You can love me or leave me; but baby believe me when I say, you'll regret it either way.
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Good Sunday Z :)
He can't reply until:
03/06/2011 03:21:57 PM
Immunity prevents arrest of Arizona lawmaker after freeway fight
http://edition.cnn.com/2011/CRIME/02/27/arizona.senator.incident/
What's your twitter alias ?
Just saw that myself
Love twitter stewie
you may want to wait as the ipad 2 is going to be released soon!
you sound like the man with the plan!
May i suggest go back arrows?
hi epic!
thanks! Yak was gracious enough to help me set up the laser platform on his day off.
hope youre having a good weekend!
(test posting on ihub ipad app)
Z Lizzy is a good person even if she does get a little fanatical sometimes on certain topics.
I'll never understand why she's that way but that's just lizzy :)
you voted democrat and what did you get?
war ended? no
spending cut? no
I'm not the blind one here.
I don't like Cheney.
Stop putting font on my fingers Yakhiney!
I'm a Romney fan
Had the old geezer chosen Romney over Palin, we might not have the commie in office that we have now.
oh poor little thing
I like the Greek kind of lamb lol
I love lamb
but hubby's more of steak, chicken and seafood kinda guy
especially fish.
last time we went to Pan, on the way back some guy had a huge cooler of fish he had on dry ice that he caught and was bringing back home.
hubby wants to go back and fish now lol
LOL I thought it was funnily true!
what the hell?
I learned a new trick
if you accidently use [ quote] x 2 it makes the content invisible except for the first line of the subject.
weird!
I knew I'd get a rise out of you.
but you believe in santa? lol
he's a commie too! I never get what i really want :(
utmostbastard:
That dude has some next level patience I would need 20 years of therapy for.
Some Berkshire Businesses Offer Good Signs for U.S. Economy .
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703796504576168901795444590.html
Did Santa Clause say that?
oil is ridiculous. I think it's going to go higher for the summer!
commies don't want anyone to take vacations it seems!
ty yahiney :)
the "big one" is reserved for highly important information.
malls scare him
means money will be spent
luckily, I've been too busy during the day and way too tired at night so haven't had the energy to do much mall shopping in a while.
if you like malls, you'd love the Multi Plaza mall in Pan.
Defnitely a great way to end the week.
We need more of these up/down days.
Tiny steady movements upwards are boring as hell!
good morning acc
today is a work day :(
cleaning up a condo that was destroyed by a not very clean tenant.
I was hoping to sell it and buy a house next door to you lol
Charlie Sheen is out, but money keeps pouring in
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- The good news for the producers of "Two and a Half Men" is that Charlie Sheen's meltdown happened during the show's eighth season, and not the first.
With 177 episodes in the can, the hit show can live on for years in reruns, throwing off cash in syndication revenue for production company Warner Brothers -- and plenty of spending money for the troubled actor.
"'Two and a Half Men' will bring in more than $600 million in syndication for Warner Brothers Television" in the years to come, said Brad Adgate, senior vice president of research at Horizon Media.
Industry insiders estimate that the show has already grossed $400 million in reruns, putting total syndication fees at a cool $1 billion.
"They have so many seasons of those episodes; it's one of the most successful shows in syndication," said David Joyce, media analyst for Miller Tabak. He estimates that the show will bring in $250 million annually in upcoming syndication revenue. "They'll be generating plenty of cash flow in years to come."
Repo men: The new face of reality TV
The future of "Two of a Half Men," the most popular and highly-rated comedy on television, is uncertain. Sheen's recent radio rant targeted the show's creator and bordered on anti-Semitism, prompting the network CBS (CBS, Fortune 500) and Warner Brothers to cancel production of the current season's four remaining episodes.
"Based on the totality of Charlie Sheen's statements, conduct and condition, CBS and Warner Brother Television have decided to discontinue production of 'Two and Half Men' for the remainder of the season," the network and the studio said in a joint statement.
This is after Warner Brothers -- a unit of Time Warner (TWX, Fortune 500), which is also the parent of CNNMoney -- went on a production hiatus in January while Sheen was in drug rehab following an emergency room visit.
"Two and a Half Men" will be a money making property for years to come, but plenty of people are getting hurt by its cancellation.
Sheen, whose representatives did not return a call for comment, will have to kiss his fat $1.2 million per episode paycheck goodbye.
And Warner Brothers spokesman said that at least 250 members of the cast and crew will be out of work since the season's last four episodes were cancelled. It has yet to be decided whether there will be a ninth season, according to Time Warner.
The blow is also painful for CBS, which pulled in about $160 million in annual advertising revenue from the show, according to Adgate. He said the average price for a 30-second ad was $200,000.
But CBS will still continue to generate ad revenues through reruns. And analysts insist that the show, like other long-running successful comedies, still has legs.
"Comedy repeats well," said Adgate. "People are still watching 'Seinfeld' and 'Friends.'"
Berkshire hunting for another megadeal
Posted by Colin Barr
February 26, 2011 7:57 am
A year after Berkshire Hathaway completed its biggest acquisition, CEO Warren Buffett is on the hunt again.
Buffett told Berkshire (BRKA) shareholders in his annual letter to them Saturday that they should brace for more megadeals along the lines of last February's $26 billion buy of railroad Burlington Northern Santa Fe.
Sure shot?
"Our elephant gun has been reloaded, and my trigger finger is itchy," Buffett said.
Buffett may not strike you as much of a hunter. In the public's mind, Buffett is a gatherer of blue-chip stocks such as Coca-Cola (KO) that he buys on the cheap and holds forever. His success in that endeavor has been immeasurably aided by his access to cheap funding via the insurance companies that Berkshire runs.
But while the insurance-funded investment business still accounts for much of Berkshire's value, the future lies elsewhere. More and more of Berkshire's gains come from a growing stable of 68 non-insurance companies, ranging from giant Burlington Northern to niche operators like Business Wire and See's Candies.
"For the past 10 years we have seen a clear strategic shift toward buying wholly owned businesses over publicly traded stocks," said Whitney Tilson, a Berkshire shareholder and value investor who runs the $23 million Tilson Focus fund.
Why? Size is one factor. As Buffett has often lamented, the bigger Berkshire gets the more difficult it becomes to move the needle with a winning investment. The scale of the firm's $158 billion investing portfolio "is absolutely an anchor on performance," says Tilson.
For now, the value of that portfolio dwarfs the flows coming from the operating businesses. The investments were worth $94,730 a share at the end of 2010, Saturday's letter says. Per-share pretax earnings at Berkshire's noninsurance companies were worth $5,903 per share.
But the operating-company earnings stream is plenty valuable in its own right – a point Tilson makes in a slide show on his web site.
Even at a conservative multiple of, say, 7 times earnings, Berkshire's operating businesses alone are worth $42 billion before taxes. That exceeds the market value of warehouse retailer (and Berkshire holding) Costco (COST), for instance, though the numbers aren't strictly comparable because of the tax treatments.
Moreover, the earnings stream expanded at a 20% annual clip over the past decade – compared with a just 6.6% yearly increase in the value of the investment portfolio.
The earnings expansion stands to pick up in coming years if Berkshire succeeds in finding more big deals. The motivation is clear.
Consider the Burlington Northern purchase, which was half again as big as the previous biggest Berkshire acquisition, the 1999 purchase of insurer General Re. Buffett said in last year's letter that the decision to make the cash-and-stock deal was "a close one," because he doesn't like issuing Berkshire stock.
But he said in Saturday's letter that the railroad is "working out even better than I expected," boosting Berkshire's after-tax earnings capacity by more than 30%. Thanks in part to the strong flow of Burlington Northern earnings, Berkshire now can expect to generate around $12 billion in profits in a typical year, Buffett says.
That number may take a hit this year and next as some of the sweet deals Berkshire negotiated during the financial crisis – including a $5 billion investment in Goldman Sachs (GS) and a $3 billion purchase of General Electric (GE) preferred stock -- run off.
But losing a few hundred million in dividends here and there hardly slows the torrent of cash that comes pouring into Berkshire every day. Buffett said in last year's letter that he liked Burlington Northern in part because it gave Berkshire a way to put $22 billion to work in one shot.
Now, just a year after it swallowed the railroad, Berkshire is back to $38 billion in cash and cash equivalents.
With Buffett having sworn off dividends and stock repurchases, that money has to go somewhere. So which elephants might Buffett be after?
Tilson, for one, puts long odds on another megadeal. He notes that Berkshire already owned nearly a third of Burlington Northern before saying in late 2009 it would acquire the rest.
He views serial purchases of somewhat smaller, closely held businesses – along the lines of Berkshire's 2006 purchase of the Israeli metalworking company Iscar or the ongoing acquisition of the Pritzker family's Marmon Group – as a better bet.
"I think Buffett would love to buy 10 more Iscars," said Tilson. "I'm sure he would love to buy Mars at the right price," he adds -- though there's no sign that sweet deal is likely to present itself any time soon.
So 2011 will find Buffett in his familiar posture of looking for an opening – whatever that takes the form of an elephant or something less grand.
As Tilson says, "I don't think he spends a lot of time thinking about how he has to have any particular deal. It's much more opportunistic than that."
Well said.
Education should be top priority IMO
GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
I don't do options (yet it's on the "to do" list)! I will I will one day!
so i bought 2.5 shares! haha j/k I had 30 shares but if I keep trading with Yak, I'll be able to afford 300 one day! woot!
I just love trading GOOG makes me feel like a rock star! lol
omg sorry, Yak's got me in a groovy mood today for what he was nice enough to do for me even though I'm a total pain the ass most of the times and annoy the ever living shit out of him.
I just thought of something (light bulb)
the people that I'm a pain in the ass to seem to love me the most
those that I'm nice to seem to come and go
new rule: don't be nice lol
haha so true jen!
that siggy pic is so adorable!
Sold my GOOGgoogoog today!
all $$$$$$
and ready for another sell off day!!!
Wonderful Yak made my platform look so pretty so very very pretty today!!!
I'm so tired, i'm silllllllly
been babysitting my little nephews and their silliness rubbed off on me
the good thing is when Ziva's in the crate, she's usually tired and wants to sleep.
She handled it well for the hour they were together. The chiweenies have only had each other and lost their mother early on but oddly the tiniest chiweenie who was scared of her before is now doing the "mom" role (was taking her paws like she was brushing her hair or something and was licking her on the head).
My only goal is to have them together in one room and use to each other.
There's no way Ziva could sleep on our bed or any of the beds. Hubby thinks she's too spoiled with her big cushions even. He's from a place like Andy's at where dogs slept on the ground or out on the porch.
Exactly! lol
lol poor you!
Yak attack in IMs: "bitches dunno about my QQQQ calls" ROFLMAO! Yak is pretty, so so pretty! LOL
about 1 hour ago via web
yeah but around here, they're in a busy mall.
Loved Borders as they're close and stand alone.
Not to mention Seattle's Best coffee!
I love the lizard
I'm chuckling over some guy on the BGP board calling another guy a basher trying to short the stock with negative posts.
I'm mad
I just got an email last night that they're closing my favorite store that's close to my home.
Sadly, I believe technology is going to kill off all the book stores soon just as it did with the Blockbusters.