Tuesday 7 May 2013

Buffett devotees stick by him even as growth slows

By Jonathan Stempel and Jennifer Ablan

OMAHA, Nebraska (Reuters) - Short-seller Douglas Kass, Warren Buffett's handpicked bear, raised a concern on the minds of many shareholders at the "Woodstock for capitalists" this weekend: Has Berkshire Hathaway Inc become so big that it will find it hard to grow?

Many retail investors who converged on Omaha, Nebraska, for Berkshire's annual meeting on Saturday acknowledged that its fastest growth days are likely behind it. But they said Berkshire is still a good long-term bet as faith remains in Buffett and his management team's more than 4-decade-long record of stellar returns, and the company's tentacles into many sectors of the U.S. economy.

"Yes, it is a concern, but I have to get my expectations in line," said Julie Fehrnstrom, a mother of three from Orinda, California, attending her fifth meeting. "They are not driven by short-term decision making and they have really smart management. You really don't always find that."

Sherrie Palmer, a social worker from Portage la Prairie, Manitoba, was attending her first Berkshire meeting, one of 35,000 or so investors.

"The steepness of the growth is leveling off, but it's not a concern," Palmer said. "We like the manner in which decisions are made and I don't worry about this being an organization jumping to a fad that won't pan out."

Patience has served Berkshire shareholders well. Investing in companies with dependable businesses and sound management has helped Berkshire as an investment trounce major competitors since Buffett took it over in 1965. Berkshire is now one of the largest U.S. companies by market value, with more than 288,000 employees in dozens of businesses, covering everything from ice cream to underwear and insurance to railroads.

But its massive size - currently around $268 billion in market value - has made it hard for Berkshire to grow as fast as it once did. While Berkshire performs well in down markets, it can lag in rising markets.

Buffett reminded shareholders that 2009-2013 may prove to be the first five-year period ever when the company's growth in book value per share will lag the Standard & Poor's 500 index including dividends.

"People who buy stocks now and hold stocks for 20 years will make money," Buffett told Reuters Insider in an interview on Saturday evening. "Those who hold for 20 days, I don't know what will happen."

M&A, SUCCESSION

It has also become harder for the company to find deals that are large enough to move the needle. In February, Berkshire, along with Brazilian investment firm 3G Capital, struck a deal to buy ketchup maker H.J. Heinz Co, and Buffett said he was looking for more big acquisitions.

But in an interview on Friday, Berkshire Vice Chairman Charlie Munger said high prices have made attractive deals scarce. "With interest rates at zero, the prices being paid for businesses are very high," Berkshire's second-in-command said.

Still, size has advantages. Berkshire's quarterly profit rose nearly 51 percent on solid performance in insurance and many of its other units. The results showed that its more than 80 businesses are benefiting from a strengthening economy, as illustrated by increased traffic on its Burlington Northern railroad unit, new customers for its McLane food distribution business and stepped-up demand for its Forest River recreational vehicles, to name just a few.

"In the 1990s, Warren was criticized for not being 'state of the art,'" said Arthur Cohen, a financial adviser from Highland Park, Illinois, who was attending his 15th meeting. "I'm not critical of his performance since."

Investors have also worried about what will happen to Berkshire after Buffett, 82, and Munger, 89, leave. In his most extensive comments to date about the future of Berkshire after he is gone, Buffett said he still expects the conglomerate to be a partner of choice for distressed companies.

Buffett said he and his board are "solidly in agreement" on who should be the next chief executive - but offered no names - and said his son, Howard, would become chairman to ensure that Berkshire had the right CEO in place.

"The key is preserving a culture and having a successor, a CEO that will have more brains, more energy, more passion for it than even I have," Buffett said in response to a shareholder question at the meeting.

BIG BASH

As Berkshire has grown, so has the yearly extravaganza, now Omaha's second-biggest annual tourism event behind the College World Series baseball tournament. The event attracted many well-known investors, including Mario Gabelli, Leon Cooperman and Chris Davis, as well as mom-and-pop investors.

Missy Krasso, a driver for Happy Cab in Omaha, makes as much as $3,000 in fares during the Berkshire weekend. Wall Street tips well, she said.

Before the meeting began, Buffett roamed an exhibit hall at the arena featuring Berkshire-owned companies. Cherry Coke in hand, he dipped coconut bon-bons in a fondant coating at See's Candies, admired a model Burlington Northern railroad and tossed newspapers. Berkshire owns the Omaha World-Herald and others.

A new addition to the series of events around the meeting this year was an "Invest in Yourself" five-kilometer run through downtown Omaha, with Buffett starting it off, if not necessarily setting the pace.

The real mad sprint began at 6:30 a.m. on Saturday, when dozens of shareholders rushed for the best seats directly in front of Buffett and Munger on the arena floor, large enough to be suitable for a rock-star concert.

Sherman Silber, a fertility doctor who has attended the meetings for 15 years, said he misses the "old format" where he could just go to the podium and ask a question. "Now you have to do all this lottery stuff," he said.

But Rosie Smith, a finance executive for a Baltimore book printer, said she keeps coming back for more.

"We came out here, and it was the wildest thing we've ever seen," she said, referring to the first of her 10 visits to the meeting. "Every year, it keeps snowballing."

(Reporting by Jennifer Ablan and Jonathan Stempel in Omaha; Additional reporting by Rhonda Schaffler; Editing by Ben Berkowitz, Paritosh Bansal, Tiffany Wu and Maureen Bavdek)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/buffett-devotees-stick-him-even-growth-slows-164042228.html

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Rolls Royce to replace engine on grounded LOT Dreamliner: airline

By Alasdair Fotheringham ISCHIA, Italy, May 5 (Reuters) - Team Sky took a morale-boosting victory in the Giro d'Italia team time trial as overall contender Bradley Wiggins moved up to second overall and gained time on his rivals on Sunday. Second in the short, hilly and very technical second stage were Spanish squad Movistar, nine seconds back, with Astana, led by Wiggins's key rival Vincenzo Nibali, third at 14 seconds. The first Team Sky rider to cross the line in Saturday's first stage, Italian Salvatore Puccio, took the overall leader's pink jersey. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/rolls-royce-replace-engine-grounded-lot-dreamliner-airline-180319735.html

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Saturday 4 May 2013

Obama: Israel has the right to defend itself (Washington Bureau)

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92% Gimme The Loot

All Critics (51) | Top Critics (23) | Fresh (47) | Rotten (4)

'Gimme the Loot' is ... meandering and a little shallow. And even at 79 minutes it feels a little too long for what's essentially the film equivalent of a short story.

A thousand-watt jolt of mischief, a spunky, funky, ebullient indie that packs its 81 minutes with cinematic exhilaration.

It may be a slight movie, but it has its sunny charms.

A movie about teenage taggers in the Bronx should be fast and raw, scruffy and loose, and Adam Leon's Gimme the Loot is just that.

As it lopes along, the movie offers a warm but very sharp portrait of New York's have-nots and their uneasy relationship with the haves.

"Gimme the Loot" shouldn't be as appealing and exuberant as it is, it really shouldn't.

Endlessly entertaining, refreshingly light-hearted and bursting with summer soul, Gimme The Loot joins the pantheon of great New York movies.

It's a shaggy dog story with a certain amount of charm but not nearly enough drama.

The movie is unpolished, and it matters not a jot, because Leon has written super roles for these kids and invests their relationship with such sly feeling.

Hickson walks the line between bravado and vulnerability, while Washington has a charisma, spark and beauty that should ensure this won't be the last we see of her.

Bolstered by a low-key but assured aesthetic and a soundtrack of vintage soul and doo-wop, the film is infectiously enjoyable, with frequently amusing insights and an affable shagginess.

Out of nowhere, Adam Leon might just have delivered the first great New York film of the decade.

Charming and engaging low-budget indie with a witty script, likeable characters, a strong sense of time and place and a pair of terrific performances from its two young leads.

Funny and freewheeling, it's a joy.

A slim, low-budget coming-of-age tale whose richness lies entirely in its interstices. A keenly observed work that celebrates the unfettered joys of youth, and rewards by reminding of the power of a simple tale told well.

Simultaneously real and hopeful, "Loot" has almost no plot, but when the setting is so fresh and the characters feel so raw and alive, who needs one?

Ghetto laughs with a sophisticated point of view.

...a magical, summery treat.

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Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/gimme_the_loot_2012/

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Friday 3 May 2013

Spark Core board adds WiFi to almost everything, takes input from anywhere (video)

Spark Core Arduino board adds WiFi to everything, takes input from anywhere video

Spark Devices wants the inclusion of WiFi in devices to be a matter of when, not if -- and if its new Spark Core gets to market as planned, tinkerers might never have a moment of doubt. The tiny board combines an Arduino-compatible ARM Cortex-M3 platform with a TI CC3000 WiFi chip that not only simplifies getting online, but could save the DIY crowd from having to touch projects afterward. Owners can flash the firmware with new code over WiFi, for a start. A free Spark Cloud service also allows for custom apps that interface with the Core through seemingly anything with an internet connection: if you want to reconfigure a homebrew security camera from your phone, you can. While Spark Devices is relying on crowdfunding to fuel its connected strategy, the company is comfortably past its $10,000 goal and should deliver both the Spark Core ($39) and optional shields to new contributors around September.

[Thanks, Greg]

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Source: Kickstarter

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/zCEFTqhheaQ/

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Reid: Obamacare could be "train wreck" without more money (cbsnews)

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