What We're Reading ~ 10/20/16

The dying business of picking stocks [WSJ]

Marks, Grantham, Arnott, Gundlach reveal their biggest hits and mistakes [WSJ] 

John Maynard Keynes: courage is the key to investing [WSJ]

Joel Greenblatt's investing secrets revealed [Barrons]

What does Nevada's $35 billion fund manager do all day? Nothing [WSJ]

What I learnt on the sell side [What I Learnt on Wall St]

What's something you strongly believe in that's likely wrong [Collaborative Fund]

How to stay patient for longer [Clear Eyes Investing]

Chipotle (CMG): is the brand intact? [Rational Walk]

A quick look at Liberty Ventures (LVNTA) [Peters Macgregor]

A piece on Atlassian (TEAM) [Fast Company] 

27 charts that will change how you think about the American economy [Vox]

The Jeff Bezos regret minimization framework [A Wealth of Common Sense]

Preparing for the future of artificial intelligence [The White House]

An integrated perspective on the future of mobility [McKinsey]

The best performing CEOs in the world [Harvard Business Review]

Liquid assets: how the business of bottled water went mad [The Guardian]

Sam Zell sees limited investment opportunities in the future [NREI]

Deutsche Bank: a Greek tragedy at a German institution? [Aswath Damodaran]

Imagining a cashless world [New Yorker]

What We're Reading ~ Analytical Links 4/17/13

A new site aggregating conference call transcripts [ConferenceCallTranscripts.org]

Intel (INTC): Anatomy of a tech value trap [Reformed Broker]

Why equity long/short investing is not dead [HFIntelligence]

Sticking to a plan in the face of emotional volatility [Abnormal Returns]

Rare interview with Liberty Media's (LMCA) John Malone [CNBC]

Jeremy Grantham on how to play resource scarcity [Advisor.ca]

Aereo has TV networks circling the wagons [NYTimes]

The death of value investing [Business Insider]

Thermo Fisher (TMO) nears deal for Life Technologies (LIFE) [Reuters]

On Dish Network's (DISH) bid for Sprint Nextel (S) [Bloomberg]

Interview with Markel's (MKL) Tom Gayner [GuruFocus]

Diabetes in Mexico: eating themselves to death [The Economist]

Top 5 websites capturing larger share of real estate traffic [Inman]

As big investors emerge, Bitcoin gets ready for close-up [Dealbook]

Highfields Capital Discloses Liberty Ventures Stake

Jonathon Jacobson's hedge fund firm Highfields Capital just filed a 13G with the SEC regarding shares of Liberty Ventures (LVNTA).  Per the filing, Highfields now owns a 5.8% ownership stake in LVNTA with 1,482,738 shares.

This is a brand new position for the hedge fund and the filing was made due to portfolio activity on September 12th.  Liberty Ventures is a tracking stock that was created in August to track certain assets of Liberty Interactive (LINTA).

LVNTA shares track Liberty's ownership interests in various entities such Expedia, TripAdvisor, and many more companies.  Shares of LINTA, on the other hand, track the businesses of Liberty such as home shopping network QVC.  Shareholders of LINTA received LVNTA shares in the tracking stock separation.

Liberty Rights Offering

It's unclear if Highfields acquired some of their LVNTA shares via the LINTA spin or not.  Highfields did not disclose a LINTA stake at the end of Q2 in their most recent 13F filing, but they could have easily purchased shares before the split. 

This is important mainly because Highfields' trading activity date on their SEC filing matches the date of Liberty Ventures' rights offering commencement.  Yahoo Finance has an explanation of this:

"On August 9, 2012, in connection with the creation of its new Liberty Ventures tracking stock, Liberty Interactive distributed subscription rights to purchase share of Series A Liberty Ventures common stock (each, a Series A Right). Each whole Series A Right entitles its holder to subscribe, at a per share subscription price of $35.99, for one share of Series A Liberty Ventures common stock pursuant to a basic subscription privilege, and also entitles the holder to subscribe for additional shares of Series A Liberty Ventures common stock pursuant to an oversubscription privilege.  The rights offering will commence on Wednesday, September 12, 2012, and will expire at 5:00 p.m., New York City time, on Tuesday, October 9, 2012, unless extended by Liberty Interactive Corporation"

The rights offering commenced on September 12th and trades under symbol "LVNAR."  It will expire at 5pm EST on October 9th (unless extended by Liberty). 

We've previously covered other portfolio activity from Highfields here.