Friday, May 5, 2017

Warren Buffett Sells One Third of IBM Stake

On the heels of Berkshire Hathaway's annual meeting, CNBC's Becky Quick has reported that Warren Buffett has sold about a third of his stake in IBM (IBM) in the first and second quarters of 2017. 

Buffett is quoted as saying, "I don't value IBM the same way that I did six years ago when I started buying ... I've revalued it somewhat downward."

It seems that once IBM started trading above $180 they started selling. 

Buffett cited increased competition as one of the main drivers of his decision.  Berkshire still owns over 50 million IBM shares.

In other recent portfolio activity, we highlighted how Berkshire Hathaway had been buying Liberty SiriusXM.

Per Google Finance, IBM is "a technology company. The Company operates through five segments: Cognitive Solutions, Global Business Services (GBS), Technology Services & Cloud Platforms, Systems and Global Financing. The Cognitive Solutions segment delivers a spectrum of capabilities, from descriptive, predictive and prescriptive analytics to cognitive systems. Cognitive Solutions includes Watson, a cognitive computing platform that has the ability to interact in natural language, process big data, and learn from interactions with people and computers. The GBS segment provides clients with consulting, application management services and global process services. The Technology Services & Cloud Platforms segment provides information technology infrastructure services. The Systems segment provides clients with infrastructure technologies. The Global Financing segment includes client financing, commercial financing, and remanufacturing and remarketing."


Hedge Fund Links ~ 5/5/17


John Paulson's fall from hedge fund stardom [NYTimes]

Ted Seides on why he lost his hedge fund bet with Warren Buffett [Bloomberg]

7,500 coders paid in Bitcoin built a hedge fund's brain [Wired]

Why are hedge funds raising their bets against US shopping malls? [FT]

Kyle Bass sees China's wealth management products as key risk [Bloomberg]


Tiger Global Buys More Apollo Again

Chase Coleman's hedge fund firm Tiger Global continues to acquire shares of Apollo Global Management (APO).

Per a new Form 4 filed with the SEC, Tiger Global bought 295,500 more shares of APO on May 1st at a weighted average price of $26.728.  After this latest buy, they now own over 30 million shares.

Private equity firms have attracted some big name hedge funds as of late.  We highlighted how ValueAct Capital took a stake in KKR recently as well.

Per Google Finance, Apollo Global Management is "an alternative investment manager in private equity, credit and real estate. The Company raises, invests and manages funds on behalf of pension, endowment and sovereign wealth funds, as well as other institutional and individual investors. The Company's segments include private equity, credit and real estate. The private equity segment invests in control equity and related debt instruments, convertible securities and distressed debt investments. The credit segment invests in non-control corporate and structured debt instruments, including performing, stressed and distressed investments across the capital structure. The real estate segment invests in real estate equity for the acquisition and recapitalization of real estate assets, portfolios, platforms and operating companies, and real estate debt, including first mortgage and mezzanine loans, preferred equity and commercial mortgage backed securities."


Wednesday, May 3, 2017

What We're Reading ~ 5/3/17


The Innovator's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail [Christensen]

Warren Buffett's money managers Combs and Weschler speak [Yahoo Finance]

The new moats [Greylock]

Staying competitive as the world changes [Collaborative Fund]

A look at Seritage Growth Properties [Barrons]

Profile of Fidelity's Will Danoff [FT]

How Trump's pick for top Antitrust cop may shape competition [NYTimes]

Big name food brands lose battle of the grocery aisle [WSJ]

Thoughts on retailer L Brands [Intrinsic Investing]

Is the lingerie market on the verge of another disruption? (possible NSFW image) [Business of Fashion]

Amazon strategy teardown: building new business pillars [CB Insights]

UnderArmour tripped up in its run to become the world's next sneaker giant [Qz]

CEO pay is out of control [Fortune]

Apple's China problem [Stratechery]

With $6.2 billion spectrum spree, DISH's Charlie Ergen buys himself options [Bloomberg]

Can Facebook fix its own worst bug? [NYTimes]

Dyson is the Apple of Appliances [NYTimes]

Elon Musk's 2017 TED talk interview [YouTube]