Trail-sniffing independent information providers with excellent business models, looking horizontally for opportunities. Some of these companies (Gartner, FactSet Research, ComScore, etc.) look like acquisition targets.
Reading the book Empires of the Word – A Language History of the World, by Nicholas Ostler, is a great reminder that learning languages is a relevant part of the process that Charlie Munger defines as “make sure you go to bed at night a little wiser than you were when you woke up”.
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Booz Allen is offering words of caution on crowdsourcing. It is a new thing, therefore relatively untested, and it certainly has its optimal applications and its limits – which probably haven’t been found yet. It’s just another tool available and should be subject to the same rigorous analysis before the company starts using it.
In this April 2002 classic, the investor education site Motley Fool pokes fun at the daily ramblings about why the market has behaved the way it has. People need to make sense of market activity and embrace the nuttiest explanations, so the joke almost rings true.
Continue reading about The market tells us the market’s down
They took questions from Columbia grad students and the event was broadcast live by CNBC. It has an eerie feel to it – with the whole “must keep spirits high” approach. That said, both men think in the long term (15+ years) and it’s always interesting to be reminded of some basic concepts.
Continue reading about Buffett and Gates at Columbia University
Motivated by the recent LBO of IMS Health by TPG (the private equity group) and Canada Pension Plan, here’s an excerpt from our Q3 2009 report in which we discussed the company. We had been looking at it at least since 2007, when we started to look at the healthcare industry globally. Right after our text we link to other interesting articles on the deal.
Part 2 of the excerpts from our Q4 2008 report. In Part 1, we introduced and exemplified the theme of the structural fragility of incentive systems via two texts, “Own Goal” and “Dolus Bonus”. In this text, we present the core of our reflection on the subject in order to highlight the importance of raising our moral critical standards.
Continue reading about IP report excerpts, vol. 4: Moral diligence (part 2)
Post 1 of 2 posts with excerpts from one of our most-commented reports. We look back at a highly unusual year – a period of seemingly definitive change which proved, definitively, that some things never change. 2008 was one of those years that tested our mettle and reaffirmed old principles, the most cherished of which is our moral diligence. We kick off with two introductory texts, “Own Goal” and “Dolus Bonus”.
Continue reading about IP report excerpts, vol. 4: Moral diligence (part 1)