Focus On Value Investing

Videoconference--Mr. Walter J. Schloss, CFA

Message from the Lampert to Shareholders

Sears makes new offer for RSTO

Following Seth Klarman: SLM Corp (SLM) Looks Cheap Enough To Buy

Buffett on Diversification

Revisiting ideas behind true value

Lampert Lowers Citi Stake, Adds Acxiom

Mohnish Pabrai Buys Sears Holdings

Ackman's Pershing Square Adds 1.15 million Sears Shares

Look Who's Buying Now

Berkshire takes big position in Kraft

How Lee Ainslie does it

Lampert raises stake in AutoNation to 33 percent

Ackman criticizes bank bailouts for bond insurers

Comcast Investors Seek Buyback, Payout as Shares Drop

Jim Rogers Interview: Where to Put Your Money

Graham’s investing philosophy

Berkshire's offer to MBIA

Is Borders Group a Buy?

Whitney Tilson discusses Sears Holdings.

Sears Begins Brand Sales Channel Diversifcation

Sears Valuation

Audio: A Conversation with Warren Buffett

Buffett Sees No Credit Crunch, Forecasts Lower Dollar

Global Treasure Hunter: David Winters

Wit and wisdom of Omaha's sage

Time to Buy Fortune Brands?

Buffett loves that Loonie

MBIA Sells $1 Billion in Shares at $12.15 Each

Icahn Discloses 5 Pct Stake in Motorola

MBIA to Raise Additional $750 Million of Capital

Audio: Macy's CEO Says Didn't Plan for Economic Slowdown

Video: Third Avenue, Safe and Cheap Approach

Buffett's Subprime Bets

NYSAA Value Investing Archive Dedication: Walter Schloss

The Power of the Capital One Stock Buyback

How Stephen Schwarzman became private equity’s designated villain

Apollo, Bain LBOs Lose Investors' Money, Bonds Show

MBIA's AAA Rating May Be Downgraded

Arne Alsin: Staring you square in the face is the best buying opportunity in stocks in 18 years

Jim Rogers sees hard times ahead for the United States

Insider Buys Exceed Sales, Signaling Market Bottom

Sears' big challenge: change to survive

Icahn Sees Value in J.C. Penney

The Fairholme Fund discusses Sears Holdings and Lampert in the current annual report.

"Sears Holdings is a relatively new, core position that continues to cost the Fund. Store traffic has been weak given stressed consumers and the company’s greater
exposure to depressed housing markets than most. Many despair that Sears seems unable to regain past retail glory, despite a conservative balance sheet and many valuable assets. In searching for instant gratification, most are missing key points. As with Warren Buffett in the late 1990s, many believe Eddie Lampert’s investment skills have faded — but it is just as unlikely that this leopard has lost his spots."

The whole report is worth reading if you want a sense of Bruce Berkowitz's investing style.

EDDIE LAMPERT has endured worse days than these. After all, it is only five years since the billionaire investor was kidnapped in the garage of his office in leafy Greenwich, Connecticut, and spent a weekend tied up in a motel bath-tub before somehow talking his way to freedom. But as far as his investments are concerned, things have never been tougher for a man who has taken home $1 billion a year on two occasions, become the richest man in Connecticut and prompted comparisons to no less an investor than the Sage of Omaha, Warren Buffett.

For months there has been talk of deepening problems at Sears, a giant retailer of which Mr Lampert is the chairman and largest shareholder. Several hedge funds, once seen as Mr Lampert's acolytes, have sold their shares. Another of his big investments, in Citigroup, has plunged in value. In 2007 his investment firm, ESL Holdings, turned in its worst performance since he created it in 1988, reportedly losing 25% of its value. The media, which not all that long ago lionised him, have turned hostile, describing his actions at Sears as “rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic”, asking if he has “lost his Midas Touch”, naming him “worst boss of the year” and even suggesting that his difficulties indicate impending trouble for dealmakers everywhere. The latest piece of bad news came on January 28th when, days after news leaked of a big restructuring at Sears, it was announced that Mr Lampert had sacked its chief executive of less than three years, Aylwin Lewis.



Read Full Article: The Economist