Netflix, Starz contract talks fail
http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2011/09/01/netflix-starz-contract-talks-fails.html?s=print
Netflix Inc. and Starz Entertainment have failed to reach an agreement in their contract talks, Starz announced Thursday afternoon, and users will no longer have access to streaming Starz movies starting in March.
“This decision is a result of
It is rare to hear the Chairman of the Board of a public company publicly trash government bureaucrats, especially one from a car part manufacturing company, which is heavily dependent on government regulatory approvals. But, here is Frank Stonach, Chairman of Magna, an innovative (and inexpensive) Canadian company with sales to every major and minor auto manufacturer on every continent (from the Chairman’s Letter in the 2010 MGA annual report):… Continue reading
Two recent Wall Street Journal pieces highlight our current poor economy. The first recognizes that entrepreneurship is on the decline.
![[THEBIZ]](http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/MK-BO265A_THEBI_NS_20110811211803.jpg)
By JOHN BUSSEY
Imagine a small airstrip where single-seat
Economic freedom leads to trade and specialization. Millions of free people pursuing wealth–among other things–develop products and ideas that benefit all of mankind. The mere possibility of a cure for cancers makes me immeasurably wealthier today than I was yesterday even though I do not currently have cancer. I may get it, or someone dear to me may get it, at some point in my lifetime, so this news… Continue reading
If nothing else, Michael Lewis is always entertaining. After briefly describing the German peoples’ long fascination with “scheisse”–more specifically the love of being near it without getting dirtied by it–Lewis tells us that character also extends to German banking:
I had gone to see Germany’s deputy minister of finance, a 44-year-old career government official named Jörg Asmussen. The Germans are now in possession of the only Finance… Continue reading
I read the following in Howard Marks’s latest book (p. 138):
“Since the investors of the ‘I Know’ school, described in chapter 14, feel it’s possible to know the future, they decide what it will look like, build portfolios designed to maximize returns under that one scenario, and largely disregard the other
Growing up, I had a bit of an eclectic taste in music. My taste included everything from the Brits–Beatles, Stones, and especially the Who (I would listen to Quadrophenia at least once per day)–to early David Bowie, Talking Heads, U2, and even Devo. I distinctly remember suddenly realizing one day in the 1980s that a lot of the rock music that I loved was produce by Brian Eno. In fact… Continue reading
As readers of this blog know, I believe the regulatory burden imposed by federal and state governments is largely to blame for the stagnation in the US and elsewhere. That burden includes the large amount of things government spends taxpayer money on–such as health care and retirement benefits–that could easily be provided by the private sector if it were given a chance. The term that classical economists apply to such… Continue reading
We doubt that missing revenue forecasts by less than 1% is legitimate reason for hammering a stock, especially when its earnings beat by a fair amount. No, it looks more like the morning after an NFLX investor party. At the height of the party, it seemed as if the good times would go on forever, but now the alcohol has been metabolized and NFLX investors are figuring out how to… Continue reading
Prem Watsa is Chairman of Fairfax Financial, a Canadian P&C firm in the mold of Berkshire Hathaway. Prem is sometimes called Canada’s Warren Buffett. We held a profitable position in Fairfax for a while, but no longer hold any interest in the firm.
Like Klarman, Prem focuses on managing the downside and lets his value-investing philosophy and process take care of the upside. Prem had opened… Continue reading
