Money and Finance
- Links
Larry Page Talks Alphabet, Warren Buffett and Project Loon at Fortune Global Forum 2015 (video) [H/T Linc] (LINK) Howard Buffett Is Getting His Hands Dirty [H/T Linc] (LINK) Related book: 40 ChancesThe Light-Beam Rider - by Walter Isaacson (LINK) Related...
- Excerpts From Howard Marks At The 2013 Goldman Sachs Financial Services Conference
Via ValueWalk: First, I would like to commend you for asking about tapering without asking when it is going to happen, because this is a question I get most often and the question I think has the least relevance. If you thought it was going to rain tomorrow,...
- Focus Media - My New Obsession – By John Hempton
The announced "go-private" transaction for Focus Media has me obsessed. It seems to cover a whole gamut of my interests, Asian private equity, alleged Chinese fraud, connections with major property developers and numbers and accounts I find surprising....
- Colm O’shea Quote (why He Bought Cds Instead Of Equity Puts Leading Up To Crisis)
From the book Hedge Fund Market Wizards: “The advantage of CDS was that it was a cheaper way of doing the trade. One problem with buying equity puts is that equity volatility tends to be very expensive. Who is the natural seller of equity puts? No one....
- Pensions Find Riskier Funds Fail To Pay Off
Thanks to Phil for passing this along. Searching for higher returns to bridge looming shortfalls,public workers’ pension funds across the country are increasingly turning toriskier investments in private equity, real estate and hedge funds. But while...
Money and Finance
Bill Ackman on hiring...
An interesting answer from his interview with Graham & Doddsville:
G&D: You mentioned some of the larger private equity firms as being places where you look for talent. Do you have a preference for people who have looked at businesses on the private side?
BA: This year we've made two investments – Allergan at beginning of the year and Zoetis at the end of year. That's a very different pace of investment when compared with your typical long-only hedge fund or mutual fund firm. We have to find people who are comfortable spending a lot of time researching and analyzing, looking for the one thing out of many that's going to be interesting.
At many hedge funds, people are idea junkies. It's the idea of the week. That's why private equity tends to be a better background for us. A private equity investor might spend a whole year working on a deal and if they are not the high bidder, they don't get it. Whereas here, you might spend a lot of time working on something, but if we want to make the investment, we can. We have to pay the market price, but we don't have to be the high bidder per se.
For a person with a private equity background, it's a very easy transition. We've never really hired anyone from a hedge fund. Effectively, our approach is private equity without buying control.
- Links
Larry Page Talks Alphabet, Warren Buffett and Project Loon at Fortune Global Forum 2015 (video) [H/T Linc] (LINK) Howard Buffett Is Getting His Hands Dirty [H/T Linc] (LINK) Related book: 40 ChancesThe Light-Beam Rider - by Walter Isaacson (LINK) Related...
- Excerpts From Howard Marks At The 2013 Goldman Sachs Financial Services Conference
Via ValueWalk: First, I would like to commend you for asking about tapering without asking when it is going to happen, because this is a question I get most often and the question I think has the least relevance. If you thought it was going to rain tomorrow,...
- Focus Media - My New Obsession – By John Hempton
The announced "go-private" transaction for Focus Media has me obsessed. It seems to cover a whole gamut of my interests, Asian private equity, alleged Chinese fraud, connections with major property developers and numbers and accounts I find surprising....
- Colm O’shea Quote (why He Bought Cds Instead Of Equity Puts Leading Up To Crisis)
From the book Hedge Fund Market Wizards: “The advantage of CDS was that it was a cheaper way of doing the trade. One problem with buying equity puts is that equity volatility tends to be very expensive. Who is the natural seller of equity puts? No one....
- Pensions Find Riskier Funds Fail To Pay Off
Thanks to Phil for passing this along. Searching for higher returns to bridge looming shortfalls,public workers’ pension funds across the country are increasingly turning toriskier investments in private equity, real estate and hedge funds. But while...