.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=196053&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1976928 http://www.transdigm.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=196053&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1976929

Some news from LYV for a change: http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-et-ct-live-nation-vice-media-joint-venture-music-themed-platform-20141111-story.html

Moynihan: http://www.veracast.com/webcasts/baml/banking2014/id02101110345.cfm

Good idea: http://www.cornerofberkshireandfairfax.ca/forum/investment-ideas/lbrda-liberty-broadband/

This is officially a thread spin-off from the LMCA discussion thread. Should be less confusing to have all the Broadband-related stuff in the same place.

I know that. I meant that in general terms, the commodity bulls always find a reason why price of their favorite thing has to go a certain way, but reality often finds ways of making it go otherwise. Obviously the specific dynamics will be different for oil and gold and potash and natural gas and nickel and copper and uranium and wheat and pork bellies and gravel...

Didn't they say the same thing about gold?

Apple further differentiating itself with more custom silicon: http://www.anandtech.com/show/8716/apple-a8xs-gpu-gxa6850-even-better-than-i-thought

Thanks Scott. Will have to look deeper. Superficially, the land/royalty business makes me think of a smaller Texas Pacific Land Trust (TPL).

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-11-12/actavis-said-in-talks-to-acquire-allergan-for-over-60-billion.html

http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1462418/000110465914079323/a14-24266_1ex99d1.htm

http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/850693/000119312514407765/d820355d8k.htm

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2014/11/11/the-fcc-weighs-breaking-with-obama-over-the-future-of-the-internet/

I think Ackman's goal is to have ZTS be acquired by VRX. Based on everything that Ackman has been saying about Valeant, he clearly thinks Pearson is a special CEO (all the Outsiders references) and that while the Valeant model isn't complex, it's very hard to execute well. Chances of ZTS reforming itself are a lot lower than having the guys who've shown they can do it take over. ZTS SGA is low 30s, VRX is low 20s. ZTS tax is almost 30%, VRX has cash tax of mid single digit. So if VRX could just bring SGA and tax down, rationalize R&D, and then in the longer term maybe use ZTS as a platform to buy mode animal health assets, this seems like a lot more potential value creation than having ZTS on its own with unproven management. IMO Pearson is Ackman's Tom Murphy. Ackman's going to try to feed him as many assets as possible and facilitate his deals.

+2

Hmm, here's a thought: Ackman's ZTS stake increases VRX stock price, which makes AGN deal more likely. Two birds with one stone..

Indeed. I wonder if maybe the plan is to build a new platform (ie. they have eye health, dermatology..). Gotta start somewhere. Once they have Zoetis, they could buy more animal health assets and then get more of those kinds of synergies?

Slide from april 22nd, when Ackman briefly mentioned liking the business after explaining how it was one of the few businesses with as many durable assets as a AGN-VRX combination would have: http://i.imgur.com/9O7mZrH.jpg

When Ackman and Valeant first announced the Allergan deal, Ackman mentioned in the Q&A that "they were already working on the next one", and during the presentation, they mentioned Zoetis as a company they liked (but in another context). Well, looks like it might be the next one: http://online.wsj.com/articles/ackman-takes-stake-in-animal-health-company-zoetis-1415738359 Now I have to go back to the original presentation to refresh my memory and see what they said about Zoetis exactly...

Same for me, but as long as he likes it, I guess he can spend his money however he wants... And now that it's been sold for that much, the signal has been sent to other collectors that it's worth at least that, so Cohen could probably sell it again and not lose money (as long as he's timing the art cycle a bit and doesn't offload it at the bottom)...

34-minute interview with Tim Cook: http://m.wsj.com/articles/tim-cook-on-apple-watch-payments-and-getting-tv-right-full-video-1415660136?mobile=y

Wheeler: http://www.fcc.gov/document/chairman-wheelers-stmt-president-obamas-stmt-open-internet

http://9to5mac.com/2014/11/10/iphone-6-6-plus-increase-ios-enterprise-share-at-the-expense-of-android/ iOS doing well in the enterprise. IBM salesforce and apps+cloud can only help over time.