Liberty

He's not old enough to do damage yet. My sister has an older kid and has a really great heavy-duty iPad case that is kind of rubberized and seems to absorb shocks really well. I'll probably get one of those eventually. Don't know what it's called, though.

http://ir.valeant.com/files/doc_presentations/2014/2Q14%20Presentation%20Draft%20Final2.pdf

"Ever since the crisis, financial entertainment seems to have shifted from hot stock picks to big macro theories." “Generals always fight the last war”

Have you seen Tangled? To me that was a return to form for Disney (though that was after they bought Pixar, so Ed Catmull certainly helped them refocus). I stopped watching Frozen after they started singing, though...

Welcome back, Dazel. I knew you couldn't stay away! Hope you had a good forum vacation :)

Thanks for that. Around 13 minutes in, that banker who advises/represents Herbalife is asked how much due dilligence he did before signing up to defend the company after Ackman called it a pyramid scheme, and he literally says that it's not about doing due dilligence, that he knows the people, the CEO is a personal friend, so when they called up he said yes. Wow. That guy is going to end up in so much trouble some day...

Aluminium ;)

There are apps for that: http://www.avatron.com/applications/air-display/ http://getidisplay.com/

I totally agree. But it still feels weird to call him Mr. Malone for some reason :-\ Maybe I read somewhere (Cable Cowboys?) that his disciples call him Dr. Malone and that somehow stuck in my subconscious..

Could be. My guess is that after the split, they'll try to merge QVC with HSN, further increasing profitability through scale and best practices, and the ecommerce businesses will get a much higher valuation as fast-growing standalones that aren't in the shadow of the QVC giant. The longer they wait for that, the more undervalued stock they can buy back in the meantime, so any delays are fine with me.

http://online.wsj.com/articles/next-step-for-liberty-global-content-1406667563 Short interview with Malone and Fries in the WSJ. Gotta love Malone: Wonder if I'm the only one who finds it strange to read "Mr. Malone" when he's a doctor..? Oh well, who cares about titles.

The thing is, they talk a lot about Bodybuilding.com, but they mostly hide CommerceHub. In all their investor days (where they have the CEOs of a zillion companies make presentations, except CommerceHub), and presentations and conference calls, on the website, etc... I almost can't find any details on CommerceHub. I think they're keeping it in stealth mode, and when it finally comes out, the market will be surprised. That's one way to see it, anyway...

Now I can't tell if you're playing it straight ;) I was kidding about Enron. Just riffing on your Arthur Andersen reference.

I've found it very hard to know what's going on with the ecommerce businesses, and I think that's how Malone wants to keep it for now. I wouldn't extrapolate the price of this deal to the whole group -- chances are, this was one of the weakest companies and they thought it would do better with more scale managed by someone else. The one I'm most interested about is CommerceHub. I think it could eventually be huge (it's more platform-like than the other businesses).

I just had a 'duh' moment. Of course it must be localized for the US, since tax and advantaged retirement vehicles and various other laws are different in the US... Otherwise you'd have been reading about RRSP and provincial tax. Does you version recommend buying Enron shares?

I believe Wealthy Barber was also a big hit in the States. I recall reading actually a couple editions of it in the 90's at some point. That was a pretty good book for what it is. I remember the story around which Chilton weaves the investment advice was well done. I always remembered the first part of the book when the main character talks about how great spring is because school is almost over (I believe he was a teacher) and one had the Tigers, Pistons and Red Wings on tv all at the same time (he's supposed to be in Detroit). Interesting. Looks like they made a version localized for the U.S., because Wikipedia says the story is set in Sarnia, Ontario: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wealthy_Barber Wikipedia also says: "The basis of the book is Roy's advice to "save 10 per cent of all that you earn and invest it for long-term growth." In that, it draws from the advice first set forth in The Richest Man in Babylon. "

Caprivenky, if I were you, I'd avoid the extra friction and uncertainty and find a way to invest directly. Who knows where this motif thing will be in 5 years? It might not even exist anymore. And I wouldn't worry about round lots; when I was starting out I used to buy all kinds of odd numbers of shares, especially for companies that have high stock prices, and never had any problem. If it hits your limit price and fills, who cares if you're buying 7 shares? A round lot of MKL would be close to $65,000, so waiting to get that at 500/month isn't exactly practical...

What's your starting point? Google Finance shows the SP500 up 78.9% over the past 10 years while BRK.B is up 116.60% and MKL is up 137.3%. FFH is up 132.42%, so MKL is up more. I also think that valuation for those 3 went down (price/book) in the past ten years (though that's from memory, so I could be wrong), so IV might have gone up faster than the stock price.

Looks like your question was just a bit early. Today's news: http://files.shareholder.com/downloads/AMDA-GY7JI/3361082641x0x772150/34a58c97-4587-49b6-b19a-44b88cb409a2/LINTA_News_2014_7_30_General_Releases.pdf This is what they're talking about (on the LVNTA side): http://files.shareholder.com/downloads/AMDA-GY7JI/3361082641x0x772133/0338d1d5-ec21-410b-ae7c-e81355b7405b/LINTA_News_2014_7_30_General_Releases.pdf

I've read about a third of it last night and realized that it's the inspiration for A Wealthy Barber by David Chilton, a best-seller in Canada that basically has the same premise (couple people go ask their barber how he became wealthy, and he talks about paying yourself first and making your money work for you and multiply). My father made me read that book when I was a teenager, and I think it had a pretty big impact on me. I guess I can indirectly thank Richest Man in Babylon.

This is based on my limited experience using other people's Android devices and from reading about other people's experience. I'm sure some people love it, I was just describing my preference. Soft buttons are a really bad idea, IMO, I much prefer tactile feedback so you can feel where the buttons are and feel when they are pressed.

Trivia: I picked it before I had ever heard of John Malone or his companies. Good coincidence, because now I own shares of 3.

Last I checked they haven't said exactly when yet, but it should be before the end of the year.

So who here is still short Twitter? Does today change your thesis? Days like today remind me why I don't have the stomach to short, especially not fast-changing companies based primarily on valuation...

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-07-29/ford-plans-iphones-for-global-employees-job-posting-says.html Guess we'll see a lot more of those types of news over the next few years...