Inelegant Investor

Breaking: Berksire(BRKB) offers to buy remaining 19.9% of Wesco

investor — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 16:54:51 +0000

From the just-filed 13D The original purpose of the purchases of the Shares, all of which occurred more than 30 years ago, was to increase the ultimate control by Blue Chip of Wesco. On August 25, 2010, Berkshire’s management determined to propose to Wesco a cash-stock election transaction in which it would acquire the remaining 19.9% [...]

The More Things Change…

investor — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 19:31:42 +0000

Image via Wikipedia Federal Reserve Board Statement from February 7,1929, as quoted by Galbraith in The Great Crash 1929 When [the Board] funds that conditions are arising which obstruct the Federal reserve banks in the effective discharge of their functions of so managing the credit facilities of the Federal reserve system as to accommodate commerce [...]

Global Cash Access(GCA) Plunge Overdone

investor — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 17:14:49 +0000

Image via Wikipedia It’s 2AM. Your stubble-covered face glows in dim light of the casino floor. Lights flash, bells ring. You’re about to get lucky. And you run out of cash. Enter Global Cash Access(GCA). GCA has contracts with many of the nation’s largest casinos to provide ATM services on their floors. GCA provides other [...]

Preliminary Launch of stockspinoffs.com

investor — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 11:43:35 +0000

We at Inelegant Investor are pleased to announce the initial launch of stockspinoffs.com. Stock Spinoffs will be a clearinghouse for information on upcoming and proposed stock spinoffs, featuring a calendar of upcoming events, as well as news and analysis of each spinoff. We have chosen to launch this after being asked several times where this [...]

Flashback: Warren Buffett Gets All the Attention, But Hank Greenberg Is Posting Better Returns

investor — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 07:32:17 +0000

It’s July 23, 2000. The Bubble has burst, though bottoms haven’t been reached. The World Trade Center still stands tall. Enron is one of the world’s most respected companies. The New York Times declares Hank Greenberg a better investor than Warren Buffett. As the article points out, over the previous 5 and 10 year periods, [...]

175th Edition Of The Festival Of Stocks

investor — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 15:17:48 +0000

We are pleased to welcome you to the 175th Edition of the Festival Of Stocks. The Festival Of Stocks is a blog carnival dedicated to featuring posts on a variety of stock market topics. Though the Inelegant Investor has published only sporadically of late, we were a frequent participant in early Festivals Of Stocks, including [...]

Highlights from Steak N Shake(SNS) Chairman Sardar Biglari’s 2009 Letter

investor — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 22:52:37 +0000

Image via Wikipedia Steak N Shake(SNS) has posted the annual letter from Chairman Sardar Biglari. Biglari has made great progress with the company since taking over, swinging from a loss of $23 million in 2008 to a profit of $6 million in 2009. The capital structure has been greatly strengthened. After beginning the year with [...]

Berkshire Hathaway Bags An Elephant

investor — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 13:23:50 +0000

Image by Getty Images via Daylife For years, Warren Buffett has spoken of searching for an elephant of a transaction. Berkshire Hathaway’s(BRKA,BRKB) announcement today that it will be acquiring Burlington Northern Santa Fe(BNI) in a $44 Billion deal represents the final capture of an elephant that has been in Buffet’s sights for several years as [...]

Steak N Shake($SNS) Looks To Invest Excess Cash

investor — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 20:51:02 +0000

The Steak N Shake Company(SNS) filed an 8-k this afternoon disclosing that it has amended its credit agreement to “permit the Company to use up to $10.0 million of surplus cash to make investments of any lawful nature, so long as no event of default exists.” In addition, the Company has granted “Chief Executive Officer, [...]

Zicam woes cause Matrixx(MTXX) to lose sense of sell

investor — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 23:04:52 +0000

Image via Wikipedia In February 2007(sadly one of our more recent posts), we wrote about Matrixx(MTXX) Initiatives.Â At the time, Jove Partners had filed a 13D urging a sale of the company.Â Jove noted at the time that the company’s single brand would benefit from the scale of being part of a larger company. At [...]