WEB:The Oracle of Omaha- Warren Buffett

» collguy - Re: Re: Buffett

-- posted by collguy

» Kirk - WILLIAMS COS. INC.

Cash-strapped natural gas and pipeline operator Williams said on Monday after the close it will buy back $289 million of convertible preferred shares from MidAmerican Energy Holdings, which is controlled by billionaire investor Warren Buffet. Shares closed at $7.86.

-- posted by Kirk

» Kirk - Clayton Homes' Shareholders Revolt

Mon Jul 7, 4:36 PM ET
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By JANET MORRISSEY, Dow Jones Newswires

NEW YORK - A revolt is heating up at Clayton Homes Inc., where a growing number of disgruntled shareholders have vowed to vote against the company's plan to sell itself to Berkshire Hathaway Inc. in a $1.7 billion deal.

Ithaca Partners LP, Alpine Associates, Orbis Investment Management Ltd., Cliffwood Partners LLC and the Third Avenue Real Estate Value Fund are among those that hope to scuttle the deal.

"Every institutional shareholder I've spoken to is dead set against it," said Michael Winer, portfolio manager at Third Avenue Funds, which has held shares in Clayton since 2002. He said the $12.50-a-share bid by billionaire investor Warren Buffett (news - web sites)'s Berkshire Hathaway doesn't reflect Clayton's true value.

"It is confusing as to why the Clayton family — with its 28 percent share holding in Clayton Homes — is selling the company at a price that by any measure is too low," Ithaca Partners concurred in a note.

The $12.50-a-share offer apparently was based on the Knoxville, Tenn.-based company's stock trading prices over the past 12 months. Many shareholders said this formula is wrong and instead should have been based on historical averages.

"Clayton is selling the company at the trough in the (manufactured homebuilding) cycle," said Winer. "This is a cyclical industry, and the value of the company should have been based on the average earnings over the (entire) business cycle," not just the past 12 months, he said.

Winer sees a fair price between $14 and $17 a share.

To Clayton's credit, Institutional Shareholder Services, a highly regarded independent advisery firm, recommended shareholders approve the takeover offer.

Orbis Funds strongly disagrees.

"We find it incredible that ISS would recommend that its clients vote in favor of a transaction that would yield them less value than they could obtain by selling their shares in the open market," Orbis said in a statement.

Clayton shares closed Monday at $12.64, down 4 cents on the New York Stock Exchange (news - web sites).

Many shareholders speculate that Buffett senses the manufactured-housing industry is turning around, that Clayton will be a big beneficiary when that happens, and that he can pocket big profits by buying the company at the cyclical bottom.

Winer said Clayton has a "bulletproof balance sheet, no debt, (and is) an industry leader — cream of the crop." As a result, he believes Clayton stands to gain the most when the industry recovers.

"We believe in the long-term fundamentals of the manufactured-housing industry and that Clayton is an outstanding company with a great future," said Orbis in an open letter to shareholders.

Clayton executives weren't immediately available for comment.

Shareholders are scheduled to vote on the deal July 16. The company needs 50 percent of the shares outstanding to proceed with the sale. The Clayton family and other insiders hold about a 30 percent stake.

The company faces a $35 million breakup fee if the company walks away from the deal to pursue a deal with another bidder.

  Date       Kirk    S&P500   Delta
2003 YTD    +33.3%    15.2%   18.1%  as of 7/7/03 
 

                              Kirk   S&P500+   NASDAQ 
4+ Yrs 12/31/98 to 07/07/03  104.4%  (13.0%)   (21.5%) 
 
+with dividends reinvested. All Numbers unaudited. 
Click for a free issue of my newsletter .

-- posted by Kirk

» KLR - Lunch With Warren

Since this lunch with Warren will probably go for some $35-40K, I figure if eight of us each pony up an initial $5K we could bid $40K. Of course, that may just be our initial bid as the price rises.

That is of no concern to this group. In for a dime...in for a dollar I say.

Since we're spread all around the country, I suggest we meet at Warren's house in Omaha. Or maybe the Omaha Dairy Queen.

Please: RSVP ASAP.

[PS: Second prize is a BBQ with BB]
--------------------------------------------------
Bid for lunch with Buffett on eBay

Warren Buffett will donate the proceeds from the winning bidder to a San Francisco-based charity.
July 9, 2003: 3:08 PM EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - How much would you pay to slurp Coca-Cola with Warren Buffett, the world's second-richest man and arguably its most famous investor?

Buffett, whose $30.5 billion net worth according to Forbes magazine places him second to Microsoft Corp. (MSFT: Research, Estimates) founder Bill Gates, is donating a May 2004 lunch in New York City with the winner of an auction being conducted on Internet auctioneer eBay Inc.'s Web site.

The auction, bids for which are accepted through 9 p.m. PT Thursday, is sponsored by San Francisco magazine and the Glide Foundation, a San Francisco nonprofit serving the poor, hungry and homeless. Buffett will donate the proceeds to Glide.

Buffett, the 72-year-old chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK.B: Research, Estimates), donated San Francisco lunches to benefit Glide in 2000 and 2001, and two lunches in 2002.

This year, Buffett is donating one lunch in San Francisco, offered in a live Thursday night auction at the city's Concourse Exhibition Center, and one in New York, offered live and on eBay.

"He said, 'Let's take one to New York,"' the Rev. Cecil Williams, Glide's chief executive, said in an interview. "That's quite the center for investments and for finance."

The winning New York bidder may invite seven friends, and choose to move the lunch to an earlier date at Buffett's home base of Omaha, Nebraska.

Buffett did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

Though Buffett counts Coke and hot dogs as his favorite meal, his San Francisco lunches have been in Anzu, a Japanese restaurant near Glide's office in the Tenderloin district.

Williams said the two-hour lunches have covered many topics.

"He would open up and talk about all sorts of things that related not just to his life, but also to investments," he said. "From what I understand, he focuses on facilitating people in how they can invest their money in the present economy."

Dining with the Oracle of Omaha won't come cheap.

Glide said prior Buffett lunches have been auctioned for $25,000 to $32,000 each. A bidder named "littlecatsfeet" has already bid $10,000 on eBay for the New York lunch.

Steven Dinkelspiel, San Francisco magazine's publisher, expects the New York lunch to go for more than $25,000, despite the uncertain economy. But then, there's a carrot.

"It's like: 'Come talk to Warren Buffett and pick his brain,"' he said.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-- posted by KLR

» KLR - Re: Re: Lunch With Warren

Who knows, you may add Warren to your subscriber list. But you will probably come away with your life, house, cars, and cat insured by GEICO.

-- posted by KLR

» Kirk - Re: Lunch With Warren

My next door neighbor was hired to run the company, UlitmateBid.com, which started this celebrity auction for charity or otherwise deal. They had things like a round of golf with Tiger Woods, Lunches with Warren, etc. The company was bought out by eBay pretty quickly and he has done several things since, but it is cool to see the idea still thrive. We actually talked some about cross promotion, between us and them, but there was no good fit and they were the high cash burn rate company that either needed to be acquired or go bust.

eBay... way to expensive for me to buy as a stock, but the potential there is HUGE. I imagine they will put most newspaper classified sections out of business eventually once they make it possible to filter what they sell by area. I don't use eBay much because stuff I might want to buy I'd want to look at first and this requires it to be local but another neighbor's son bought a nice car on eBay.

-- posted by Kirk

» Kirk - $250,000 for a "Buffet" Lunch ---

I think Jay Leno could make a good Hannible Lecter joke here somewhere...

echnology - Internet Report

Warren Buffett Lunch Sells for $250,000

Fri Jul 11, 2:50 AM ET
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NEW YORK (Reuters) - A bidder at an auction conducted in San Francisco Thursday night and on auctioneer eBay Inc.'s Web site agreed to pay $250,000 to lunch with Warren Buffett (news - web sites), the world's second richest man.

The auction was sponsored by San Francisco magazine and the Glide Foundation, a non-profit organization offering programs to the poor, hungry and homeless in San Francisco.

Buffett, the billionaire chairman of holding company Berkshire Hathaway Inc., will donate the proceeds to Glide.

Glide said on Friday the lunch went for a higher bid than the past three years' lunches with Buffett combined.

The winning bidder, whose identity had not yet been confirmed, may invite seven friends to the May 2004 lunch, to be held in New York. The bidder may move the meeting to an earlier date at the 72-year-old Buffett's home base of Omaha, Nebraska.

Buffett, whose $30.5 billion fortune according to Forbes magazine puts him behind Microsoft Corp. founder Bill Gates (news - web sites), has since 2000 donated lunches to benefit Glide, whose chief executive is the Reverend Cecil Williams.

Buffett is "a huge fan of Cecil Williams, who is doing an extraordinary job," said Berkshire spokeswoman Kelly Muchemore. "Warren says he enjoys the lunch, and Glide enjoys the money."

This is the first year Web auctioneer eBay was enlisted to auction a Buffett lunch, and the first time Buffett donated a lunch outside San Francisco for Glide's benefit. Previous lunches went for $25,000 to $32,000 each, Glide said.

Buffett this year had also planned to donate a San Francisco lunch, but it was canceled at his request.

This year's lunch with the Oracle of Omaha cost more than three times the price of one "A" share of Berkshire, which also doesn't come cheap. They closed Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange (news - web sites) at $73,100 each.

-- posted by Kirk

» KLR - Re: $250,000 for a "Buffet" Lunch ---

On Friday morning, it appeared that one EBay bidder was selling one of the seven "friend" seats at the table for a minimum of $25,000.

That auction was predicated on the seller winning the Buffett lunch in the first place. Apparently, the seller didn't win. By 10 a.m. Eastern, the auction to resell one seat at the lunch was taken down.

Damn, we coulda had that lunch for $32K each but I didn't hear one word from you high-rollers!

-- posted by KLR

» Kirk - Buffett wins battle for Clayton Homes

By David Wells in New York

Warren Buffett (news - web sites)'s Berkshire Hathaway won a protracted four-month battle to buy mobile-home maker Clayton Homes for $1.7bn.

Voters representing about 52.4 per cent of Clayton's shares outstanding were in favor of the sale, according to a preliminary total taken at a special meeting held on Wednesday outside Knoxville, Tennessee.

Chief Executive Kevin Clayton, whose family controls 28 per cent of the shares, said in a statement that the company appreciated "the intense loyalty that our stockholders have exhibited over the past two decades as a public company-and especially over the last four months."

Mr Buffett extended his $12.50 a share offer to buy Clayton Homes, which has had trouble raising the $1bn a year it needs to finance operations, on April 1. His interest in the company stemmed from a reading of the founder's autobiography.

Shareholder opposition was sparked almost immediately. Investors complained the company was worth far more and that the restrictions on the bid were too stringent. The opposition was led by Orbis Investment Management, which owned about 5 per cent of shares.

Shares traded above the offer price from June until yesterday as investors bet the transaction would be killed or another suitor would offer a superior bid. While an investor group led by Cerberus Capital Management expressed interest in the company and the original shareholder meeting was adjourned for two weeks so potential bidders could do due diligence, no competing offer ever materialized.

William Gray, president of Orbis, said opposing shareholders had done all they could, but he was still disappointed with the process. In a statement he said: "Warren Buffett has a great eye for value. Clayton Homes is a prize acquisition. What is disappointing is that while championing the rights of independent shareholders and improved corporate governance, when in his interest he set terms for this merger agreement which encouraged management to adopt a process which falls well short of the standards he advocates."

A spokesman for Mr Buffett did not return a call for comment.

The merger is slated for completion in the next several days. Clayton Homes will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway.

-- posted by Kirk

» Kirk - Buffett out of Treasury Bonds in Q2-'03

Treasuries Sag as Recovery Hopes Bubble

Mon August 11, 2003 03:52 PM ET
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml...

By Pedro Nicolaci da Costa

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury prices staggered lower on Monday as bond investors feared positive words on the economy from the Federal Reserve could deal yet another blow to a battered government debt market.

Slated to meet on Tuesday, the central bank is expected to leave official rates unchanged at their lowest levels in half a century. More importantly for bonds, officials may note that more clear signs of a recovery have emerged since the Fed's last meeting in June.

That could lift yields, which move opposite to price and are already near a one-year high, even further.

"The whole issue really is how much they emphasize whether or not growth is picking up; that will be the key for the market," said Gregg Cohen, a trader at CIBC World Markets.

Recent data on manufacturing and economic growth are showing tentative signs of a comeback after a prolonged period of economic sluggishness, and could warrant greater optimism from the Fed.

A growing conviction on Wall Street that an economic rebound is imminent was given credence on Tuesday by the closely watched Blue Chip Economic Indicators' poll, which showed economists have nudged up forecasts for U.S. economic growth.

Estimates called for third-quarter U.S. gross domestic product to grow at an annual rate of 3.7 percent, up from 3.6 percent predicted in July and from 2.4 percent in the second quarter.

News that billionaire investor Warren Buffett essentially bailed out of the bond market in the second quarter certainly did not help bonds. Buffett's holding company, Berkshire Hathaway, said late Friday it reaped more than $600 million in after-tax gains on the sale of U.S. Treasuries.

Two regional Fed surveys did show manufacturing still is not firing on all cylinders, which ordinarily might have given prices some support. But the surveys were too backward-looking to be of any assistance to beleaguered bonds.

The Chicago Federal Reserve's Midwest manufacturing index, which covers a five-state region, dipped for a third straight month to 97.0 in June from 97.2, hurt by lower steel and auto production. Earlier, the Kansas City Fed's July manufacturing index fell to 8 from 15 in June.

Factory indexes for August -- starting with the New York Fed's "Empire State" survey on Friday -- will provide more up-to-data readings on the sector, dealers said. Once the Fed's meeting is out of the way, data on retail sales later this week are expected to be the bond market's next focal point.

By mid-afternoon, the benchmark 10-year note US10YT=RR was 1-4/32 lower in price for a yield of 4.38 percent, up from 4.28 percent late Friday. The 30-year bond US30YT=RR slid 31/32 for a yield of 5.30 percent, up from 5.24 percent late on Friday.

Two-year notes US2YT=RR fell 5/32, with their yield at 1.78 percent, and five-year notes US5YT=RR were down 18/32 at a yield of 3.27 percent.

At the Chicago Board of Trade, Sept. 30-year bond futures continued a technically-driven sell-off that started after a failure to push above the 20-year moving average on Friday. Next support is seen at 105 17/32, equivalent to a 5.38 percent cash yield.

-- posted by Kirk