Money and Finance
From There's Always Something to Do:
- Seth Klarman Ebitda Example
From Margin of Safety:EBITDA Analysis Obscures the Difference between Good and Bad BusinessesEBITDA, in addition to being a flawed measure of cash flow, also masks the relative importance of the several components of corporate cash flow. Pretax earnings...
- Miguel Barbosa Reviews “there’s Always Something To Do”
Via Simoleon Sense:I haven’t reviewed a book in a while but this book deserves a mention (make that two). I’m talking about, “There’s Always Something To Do - The Peter Cundill Investment Approach”. I received the book last week and finished...
- So, What's Berkshire Worth Anyway?
It seems to be pretty clear to most value investors that Berkshire Hathaway is a bargain. But, how big of a bargain is it and how much can we expect to make over the next few years by purchasing a stake in Warren Buffett's masterpiece today? I view...
- Dividend Detective Work And The Verizon/vodafone Deal
The biggest deal story of 2013 is Verizon (VZ) buying the remaining 45% of Verizon Wireless that it did not own from Vodafone (VOD). The specifics of the deal are interesting and include Verizon paying a mix of cash and its own shares. Vodafone is passing...
- Recent Buy - Verizon Communications (vz)
Hi Everyone, A new year has begun and what better way to get things started then to buy a dividend stock! I've been looking to add higher yield to the portfolio recently and I also wanted to top off my Verizon stake. As the saying goes,...
Money and Finance
Peter Cundill on the worst investment he ever made
From There's Always Something to Do:
The worst investment we have ever had was Cable & Wireless, which had built up a large cash pile through the sale of telephone companies in Hong Kong and Australia and their mobile telephone business in the UK. They were well negotiated, judicious sales. What they had left was a stand-alone operation in the Caribbean, which still exists, and they were in the fibre optic business that was blowing cash. So we said, look they’ve got cash, they’ve got a valuable, viable business and let’s assume the fibre optic business is worth zero – it wasn’t, it was worth less than zero, much, much less! Their accounting was flawed to say the least and they became obsessed by a technological dream. In this respect it was reminiscent of Nortel and that should have caused me to think twice.
I talked to John Templeton about it afterwards and he took a worse hit than us. He said “this is why we diversify, if you are right 60% of the time and wrong 40% you’re always going to be a hero, if you are right 40% of the time and wrong 60% you will be a bum.” I think he probably put it more elegantly than that! But there’s one more thing. We had put a huge amount of time and energy into that one and we were willing it to save itself and, on the face of it, it could have. What we needed was a dissenter in the team – a contrarian among contrarians, a lateral thinker watching out for the left field. On that occasion there wasn’t one. So my thought is, if there’s no natural sceptic on an investment maybe it would be wise to appoint one of the team to play Devil’s Advocate anyway.
- Seth Klarman Ebitda Example
From Margin of Safety:EBITDA Analysis Obscures the Difference between Good and Bad BusinessesEBITDA, in addition to being a flawed measure of cash flow, also masks the relative importance of the several components of corporate cash flow. Pretax earnings...
- Miguel Barbosa Reviews “there’s Always Something To Do”
Via Simoleon Sense:I haven’t reviewed a book in a while but this book deserves a mention (make that two). I’m talking about, “There’s Always Something To Do - The Peter Cundill Investment Approach”. I received the book last week and finished...
- So, What's Berkshire Worth Anyway?
It seems to be pretty clear to most value investors that Berkshire Hathaway is a bargain. But, how big of a bargain is it and how much can we expect to make over the next few years by purchasing a stake in Warren Buffett's masterpiece today? I view...
- Dividend Detective Work And The Verizon/vodafone Deal
The biggest deal story of 2013 is Verizon (VZ) buying the remaining 45% of Verizon Wireless that it did not own from Vodafone (VOD). The specifics of the deal are interesting and include Verizon paying a mix of cash and its own shares. Vodafone is passing...
- Recent Buy - Verizon Communications (vz)
Hi Everyone, A new year has begun and what better way to get things started then to buy a dividend stock! I've been looking to add higher yield to the portfolio recently and I also wanted to top off my Verizon stake. As the saying goes,...