Liberty

Iconoclastic and opiniated, but brilliant prof Sodoway from MIT talking about the grid-scale liquid metal batteries he's developing. I had heard him on them a few years ago, it was interesting to get an update. Talks about how Bill Gates was the first investor in his startup. I think some of you might enjoy it:

Scuttleblurb's writeup on Heico is up (subscription required): https://www.scuttleblurb.com/hei/

Ben Thompson free post today on Apple: https://stratechery.com/2019/the-iphone-and-apples-services-strategy/

One more at TSS, this time in France: https://www.totalspecificsolutions.com/about-us/transaction-updates?tid=48 h/t @pearnick

Another podcast that Sinclair just did yesterday, less technical than the ones linked above: http://podcasts.joerogan.net/podcasts/david-sinclair-2

ETG acquisition: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/heico-corporation-subsdiary-acquires-ttt-123000435.html

Might be because of the rotation going on right now. Anything that has done well in the past year (factor: momentum) is down and most of the things that have done badly (factor: value) are up today.

https://www.amazon.ca/Lifespan-Why-Age-Dont-Have-ebook/dp/B07N4C6LGR/ New book coming out tomorrow. Good interviews with the author here: https://peterattiamd.com/davidsinclair2/ (most recent one, a lot about the book) https://peterattiamd.com/davidsinclair/ (from last year)

Another one at Harris too: https://www.harriscomputer.com/en/news/?data-ipsquote-timestamp=1567742400&article=harris-school-solutions-acquires-castle-learning Also one at Jonas: https://www.jonassoftware.com/About_Us/Latest_News/Jonas_Software_Announces_Acquisition_of_Uniware One at Vela too: https://www.fogsoftwaregroup.com/fog-acquires-volo-commerce/ h/t @pearnick

Volaris acquisition in Australia: https://www.volarisgroup.com/news/article/expanding-risk-and-compliance-offerings-acquisition-of-holocentric h/t @pearnick

I've been really enjoying this new podcast that I discovered. So far I've only heard three episodes, but I quite like them. It's very multidisciplinary in nature, talking about all kinds of interesting stuff (only sometimes about anything related to finance, so don't go in hoping for that): https://www.jimruttshow.com/ The episodes that I've heard are those with Robin Hanson, Simon Dedeo, and David Krakauer.

Not all but frankly for now I see a better upside with Ivrnet (Ivi.v, $ 0.02) turnaround. I own a large position. Did you ? You own a large position in a 1m market cap company. So basically, how many seats on the boards do you have? :D

Read Buffett on buybacks. He explains them well, how they can create value, destroy value.

Congrats to owners of this one!

If speculation is what you're after, the odds might be better going to an actual casino, though. People were calling this one dirt cheap all the way down.

That's some bagholder gold there. The company is down like 99% in less than 10 years. 86% just in the past year. It's not just about letting time pass. There has to be value creation for the market to recognize it, and the equity has to benefit from it, if there's something left after debt service. Some companies are just plain bad and destroy value. Some industries are inherently speculative because their main drivers are things that are entirely outside of management's control (when you are heavily levered to commodity prices). And if you have to wait 10 years, you have to look at your opportunity cost. If the SP500 was up 400% in those ten years, that adds up too. Some people do make money trading these lottery tickets. They happen to buy at some local bottom and it pops and they sell and they're getting out of the casino with more money. Lucky. But it's hard to imagine how any long-term investor is making money with this, because anyone who's been holding for any period would need multi-baggers to get back to even, and then probably one more bagger to catch up to opportunity cost, and then probably a few more baggers on top of that to make it worth the risk taken in the first place. It could happen, but that's a dangerous game that seem heavily stacked against you.

FTV splitting into two: https://investors.fortive.com/press-release/corporate-news/fortive-announces-intention-separate-two-independent-publicly-traded

Sorry if this has been posted before, but I hadn't seen it. Paul Tudor Jones interviewing Stanley Druckenmiller (in 2017): https://vimeo.com/351446016

Unless what's irrational is the optimism, in which case the house might look like this:

Buffett interview:

I'm sorry, I don't remember the context of what he's referring to right now. I doubt he meant that he thinks newspapers are a good space, it's probably something else or a joke, IMO. Maybe it'll come back to me, or someone else remembers.

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/08/29/disney-sells-its-stake-in-yes-network-to-investor-group-that-includes-amazon.html

Looks like a distressed asset acquisition in France by Harris: https://www.cegedim.com/Communique/Cegedim_Pulse_Disposal_20190828_ENG.pdf "According to Cegedim's website, Pulse Systems consists of 6 healthcare software products." H/t @pearnick

https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190827005774/en/HEICO-Corporation-Reports-Record-Operating-Income-Net

https://www.vox.com/recode/2019/5/3/18511544/amazon-prime-oral-history-jeff-bezos-one-day-shipping