Now that the U.S. Healthcare bill has passed and just been signed into law, it’s interesting to notice the amount of noise generated in the past two days. Newspaper and sell-side reports are booming with articles and so-called analysis of what this means to investors, but right now it’s probably better to “do something by doing nothing”.
OK, funny things first: Buffett playing Axl Rose is awesome. Less impressive is him playing a hip-hop artist, but it’s alright (both videos embedded inside). Viral videos can be a smart marketing tool, and these work. Back to seriousness: Business Week had a cover article by Alice “Snowball” Schroeder interviewing CEOs who have had Buffett in their boards. Interesting read.
We’ve discussed crowdsourcing and Netflix more than once. That it works for some uses better than for others is pretty clear… But Netflix has apparently messed up the database used in the original contest and that allowed some contestants to identify the actual people behind the movie choices, despite the promise of privacy. Needless to say, the FCC wasn’t too happy about it – and Netflix had to cancel its “Contest 2.0″, at least for now. Doesn’t mean that the tool doesn’t work, it just means that you have to be careful using it.
David Pogue’s presentation at TED in 2006 was pretty funny and carried an important message for designers: simplicity sells. The iPhone wasn’t even out, but the trend is clearer than ever. The talk starts slowly but quickly builds momentum. As we always stress: view it critically, play with the idea, try to contradict it or apply it in some other field(s).
A rare but always welcome interview by Charlie Munger embedded inside, courtesy of an attentive reader and the Stanford Law School. Some highlights inside as well. The main theme is the economic/ financial crisis (what else?).
God has spoken, go out and read it. The core is dedicated to welcoming and explaining BRK to its new shareholders acquired through BNSF, so no big news. Buffett complains more about the media and investments analysts, on how they distort things, causing losses to the less diligent and recommends that everybody form their own knowledge base and opinion. Hope he lives to see that happening, but we sincerely doubt it.
The first comic book to ever feature the Super-Man character, Action Comics #1 dated June 1938, was just sold for $1 million. Considering its original price of $0.10, this is an approx. 25% nominal and 21% real IRR for the past 72 years. Eat you heart out, Warren Buffett. Bonus links inside.
Judging by the recent troubles in Belgium and the article at Valor (in portuguese), the love-hate relationship with InBev in Belgium has gone to hell. And there’s the “socialism vs. capitalism” conflict in Europe again. If it weren’t for the image deterioration risk – and it seems that they’re handling it by going as far as they can, but no further – the union representative’s words would be music to shareholders’ ears.
Buffett was particularly expansive regarding his processes and methods, and this alone makes this video worth the time (some 90 minutes). The fact that it was October 1998, a pivotal time in the dot-com boom and just after the LTCM imbroglio makes it even more interesting.
Kraft’s all-out effort to acquire Cadbury involved a “side deal” in which Nestlé bought Kraft’s frozen pizza division. One company had cash on hand and served as “white knight”, the other had a pressing need and none other than Warren Buffett applying pressure. We think it’s safe to assume that Nestlé got a sweet deal…
Read more about Nestlé benefits from Kraft’s resolve to buy Cadbury