What We're Reading ~ 10/3/2018

The decision matrix: how to prioritize what matters [Farnam Street]

Sustainable sources of competitive advantage [Collaborative Fund]

Deep dive on wireless future: 5G [Axios]

How Shopify is the platform powering the direct-to-consumer revolution [Digiday]

Why Google Fiber is high-speed internet's most successful failure [HBR]

Pulling back the curtain on how SoftBank's massive Vision Fund works [TechCrunch]

A pitch on Yelp [Barrons]

Inside the world's fastest growing food delivery service [Eater]

Food delivery apps are impacting your favorite restaurants [Democrat & Chronicle]

How seltzer/sparkling water is upending coffee and beer [WSJ]

App-only banks rise in Europe and aim at traditional banks [NYTimes]

For some platforms, network effects are no match for local know-how [HBR]

David Rubenstein interviews Amazon's Jeff Bezos [YouTube]

How TripAdvisor changed travel [The Guardian]

The $29 billion battle to own how America sleeps [Fast Company]

How Paytm clinched its Berkshire Hathaway investment [Economic Times]

'Peak car' and the end of an industry [Bloomberg]

What We're Reading ~ 8/23/17

New book from Bridgewater's Ray Dalio, Principles: Life and Work [Ray Dalio]

What is and isn't a moat [Johnson Inv]

Always invert [Above the Market]

The stereo speaker company giving sight to self-driving cars [SF Chronicle]

The internal combustion engine is not dead yet [NYTimes]

Is Tesla (TSLA) really a disruptor? And why the answer matters [HBR]

Chill: robots won't take all our jobs [Wired]

TripAdvisor (TRIP) can fly higher [Barrons]

The incredible shrinking Sears (SHLD) [NYTimes]

Amazon vs Maersk: the clash of titans shaking the container industry [Platts]

Jack Ma (BABA) is ahead of Jeff Bezos in grocery store ambitions [Bloomberg]

How Softbank (SFTBY) is reshaping global tech [The Information]

How Baidu (BIDU) will win China's AI race, and maybe the world's [Wired]

Quantum computing comes of age [Alphr]

Your brain on money [A Wealth of Common Sense]

What We're Reading ~ 8/31/16

Jesse Livermore: The man who sold America short in 1929 [Tom Rubython]

50 of the best investing blogs [Acquirers Multiple]

Why value investors are different [Seth Klarman]

Paul Tudor Jones and the nature of the beast [A Wealth of Common Sense]

Be mindful of rich valuations in low volatility stocks [Morningstar]

What are interest rates forecasting for stocks? [Cordant]

Are you smarter than an algorithm? [Financialist]

A new payoff to risky decisions [Psychology Today]

Don't let what you cannot do interfere with what you can [Tony Isola]

German savers lose faith in banks, stash cash [WSJ]

Coach's brand transformation fake-out [Glenn Chan]

Can TripAdvisor turn things around? [Skift]

Dollar Stores' startling admission: half of US consumers are in dire straits [Zero Hedge]

Tencent: WeChat's world [Economist]

The twilight of China's online consumer paradise [Bloomberg]

Why Amazon is suddenly swimming in cash [Internet Retailer]

The war on cash [The Long and Short]

What We're Reading ~ Analytical Links 5/29/13

Is the U.S. the next hot 'emerging market'? [WSJ]

Margin debt hits a record [WSJ]

The bull case on Hertz Global (HTZ) [Barron's]

TripAdvisor's (TRIP) margins could expand after years of slimming [Trefis]

On cutting your losses [The Atlantic]

Goldman Sachs says AIG shares still most loved by hedge funds [Marketwatch]

On share repurchase fever [Capital Observer]

What happens when QE ends [AllStarCharts]

Searching for yield [Mebane Faber]

If you only know 5 things about investing, make it these [Motley Fool]

Bid on lunch with Warren Buffett [eBay]

Activist investors: let's do it my way [The Economist]

Atlas of public stocks: mapping all publicly listed companies [Simoleon Sense]

Embrace the business model that threatens you [Harvard Business Review]

Behavioral investing principles are more relevant than ever [Institutional Investor]

PepsiCo (PEP) resistance against activists looks futile [Reuters]

A rush to recruit young analysts only months on the job [Dealbook]

Studying the dark art of leaking deal talks [Dealbook]

House flipping back in style [WSJ]

Lone Pine Capital Adds to TripAdvisor Stake

Steve Mandel's hedge fund firm Lone Pine Capital recently filed a 13G with the SEC during the holidays on shares of TripAdvisor (TRIP).  Per the filing, Lone Pine has revealed a 5% ownership stake in TRIP with 6,523,653 shares.

This marks around a 13% increase in their position size since the end of the third quarter.  The 13G was filed due to portfolio activity on December 12th.

Lone Pine has been busy doing some buying and we've posted up some of their other portfolio activity here.


Liberty Media Also Likes TRIP

It's also worth flagging that John Malone's Liberty Media (LMCA) recently bought a big slug of TripAdvisor as well. Barry Diller sold his stake to Liberty for $62.50 a share (a 40% premium at the time).  This transaction gave Liberty 57% of the company's voting shares.

Per Google Finance, TripAdvisor is "an online travel research company, enabling users to plan and have a trip. TripAdvisor features reviews and advice on hotels, resorts, flights, vacation rentals, vacation packages and travel guides. TripAdvisor’s travel research platform features reviews and opinions from its community of travelers about destinations, accommodations (hotels, bed and breakfasts, specialty lodging and vacation rentals), restaurants and activities worldwide, through its TripAdvisor brand."

Hedge Fund Viking Global Discloses New TripAdvisor (TRIP) Stake

Andreas Halvorsen's hedge fund firm Viking Global just now filed a 13G with the SEC regarding shares of TripAdvisor (TRIP).

Viking has disclosed a 6.0% ownership stake in TRIP with 7,200,112 shares due to portfolio activity on January 23rd. It seems that a sizable portion of their position is held in their Viking Global Equities III investment vehicle.

We've examined the bull and bear investment theses for Expedia (EXPE) and TripAdvisor (TRIP) in a prior issue of our Hedge Fund Wisdom newsletter.

New Position... But How New?

It's particularly difficult to say when and by how much Viking was adding to this position due to a few factors. Firstly, TripAdvisor completed its spin-off from Expedia (EXPE) on December 20th, 2011. Right before this, EXPE completed a one-for-two reverse stock split and then shareholders became entitled to receive one share of TRIP and one share of EXPE for every two shares of the old EXPE entity owned.

Viking Global did not own shares of Expedia as of the end of the third quarter (September 30th, 2011). Also, due to the fact that SEC filings are made on a delayed basis, Viking won't have to disclose their 2011 year-end positions until February 15th. As such, it's entirely possible that they bought shares of EXPE in December and received TRIP shares in the spin-off.

However, something also worth considering is the fact that Viking did not cross a regulatory threshold required to file with the SEC until January 23rd. At the very least, that means that they purchased some TRIP shares recently. And theoretically, they could have simply bought their entire position of the separate TRIP entity post spin-off.

Either way, Viking's position in TripAdvisor is a new holding for them because they hadn't disclosed a position in Expedia or TripAdvisor prior to now.

But given the opacity surrounding the situation, it's impossible to know exactly when they were buying. And that certainly makes a difference given the fact that shares of TripAdvisor began trading at around $24 and are currently trading 43% higher.


TripAdvisor Company Background

Per Google Finance, TripAdvisor is "is an online travel research company, enabling users to plan and have a trip. TripAdvisor features reviews and advice on hotels, resorts, flights, vacation rentals, vacation packages and travel guides. TripAdvisor’s travel research platform features reviews and opinions from its community of travelers about destinations, accommodations (hotels, bed and breakfasts, specialty lodging and vacation rentals), restaurants and activities worldwide, through its TripAdvisor brand."

To see the bull and bear case on Expedia and TripAdvisor, sign-up for our premium Hedge Fund Wisdom newsletter and download the old issues.