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Robinhood is going public. Warren Buffett, Michael Burry, and other top investors have blasted the trading app and warned day traders to be careful.

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Michael Burry against a gray promotional backdrop for the movie

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Robinhood is set to go public on Thursday at a potential $32 billion valuation, capitalizing on booming demand from retail investors seeking to trade stocks, cryptocurrencies, and other assets during the pandemic.

The trading app is popular among amateur investors and day traders because it doesn't charge commissions, allows fractional investing, and trusts its users to trade on margin and buy and sell risky, complex financial products such as options.

However, Warren Buffett, Michael Burry, and other leading investors have accused Robinhood and its peers of encouraging speculation and excessive risk-taking. Market veterans have also warned newbies not to borrow too much, trade things they don't understand, or treat investing like a game they're guaranteed to win.

A Robinhood spokesperson directed Insider to a recent letter from the company's cofounders ahead of the IPO.

"We're proud to serve this next generation of investors, and it's painful to see them continually lambasted in the news reports," Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev and director Baiju Bhat wrote. "Anecdotes of people winning (and losing) large amounts of money garner more attention than the more pedestrian truths - the majority of our customers prefer to buy and hold."

Here's what 10 top investors have said about Robinhood and the day-trading boom. Their quotes have been lightly edited and condensed for clarity:

Warren Buffett

"There's nothing illegal about it, there's nothing immoral. But I don't think you build a society around people doing it. I hope we don't have more of it."— accusing Robinhood of encouraging users to trade options rather than invest for the long term. (May 2021)



Michael Burry

"If you do not use #robinhood, you have to see it to understand what #gamification of #stonks/options means. So here it is. If this looks like a serious investing app to you, and NOT a dangerous casino 'fun for all ages,' you've been #gamified." (February 2021)

 



Mark Cuban

"It's not investing, and it's almost not even trading, it's more like revenge. It is the revenge of the nerd. It's the revenge of the little guy."— commenting on the horde of retail investors who sparked the meme-stock boom (February 2021)

"If you're a day trader and you can walk and chew gum, you are making money right now. You're doing the same thing they did in the late '90s. You're rolling it. You think everybody is a genius in a bull market." (June 2020)

 

Read more:Wall Street legend Richard Dennis conducted an intellectual experiment that turned 23 novice investors into overnight millionaires. Here are the 6 trading rules and philosophies that his 'turtle traders' live by.



Chris Sacca

"I have axes to grind against a lot of the guys you're wrecking, and I love to hear about real people stacking chips. But, please, from someone who has been there ... don't trade what you can't afford to lose."— advising the retail investors who executed short squeezes and hammered hedge funds to be careful (January 2021)

"To the angry Robinhood bros who got into trading stocks this year: I was wrong. You're amazing. This has nothing to do with the market. It's all you and your mad skillz. Don't take profits off the table. Double down, on margin. Borrow everything you can. Stonks never go down!"— sarcastically responding to the backlash from day traders after he tweeted they got lucky and should cash out some of their profits (January 2021)



Charlie Munger

"Robinhood is beneath contempt. It's a gambling parlor masquerading as a respectable business. It's basically a sleazy, disreputable operation." (May 2021)



Leon Cooperman

"They are just doing stupid things. This will end in tears."— commenting on retail traders buying shares in bankrupt companies and making other high-risk trades (June 2020)

 

Read more:Robinhood gave a very sweet deal to investors like Ribbit Capital, NEA, and Index when they saved it from the GameStop meme-stock drama



Jim Chanos

"They are going to trade themselves into oblivion. We are at prices now where the crowd that is betting on margin and betting through options had better be right. Anything that corrects and reverts to the mean, or to real valuation metrics, is going to destroy a whole generation of investors." (November 2020)



Jeffrey Gundlach

"There's been an incredible increase in tiny retail investor activity in terms of the accounts on Robinhood and other platforms that have just exploded in term of size. I think that's pretty dangerous. These people that are buying slices of the stock market don't even know what they're doing, and have probably lost money already." (June 2020)

"We'll have a tremendous unwind of a lot of the money that thinks the stock market is a one-way thing." (March 2021)



Howard Marks

"Some people think it's a gambling game, like betting on football. It's not healthy to have people who are buying stocks for fun. It reminds me of the people who were day trading in 1999 and declaring day trading a 'can't miss' strategy. The tech stocks crapped out in 2000." (June 2020)




Vinod Khosla and Warren Buffett are at opposite ends of the investing spectrum. In an exclusive interview, the legendary VC reveals the 3 key principles they both follow, why valuations don't always matter, and why he isn't worried about asset bubbles or market crashes.

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Vinod Khosla

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Legendary investor Vinod Khosla revealed the core investing principles he shares with Warren Buffett, outlined why he doesn't stress about valuations, and explained why he isn't worried about asset bubbles and market crashes in an exclusive interview with Insider this week.

Khosla cofounded Sun Microsystems and worked at Kleiner Perkins before launching his own venture-capital firm, Khosla Ventures, in 2004. He counts Square, Stripe, DoorDash, and Instacart among his past investments.

Shared philosophy — with a twist

Khosla and Buffett operate at opposite ends of the investing spectrum. Khosla makes early, high-risk bets on scores of technology startups in the hope that one or two of them will become billion-dollar companies. Buffett mostly backs dominant, profitable companies in industries he understands, like Coca-Cola and Kraft Heinz.

Yet Buffett's philosophy of buying into great businesses run by sound management and holding them for the long term strikes a chord with Khosla.

"We are doing the same thing in a very different market," Khosla said. He summed up his strategy as making the "right investments in the right founders in the right markets," then waiting the better part of a decade to see a return.

However, Khosla is far less concerned than Buffett about the price he pays. "The hard part isn't the valuation, the hard part is picking which of 100 companies will have a huge impact on society and be worth tens of billions of dollars," he said.

"What we do is option-value investing — either the money expires or you build a really great company," Khosla continued. "If you're right, valuations don't matter."

Khosla pointed to his early bet on Square, the payment-processing company led by Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey that boasts a $116 billion market capitalization today. "We bet on Jack," he said, describing his wager as an option on Dorsey transforming small business.

It was a similar story with alternative meat-producer Impossible Foods, which Khosla plowed a few million dollars into back in 2011. "People thought venture capitalists investing in hamburgers was crazy," he said, as they couldn't imagine the food industry shifting from meat to plant-based protein.

Impossible was privately valued at $4 billion last year. "It wouldn't have mattered if we paid twice as much," Khosla said.

Buffett has had similar experiences. He nearly passed on buying See's Candies in 1972 because the seller wanted $30 million and he was loath to go above $25 million. Buffett got his way, but his discount proved to be a rounding error. See's has required only $40 million in investment to generate well over $2 billion in pre-tax income under his ownership.

Along with Buffett's buy-and-hold approach, Khosla admires the Berkshire Hathaway CEO's unwavering faith in his investing style, his ability to ignore hype and resist the easy option, and the fact that his billions have barely changed his lifestyle.

Khosla also gave kudos to Buffett for his massive Apple investment, which has more than tripled in value to north of $120 billion in the space of five years. "He's realized that tech is transforming society in very large, fundamental ways," he said.

The 66-year-old hopes to keep working as long as Buffett, who turns 91 next month. "If you love what you do, then keep doing it," he said. "I believe you grow old when you retire, you don't retire when you grow old."

Forget about the market

Leading investors such as Michael Burry of "The Big Short" and GMO cofounder Jeremy Grantham have warned asset prices are in a bubble and a historic crash is coming. Others including Bill Ackman expect a post-pandemic boom. Khosla is deeply skeptical of those types of forecasts.

"Anybody who thinks they know where the market is gonna go — they're not very smart," Khosla said, adding that he has "no clue" what will happen.

Public-market investors can feel like the world is ending when a bubble bursts, but that's not the case in the VC sphere, Khosla said. When you're betting on a company to transform an industry and chasing a 10x or 100x return over the next decade, a 30% or 50% fall in value today is no big deal — and you might see three booms and three busts before it's time to exit, he added.

Once again, Khosla and Buffett are on the same page. The Berkshire chief has often told investors to ignore daily stock-price moves, and only invest in things they would happily own if the market closed for a decade.

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Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway has scored an $8 billion gain on American Express this year — and made $25 billion on the stock overall

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Warren Buffett

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Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway has racked up an $8 billion gain on American Express this year, as one of its largest and oldest holdings has been a surprise outperformer.

The famed investor's conglomerate owned 152 million shares of American Express at the last count, giving it a 19% stake. The financial-services group's stock price has surged by about 45% this year, boosting the value of Berkshire's position from $18 billion at the start of January to $26 billion today.

American Express has been one of the two best-performing stocks in the Dow Jones index this year, along with Goldman Sachs, which Berkshire exited last year. The credit-card company's stock hit a record high in late July after it smashed Wall Street's forecasts for its second-quarter earnings. Its revenues surged 33% year-on-year to over $10 billion, as consumer spending rebounded from the pandemic, while a cut to credit-loss provisions helped propel its net income up about nine-fold to $2.3 billion.

Berkshire first invested in American Express in 1994, and spent $1.3 billion to establish its current stake, meaning it has scored a roughly $25 billion unrealized gain in under 30 years. Notably, Buffett previously owned more than 5% of the company, as his Buffett Partnership plowed $13 million into the stock after the salad-oil scandal temporarily tanked its price in the mid-1960s.

American Express is one of the five biggest positions in Berkshire's portfolio, while Buffett's conglomerate is the company's largest shareholder. Buffett has repeatedly emphasized the value of the American Express brand, framing it as a key competitive advantage, or "moat", to fend off rivals.

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Legendary tech VC Marc Andreessen says Warren Buffett's philosophy of putting all your eggs in one basket is the best investment advice

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The best investment advice Marc Andreessen has ever heard is from Warren Buffett, the tech legend and venture capitalist told Bloomberg's David Rubenstein in a recent interview

Berkshire Hathaway CEO Buffett, who has a net worth of about $101 billion, is famous for the strategies he has used to become one of the most successful investors of our time. One that's often quoted is this: "Keep all your eggs in one basket, but watch that basket closely." 

Andreessen thinks that is sound advice for investors. "Really know what you're doing," he said. "Really deeply understand the nature of what you're investing in."

The tech VC played a key role in creating the web browser Mosaic. Since co-founding Andreessen Horowitz, he has backed a string of tech companies, from social-media stalwarts Twitter and Facebook to audio-only chat app Clubhouse.

Buffett's approach, known as value investing, is the opposite of speculative get-rich-quick investments such as cryptocurrencies. His strategy requires investors to dive into not just the latest news, but focus on a company's fundamentals when deciding where to allocate their money. 

The billionaire investor has slammed bitcoin as a worthless delusion, called it "rat poison," and predicted digital assets will have a bad ending. But Andreessen doesn't share that view of cryptocurrencies, saying that he takes them "very seriously."

"Money is one application. There are many other applications, many other things that people are going to be able to do with this technology," he said.

Andreessen also recommended putting money into an S&P 500 Index Fund, which is said to offer good returns over time. "Don't get fancy," he warned.

For those aspiring to become successful venture capitalists, Andreessen thinks understanding people, technology, and markets in combination is key. "It's quite literally a liberal art," he said.

Read More: Founders of a VC firm in Crypto Valley lay out their 'picks and shovels' blockchain investing thesis — and 3 little-known startups to watch as the Swiss region becomes home to 11 crypto unicorns

 

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Marc Andreessen quoted Warren Buffett this week. The legendary venture capitalist blasted the investor's bitcoin views in 2014.

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Marc Andreessen revealed in a recent Bloomberg interview that his favorite piece of investing advice is: "Put all of your eggs in one basket and watch that basket closely." The legendary venture capitalist attributed that quote to Warren Buffett (it appears to date back to Andrew Carnegie in 1885), which is striking as Andreessen has blasted the Berkshire Hathaway CEO in the past, and Buffett doesn't exactly follow that mantra.

Buffett warned investors to avoid bitcoin in 2014, labeling it a "mirage" and describing the idea that it's inherently valuable as "just a joke." He compared the cryptocurrency to a check or money order, dismissing it as just another method of transmitting money.

Andreessen, the cofounder of Andreessen Horowitz, shrugged off Buffett's bitcoin critique as ignorant at a CoinSummit event that year. "The historical track record of old white men who don't understand technology crapping on new technology is at 100%," he said, according to his interviewer.

The venture capitalist elaborated on Twitter shortly afterward. He described Buffett as a "personal hero" of his and a "world-class expert in many areas,"CNBC reported, but he didn't value the Berkshire chief's uninformed opinion of bitcoin. 

"I know nothing about railroads," he added, likely referring to Berkshire's ownership of the BNSF Railway. "Correspondingly have no view."

Andreessen and Buffett both make concentrated wagers on businesses they like, whether it's a high-flying technology company like Facebook or Airbnb in the VC's case, or the likes of Geico and Bank of America for Buffett.

Although Buffett keeps more than 99% of his fortune in Berkshire stock, and 5 stocks make up 75% of his portfolio's value, he rejected the idea that he bets the farm on a single company during Berkshire's shareholder meeting in 2005.

"When we own Berkshire, we don't think of all our eggs being in one basket, because we have a lot of good businesses," Buffett said, underscoring the fact that Berkshire has scores of subsidiaries including See's Candies and PacifiCorp.

Still, Buffett would undoubtedly agree with Andreessen's recent recommendation of a S&P 500 index fund over something "fancy." Buffett has encouraged the vast majority of people to invest in tracker funds for years, and instructed that 90% of his estate be invested in a S&P 500 index fund for his wife upon his death.

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Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway has scored an almost $2 billion gain on DaVita stock in the past year

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Warren Buffett

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Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway has scored almost a $2 billion gain on DaVita stock in the past year, likely propelling the kidney-dialysis specialist into the conglomerate's 10 most-valuable portfolio holdings.

The famed investor's company holds 36.1 million shares of DaVita, giving it a 34.4% stake, a regulatory filing showed this week. DaVita's stock price closed at a record high of $134 on Wednesday, valuing Berkshire's position at $4.8 billion — up 60% from about $3 billion a year ago.

The upshot is that DaVita probably ranks among Berkshire's 10 largest common-stock investments today, given that seven of its top 15 holdings were worth under $4.1 billion at the end of 2020.

Berkshire first invested in DaVita in late 2011, and grew its stake to 38.6 million shares by 2014. Buffett and his team didn't touch that position until last year, when they trimmed it by about 6% to its current size.

Ted Weschler, one of Buffett's portfolio managers, likely placed the DaVita bet. Weschler owned the stock at Peninsula Capital Advisors — his former hedge fund — between 2003 and 2011, when he landed the Berkshire job.

Berkshire's ownership of DaVita is notable, given the dialysis specialist's controversial relationship with the American Kidney Fund, a nonprofit organization that helps people with kidney disorders to cover their insurance premiums.

DaVita is one of AKF's biggest donors, prompting critics including short-seller Jim Chanos to accuse the company of effectively paying the fund to move patients from Medicare to commercial insurance, which is more lucrative for DaVita and generates most of its profits. The California Department of Insurance also launched an investigation into DaVita's ties to AKF last year.

"I just can't understand why Berkshire Hathaway would be promoting a company that's gaming the insurance business as much as DaVita is," Chanos said at the Delivering Alpha conference in 2019, describing it as a "very bad look" for the insurance behemoth. The Kynikos Associates boss added that he was shorting the stock.

DaVita, AKF, Berkshire, and Kynikos didn't immediately respond to requests for comment from Insider.

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Short-seller Jim Chanos blasts meme-stock traders as greedy and entitled — and says they cry and point fingers when they lose money

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Jim Chanos

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Jim Chanos blasted meme-stock traders as immature and petulant in a tweet this week. The veteran short-seller also accused them of only caring about money, dismissing their grand claims of taking on Wall Street and democratizing finance as false narratives.

"$GME is up 780% and $AMC is up 1,470% this year. $AMC has tripled in the past three months," the Kynikos Associates boss tweeted from his WallStCynic account, using the stock tickers for GameStop and AMC Entertainment — two of the most popular meme stocks.

"This is not outrage, it is greed," Chanos continued. "The newest generation of entitled retail 'investors' must win all the time, or they cry and blame 'them,'" he added, referring to the hedge funds and shadowy institutions that some meme-stock buyers accuse of rigging markets.

The Kynikos boss tweeted in response to another user suggesting the GameStop and AMC short squeezes had exposed Wall Street crooks' manipulation of stock prices. Chanos has repeatedly mocked meme-stock buyers for their ignorance in recent months, and warned the scale and extent of market speculation today is far worse than during the dot-com bubble.

Chanos is best known for calling out Enron's massive accounting fraud and shorting its stock before the energy giant collapsed into bankruptcy in 2001. His more recent shorts include Beyond Meat, Elon Musk's Tesla, and DaVita— a kidney-dialysis specialist that counts Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway as its largest shareholder.

The short-seller is one of several high-profile investors to sound the alarm on the day-trading boom. Buffett, Michael Burry, Mark Cuban, and several others have cautioned amateur stock-pickers and options traders not to get carried away.

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Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway sold the 'Big Four' airline stocks because they were too volatile, American Airlines CEO says

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Warren Buffett

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Warren Buffett and his team took a leap of faith when they invested in the "Big Four" US airlines in 2016, and dumped them in April 2020 because the industry was too turbulent for them, American Airlines CEO Doug Parker said on The New York Times' "Sway" podcast this week.

"They had been out of airlines for so long, and Warren had made statements about how incredibly stupid it was to invest in airlines, and here they were investing again," Parker said. "It was a big deal for them."

Parker revealed that Ted Weschler, one of Buffett's two portfolio managers at Berkshire Hathaway, gave him a heads-up when Berkshire started buying his company's stock. Berkshire also purchased roughly 10% of the others in the Big Four Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, and Southwest Airlines.

Buffett was betting that passenger numbers would keep growing, share buybacks would continue, and the carriers would at least retain their value over the next decade. However, his expectations were thrown up in the air by the pandemic bringing travel to a screeching halt, and the airlines accepting government bailouts that included repayable loans, stock warrants, and restrictions on buybacks and dividends.

"This proved to them that it's still more volatile than they thought, and that's not the world they want to play in," Parker said about his industry.

The American Airlines chief seemed to acknowledge that his company's stock might not be the safest asset for Berkshire to own for the next 50 years. "We get the shareholders we deserve, and we don't deserve them right now," he said, referencing Buffett's famous saying that managers' actions determine their investor base.

Parker stopped short of saying Buffett was wrong to sell the Big Four airline stocks, which have all rallied strongly over the past 16 months. But he noted that "no one makes every call right."

Indeed, "Sway" host Kara Swisher recalled Buffett making a terrible prediction to her: "He was wrong about the internet. He told me the internet was a fad."

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Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway sold a net $1 billion of stock and slowed buybacks in the 2nd quarter

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Warren Buffett

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Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway was a net seller of stocks and pared its share buybacks in the second quarter, suggesting the billionaire investor's company struggled to find many bargains in the period.

Buffett's conglomerate — which owns businesses such as Geico and See's Candies, and holds multibillion-dollar stakes in Apple, Coca-Cola, and other public companies — reported a 22% increase in revenue to about $69 billion in the three months to June 30. Operating earnings, which exclude investment gains and losses, were $6.7 billion versus a loss of $5.4 billion in the same period of 2020.

Berkshire sold a net $1.1 billion of equities last quarter, as it bought $1 billion of stock and disposed of $2.1 billion worth in the period. That's a reduction from net stock sales of $3.9 billion in the first quarter, but the company still appears to be concentrating its holdings. Berkshire will disclose its US stock portfolio as of the end of June in a SEC filing later this month.

Buffett's company spent $6 billion on share buybacks last quarter, down from $6.6 billion in the first quarter, and about $9 billion in both the third and fourth quarters of 2020. However, it ramped up its stock repurchases sharply in June compared to April and May.

Berkshire boasted $144 billion of cash and short-term investments at the end of June, up from $141 billion (including payables for Treasury purchases) three months earlier. Buffett said in May that he was willing to deploy about $80 billion of Berkshire's cash pile, but he has struggled to find compelling investments over the past year with stocks at close to record highs, private equity firms and SPACs driving up the price of acquisitions, and Berkshire's rising stock price making buybacks less attractive.

Against that backdrop, Buffett and his team have cast a wider net over the past 12 months, investing in technology companies such as cloud-data platform Snowflake and Brazilian fintech Nubank, a quintet of Japanese trading companies, and a basket of pharmaceutical companies.

However, Berkshire has also concentrated its portfolio, exiting positions in JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, the "Big Four" US airlines, and several other stocks since the pandemic tanked markets in spring 2020.

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Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway sold stocks and slowed buybacks last quarter. Here are 5 key takeaways from its Q2 earnings.

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Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway published its second-quarter earnings report on Saturday, revealing it sold more stocks and cut back on share buybacks in the three months to June 30.

The famed investor's conglomerate owns scores of businesses, including Geico, See's Candies, and the BNSF Railway. It also holds multibillion-dollar stakes in Apple, Coca-Cola, Kraft Heinz, and other public companies. Given the scale and breadth of Berkshire's operations, which range from insurance and energy to manufacturing and retail, the company's earnings provided a valuable glimpse at the health of the US economy last quarter.

Here are the five key takeaways from its latest earnings report:

1. Stock sales

Berkshire invested $1 billion in equities and sold $2.1 billion worth, making it a net $1.1 billion seller of stocks last quarter. That compares with net stock sales of $4 billion in the first quarter, suggesting Buffett is growing more comfortable with his current portfolio, but has still erred towards shrinking instead of growing it. It's clear the value investor isn't finding many bargains while the US stock market continues to flirt with record highs.

In 2020, Berkshire sold a net $9 billion of stocks, meaning Buffett and his team have now disposed of $14 billion of equities in the space of 18 months. The company has exited JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, the "Big Four" US airlines, and other holdings in that timeframe, which suggests five stocks now account for 75% of its stock portfolio's total value of around $300 billion.

Its latest earnings showed that the cost basis of its "commercial, industrial, and other" stock holdings dwindled 10% to $43 billion last quarter. That could mean the company sold more Chevron stock after halving its stake in the energy group in the first quarter, and continued trimming its pharmaceutical holdings or General Motors position in the period.

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2. Share buybacks

Buffett's company spent $6 billion on share repurchases last quarter, down from $6.6 billion in the first quarter and about $9 billion in each of the two quarters before that. That downward trend suggests the investor sees Berkshire stock — which climbed around 9% in price last quarter, after jumping 12% in the first quarter — as less of a bargain now than he did six months ago.

Still, Berkshire has now plowed about $37 billion into buybacks in the space of 18 months, dwarfing its outlays of $5 billion in 2019 and $1.3 billion in 2018.

Berkshire appears to have spent another $1.7 billion on repurchases between the end of the quarter and July 26, based on the decline in its outstanding shares over that period. That suggests the company is continuing to spend about $2 billion on buybacks every month.

3. Cash reserves

For more than a decade, Buffett has told shareholders he won't conduct buybacks if they would reduce the value of Berkshire's cash, cash equivalents, and Treasury bills to below $20 billion. He raised that figure to $30 billion in his company's latest earnings report, signaling he wants to maintain a larger safety net than before.

Buffett may still be understating his preferred cash cushion. The investor said at Berkshire's annual meeting in May that the company had $70 billion or $80 billion that he would "love to put to work." Given Berkshire's cash pile totaled about $140 billion at the time, his comment suggests he wants the company to have $60 billion to $70 billion stashed away for a rainy day.

4. Broad recovery

Berkshire reported broad-based growth in the second quarter as the US economy reopened, boosting demand for many of its products and services.

The company's building-products group posted a 29% increase in revenue as demand for home construction, bricks, paint, and carpets soared. The BNSF Railway scored a 26% increase in revenue as freight volumes of consumer, industrial, agricultural, and other products all rose.

The real-estate division's revenue grew by 48% as Berkshire's brokerage and broker-franchise network cashed in on the housing boom. Sales also jumped 29% in the auto-dealer segment, 52% at electronic-components distributor TTI, and 48% at Marmon, an industrial holding company that serves the construction, automotive, and restaurant markets, among others.

On the other hand, Geico's pretax underwriting earnings plunged 70% as Americans returned to the road and auto-insurance claims soared. Precision Castparts also posted lower revenues as demand for aerospace components remained muted.

5. Inflation

Berkshire's latest earnings highlighted price increases in several markets, pointing to higher inflation.

The BNSF Railway's fuel expenses surged 112%, partly due to higher fuel prices, while its coal revenues jumped 42% as energy customers balked at lofty natural-gas prices. Marmon benefited from higher metal prices as it was able to pass them on to customers.

Moreover, Berkshire's building-products group hiked its prices in response to robust demand, and to supply disruptions that drove up the costs of lumber, steel, copper, energy, freight, fixtures, and petrochemical-based materials.

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Warren Buffett is being priced out of stocks and deals, spending billions on buybacks, and would love to own more homebuilders. 3 experts explain why.

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Warren Buffett is balking at the prices of stocks and acquisitions, relying on share buybacks to deploy capital, and may be hungry for a bigger slice of the homebuilding market, experts say.

Priced out

The famed investor and Berkshire Hathaway CEO built his fortune by purchasing stocks and businesses at knockdown prices, but he's struggled to find bargains in recent years.

"Buffett doesn't like buying into euphoric markets," Bill Smead, the chief investment officer of Smead Capital Management, told Insider. "Large, quality stocks are overpriced in his mind."

The Berkshire chief, who commands a roughly $300 billion stock portfolio, only spent $1 billion on stocks and sold $2.1 billion worth last quarter. The lack of activity suggests he didn't find any opportunities to make significant additions to his portfolio, or dispose of anything material, Darren Pollock, a portfolio manager at Cheviot Value Management, told Insider.

Berkshire, armed with $144 billion of cash at the last count, will be ready to pounce when the downturn comes, Smead said. "Buffett's bazooka will be loaded when stocks go from in fashion, to out of fashion."

Another issue is that private-equity firms and special-purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) are scrambling to close deals, and don't care if they overpay. Buffett won't be able to compete until interest rates rise substantially, Smead said, as that would spur investors to park their cash elsewhere and eliminate some rival suitors.

Buying Berkshire

Buffett, faced with a ballooning cash pile and very little worth buying, has embraced stock buybacks as an outlet for Berkshire's capital. The investor has repurchased close to $40 billion of his own company's stock since the start of 2020.

Berkshire has been paying below 1.4 times book value for its shares, "which fits his definition of paying a good price for a great business," Pollock said.

However, Berkshire's stock price has jumped about 26% this year, making buybacks less attractive. Accelerated repurchases haven't stopped Berkshire's cash pile from mushrooming to record levels either.

James Shanahan, an Edward Jones analyst who covers Berkshire, wants to see Buffett deploy more cash, as it's earning virtually nothing when interest rates and Treasury yields are this low.

"We would like to see more investment activity, as the cash is a drag on earnings and profitability," Shanahan said in his latest research note.

Doubling down on housing

Berkshire's subsidiaries have been major beneficiaries of the US housing boom. The likes of Clayton Homes, Nebraska Furniture Mart, Acme Brick, and Berkshire Hathaway Home Services have capitalized on buoyant demand for construction, home furnishings, building materials, and housing transactions.

Still, the conglomerate may be looking to increase its exposure to housing, and cash in on a generational surge in demand for homes.

"Buffett can see that millennials will overwhelm the economy and has numerous ways to make money from Main Street economic activity," Smead said. "He'd love to be more involved in home building, but hasn't had the door open yet."

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Warren Buffett's pandemic-hit businesses came roaring back last quarter. Here are his 7 big winners.

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Warren Buffett makes Sees Candies

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Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway was hit hard by the pandemic last year, but its businesses rebounded strongly last quarter as the US economy reopened, its latest earnings show.

The investor's conglomerate owns a sprawling collection of railroads, real-estate brokerages, manufacturers, retailers, distributors, and service companies. Its "real economy" focus made it more vulnerable to coronavirus-related lockdowns, travel restrictions, and supply-chain disruptions last year than the likes of Microsoft or Alphabet.

However, many of its businesses outperformed in the second quarter, capitalizing on soaring demand for homes, furniture, building products, cars, private jets, electronic components and other products and services.

Here are seven of Berkshire's big winners in the second quarter:

Railroads

Revenue: +26%

Pre-tax earnings: +33%

Notes: Burlington Northern Santa Fe is one of the largest railroad systems in North America.

Performance: The railway's revenues jumped as it transported greater volumes of consumer (+27%), industrial (+18%), and agricultural products (+13%) as well as coal (+32%) last quarter.

BNSF also benefited from retailers restocking, more e-commerce and automotive shipments, and greater volumes of construction and building materials.

 

Read more:Warren Buffett is being priced out of stocks and deals, spending billions on buybacks, and would love to own more homebuilders. 3 experts explain why. 



Real-estate brokerages

Revenue: +48%

Pretax earnings: +129%

Notes: Berkshire operates the nation's largest residential real-estate brokerage firm, Berkshire Hathaway Home Services, along with one of the largest franchise networks of residential real-estate brokers in the country. The real-estate business is housed within Berkshire Hathaway Energy.

Performance: The real-estate business earned significantly higher profits from brokerage and mortgage services in the past quarter, as more home transactions closed and more people took out mortgages.



Manufacturing — consumer products

Revenue: +68%

Pretax earnings: +197%

Notes: Berkshire owns Forest River (RVs), Duracell (batteries), Brooks Sports (athletic apparel and footwear), and Fruit of the Loom (apparel).

Performance: Revenues rose across Duracell, Brooks Sports, and the apparel businesses last quarter.

Forest River's revenue jumped 59% in the first half of 2021, driven by rising sales of RVs. Apparel and footwear sales jumped 47% over the same period, as retailers replenished their inventories amd consumer demand increased.

 



Manufacturing — building products

Revenue: +29%

Pretax earnings: +40%

Notes: Berkshire owns Clayton Homes (manufactured houses), Shaw (flooring), Johns Manville (insulation and roofing), Acme Building Brands (bricks), Benjamin Moore (paints), and MiTek (construction and engineering).

Performance: Clayton's revenue surged 32%, as it sold more houses and earned more revenue per home sold. Its pretax earnings rose 43%, lifted by higher takings from home sales and mortgages.

Revenue jumped 27% across the rest of the building-products unit, lifted by increased sales of paint and coatings, residential flooring, engineered products, and other building systems.

 

Read more:Vinod Khosla and Warren Buffett are at opposite ends of the investing spectrum. In an exclusive interview, the legendary VC reveals the 3 key principles they both follow, why valuations don't always matter, and why he isn't worried about asset bubbles or market crashes.



Manufacturing — industrials

Revenue: +24%

Pre-tax earnings: +80%

Notes: Berkshire's industrial businesses include Lubrizol (specialty chemicals), Marmon (industrial holding group), IMC (metalworking), and Precision Castparts (aerospace components).

Performance: Lubrizol's revenue was up 28%, driven by higher demand for specialty chemicals. Marmon's revenue surged 48% as it passed on higher metal prices to customers and tapped into robust demand across the construction, automotive, and restaurant markets. IMC's revenue jumped 44% on increased sales of metal-cutting tools and systems.



Services

Revenue: +49%

Pretax earnings: +180%

Notes: Berkshire owns NetJets (fractional ownership of private jets), FlightSafety (pilot training), TTI (electronic-components distribution), Dairy Queen (fast food), and Business Wire (press releases).

Performance: TTI's revenue rose 52% last quarter as electronics companies scrambled to maintain their inventories in the face of high demand and supply-chain disruptions.

Aviation revenue jumped 56%, buoyed by pilots logging more training hours and private-jet customers booking more trips.

 



Retail

Revenue: +48%

Pretax earnings: +210%

Notes: Berkshire owns Berkshire Hathaway Automotive (car dealerships), See's Candies (confectionery), Nebraska Furniture Mart (home furnishings), Borsheims (jewellery), Pampered Chef (kitchen tools)

Performance: BHA's revenues rose 29% in the first half of 2021 as sales of new and preowned vehicles jumped 30%.

The home-furnishing unit's revenues climbed 38% over the same period, and the rest of the retailing businesses grew revenue by 51%.



Billionaire investor Dan Loeb trumpeted his bets on Buffett-backed RH, crypto, and private companies in his Q2 letter

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Daniel Dan Loeb

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Billionaire investor Dan Loeb trumpeted his recent bet on RH, touted cryptocurrencies, and underlined the value of buying into private companies in his second-quarter letter to investors in his Third Point hedge fund.

Joining Warren Buffett

Third Point first invested in RH — formerly known as Restoration Hardware — in the fourth quarter of 2020. The fund owned 278,000 shares, or 1.3%, of the high-end furniture retailer at the end of March. That position is worth $200 million today, based on RH's current stock price of around $720.

In his letter, Loeb described RH CEO Gary Friedman as a "once-in-a-generation leader who is both an innovator and effective capital allocator."

The fund manager also argued RH's premium brand and novel strategy differentiates it from peers. "In the same way that Ferrari should not be compared to other auto manufacturers, we believe RH should not be considered a traditional furniture company," Loeb said.

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway may well share that view. The famed investor's company has built an 8% stake in RH over the past two years that's worth $1.3 billion today, largely thanks to RH's stock price more than quadrupling in that timeframe.

True believer

Loeb described cryptocurrencies as a transformative innovation in his letter.

"While crypto is popularly viewed as an alternative (and speculative) asset class, we are most intrigued by its potential to become a disruptive technology, impacting broad swaths of the economy," he said.

Loeb highlighted three of crypto's key features: its accessibility and transparency, the prospect that it could speed up and reduce the cost of transactions, and the sense of independence it gives its fans.

The investor predicted "extreme volatility in price and sentiment" going forward, but argued that crypto's rich potential outweighed those challenges. He also downplayed the risk of a regulatory crackdown, suggesting it could clarify the industry's rules and attract more money.

Loeb's crypto beliefs have spurred him to invest in CipherTrace, which helps crypto exchanges comply with financial regulations, Bitwise, a passive-asset manager, and FTX, the digital-asset exchange founded by crypto billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried.

Getting in early

Third Point invested in SentinelOne at a post-money valuation of $98 million in 2015. The cybersecurity company went public this summer and now carries a $14 billion market capitalization, valuing the fund's stake at well over $1 billion today.

Loeb highlighted that massive gain to underscore how lucrative bets on private companies can be. He described them as an "indispensable way for us to create significant positions which we would never be able to replicate by waiting for such companies to come public."

The fund manager also noted that he's finding plenty of excellent businesses off the beaten track.

"We see many high-quality companies 'hiding out' behind the opaque curtain of corporate reorganizations, or smeared by the taint of having come public in an unorthodox manner and bearing the four scarlet letters "S-P-A-C," he said.

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A Buffett-backed Brazilian fintech firm is reportedly planning a $2 billion US IPO

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NuBank

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Brazilian digital bank Nubank, which has a multimillion-dollar investment from legendary investor Warren Buffett's company, is planning an initial public offering of more than $2 billion in the US stock market, according to a Bloomberg report

The fintech, legally named Nu Pagamentos SA, is aiming to launch its IPO on Nasdaq by the end of 2021 and it may seek a valuation of more than $40 billion, sources told Bloomberg in a report published Thursday. 

The Sao Paulo-based company's valuation ballooned to $30 billion after Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway bought a $500 million stake in the company in June, adding to the conglomerate's investments in private technology companies. Nubank runs digital payment accounts for more than 40 million clients and has a Mastercard-branded credit card. 

A valuation of more than $40 billion would leave Nubank as Latin America's second-most valuable financial institution, behind Brazil's Itau Unibanco Holding

Talks about launching a US IPO are ongoing, the report said, adding that Nubank declined to comment.

Berkshire Hathaway's investment in private tech includes a stake in Paytm, an Indian digital payments group that is expected to go public this year. Last year, it purchased millions of shares of cloud-data platform Snowflake before it went public in September.

Nubank going public would add to an already packed year of trading debuts worldwide. The second quarter was the most active for companies entering the public markets in more than 20 years, with 597 IPOs launched, according to consulting firm EY.  Didi Global, the Chinese ride-hailing service, was the biggest IPO by proceeds that quarter, drawing in $4.4 billion with its Nasdaq debut.

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Warren Buffett wrote to Congress in 1982 to voice his concerns about futures trading — and many of his fears have come true

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warren buffett

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Warren Buffett has warned people against speculating on options and accused Robinhood of encouraging users to gamble on them instead of investing for the long term. The billionaire investor and Berkshire Hathaway CEO predicted derivatives would lead to risky trading and reckless brokers nearly 40 years ago.

Buffett penned a letter to John Dingell, the late Democratic politician who served in the House of Representatives for nearly 60 years, in 1982. The investor's missive resurfaced this week courtesy of 10-K Diver, a Twitter user who teaches finance and investing concepts on the platform.

The Berkshire chief wrote to Dingell to warn against introducing futures tied to the S&P 500 index. Buffett noted that investors could short the contracts to hedge against short-term volatility, but he cautioned that virtually everyone buying them would be gambling on stocks rising in the near term — not betting on the long-term performance of the underlying companies.

"The propensity to gamble is always increased by a large prize versus a small entry fee, no matter how poor the true odds may be," Buffett said. "That's why Las Vegas casinos advertise big jackpots and why state lotteries headline big prizes."

"The unintelligent are seduced" by low prices and huge upside, he added, pointing to promoters of penny stocks and brokers who allow trading on minimal margin. Similarly, gamblers would use S&P 500 futures to bet on the short-term direction of the index while avoiding margin requirements, he said.

Buffett also explained why introducing futures would lead to rampant speculation, and result in a net loss for investors.

"Since the casino (the futures market and its supporting cast of brokers) gets paid a toll each time one of these transactions takes place, you can be sure that it will have a great interest in providing very large numbers of losers and winners," he said.

Moreover, transaction costs would make futures trading a "negative sum game" for investors, he said. In contrast, investing in stocks is a "positive sum game" as the underlying companies grow and generate more money for their shareholders, he continued.

Buffett predicted that at least 95% of the activity involving futures would be "strictly gambling in nature." People would use small sums of money to bet big on short-term stock movements, and brokerages would encourage them to trade more and more to maximize their cut, he said.

Brokers would do better over time if they didn't let their customers fritter away their cash, but they're too short-sighted to care, Buffett continued. "They often have been happiest when behavior was at its silliest," he noted.

The Berkshire chief also warned that futures would tarnish the stock market's image, as many people would get "burned" by them and blame their losses on stocks.

Finally, Buffett argued the country needed more people investing for the long term, not more gamblers egged on by brokers. Large volumes of future trading would be "overwhelmingly detrimental to the security-buying public" and markets as well, he added.

Buffett's warnings about futures nearly four decades ago could easily be written about options today, as a new generation of traders continue to buy them based on memes and social media.

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Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway sold its Biogen stake last quarter — and slashed its pharmaceutical bets

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warren buffett

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Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway sold its stakes in Biogen and Axalta, trimmed its pharmaceutical bets, and added to a handful of positions in the second quarter, its latest portfolio update shows.

The famed investor's conglomerate may have cashed out its Biogen investment after the drugmaker's stock soared to a record high in June on the news that federal regulators had approved its controversial Alzheimer's treatment.

Berkshire cut its stakes in AbbVie by 10%, Bristol Myers Squibb by 15%, and Merck by 49% last quarter, despite only establishing those positions in the third quarter of 2020. Buffett and his team also dumped more than 80% of their Liberty Global stock, sold another 2% of their Chevron stake after halving it in the first quarter, and cashed in 10% of their General Motors stock. On the other hand, they boosted their position in Kroger by 21%, RH by 2%, and Aon — their only new investment in the first quarter - by 7%.

The total value of Berkshire's portfolio — which is dominated by massive stakes in Apple, Bank of America, American Express, Coca-Cola, and Kraft Heinz — rose by 8% to $293 billion last quarter. There were no major changes, which was widely expected as the company's recent second-quarter earnings showed it only bought $1 billion of stocks and disposed of $2.1 billion worth in the period.

The only new holding was Organon, the name given to a bunch of Merck's businesses that it spun off in June. Merck shareholders received one Organon share for every 10 Merck shares they held.

Notably, Berkshire didn't eliminate its Wells Fargo stake last quarter, despite selling the overwhelming majority of it since last year. Buffett's company has been a shareholder for more than 30 years, and counted the bank among its five biggest holdings for most of that time. Indeed, it owned more than 13% of Wells Fargo in 1994, and held $27 billion worth of its shares in 2016 — dwarfing its $31 million stake at the end of June.

Buffett is eager to deploy up to $80 billion of Berkshire's roughly $140 billion cash pile, he said at Berkshire's annual shareholder meeting in May. However, the investor has struggled to find bargains with stocks at close to record highs, private equity firms and SPACs driving up the prices of acquisitions, and even buybacks becoming less attractive with Berkshire stock up 27% this year.

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Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway sold Biogen, halved its Merck stake, and boosted its Kroger bet. Here's a closer look at its key trades in Q2.

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warren buffett

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Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway sold all of its Biogen stock, slashed its Merck stake, and ramped up its Kroger position in the second quarter, its latest portfolio update revealed.

The famed investor's conglomerate made few other changes to its stockholdings last quarter, making those trades especially notable. Here's a closer look at them.

1. Biogen

Berkshire invested in Biogen, the biotech behind the Alzheimer's drug Aduhelm, in the fourth quarter of 2019. It trimmed its stake by 1% to around 643,000 shares during the next quarter, and maintained that position for the next 12 months.

Buffett's company cashed out its Biogen shares last quarter, potentially capitalizing on the drugmaker's stock price surging to a record high in June after federal regulators approved Aduhelm. Berkshire at least broke even on the investment, based on Biogen's average stock price last quarter, and may have notched a $50 million profit if it sold at the peak — an estimated 25% return in around 18 months.

2. Merck

Berkshire initially bought around 22 million shares of Merck in the third quarter of 2020, then boosted its position in the drugmaker to nearly 29 million shares worth $2.3 billion during the next quarter. However, it reversed course in the first half of this year, slashing its stake by more than two-thirds, to about 9 million shares as of June 30.

Buffett's company has taken a similar approach with AbbVie and Bristol Myers Squibb. It established stakes in the two pharmaceutical groups in the third quarter of 2020, boosted those positions over the next three months, then cut its stakes in both companies during the first half of this year.

Merck stock is almost flat year-to-date, while AbbVie and Bristol Myers Squibb shares are up about 12%, suggesting Berkshire has broadly made money on its recent sales.

Buffett has previously underscored his interest in owning a "basket" of pharmaceutical stocks, but the recent sales suggest a case of buyer's remorse. The investor foreshadowed the latest disposals in May, when he noted that Berkshire had invested in a group of stocks that he didn't have any special insights into, felt "kind of so-so" about, and wasn't "wildly comfortable" owning. Berkshire's pharma bets, which also included a small stake in Pfizer that was quickly sold, fit that description.

3. Kroger

Berkshire more than tripled its stake in the premium grocer from an initial 19 million shares at the end of 2019, to 62 million shares as of June 30 this year. Its position soared in value from $549,000 to $2.4 billion during that period, reflecting Berkshire's share purchases and a roughly 33% increase in Kroger's stock price. 

Kroger stock has marched higher over the past six weeks, lifting the value of Berkshire's stake to about $2.7 billion today. Berkshire's sustained buying of the stock over the past 18 months, a period when the company eviscerated key holdings including Wells Fargo and eliminated others such as JPMorgan, underscores how bullish it is about the business.

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Bill Ackman will return his SPAC's $4 billion if his next-generation SPARC is approved. He quoted Warren Buffett to explain why.

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Bill Ackman

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Bill Ackman will return his SPAC's $4 billion of cash to investors if regulators approve his next-generation acquisition vehicle, he revealed in a shareholder letter Friday. The billionaire boss of Pershing Square Tontine Holdings (PSTH) paraphrased a Warren Buffett quote to explain his decision.

"If you find yourself in a leaky boat, often times you are better off switching boats than patching leaks to complete the mission," Ackman tweeted.

Buffett used the same analogy more than 35 years ago. "Should you find yourself in a chronically leaking boat, energy devoted to changing vessels is likely to be more productive than energy devoted to patching leaks," the Berkshire Hathaway CEO advised in his 1985 shareholder letter.

Ackman recently scrapped PSTH's deal to buy 10% of Universal Music Group due to regulatory pushback, and restarted his search for an acquisition. He's now planning to focus on his special-purpose acquisition rights vehicle (SPARC) because of a shareholder lawsuit.

The complaint accuses PSTH of operating as an illegal investment company, as it invested its IPO proceeds in Treasury bonds and money-market funds. Ackman dismissed the claims as "meritless" in his letter. He described the shareholder behind it as an "unwitting prop" being used by two law professors and their lawyers to sue PSTH in an effort to reform the SPAC industry.

The Pershing Square chief noted that hundreds of other SPACs have invested their shareholders' cash while they sniff out a deal. He warned the litigation could scare off potential merger partners and have a "chilling effect" on other SPACs going public or agreeing acquisitions.

The investor added that PSTH's ability to complete a transaction was "impaired" by the lawsuit, especially as the SPAC only has 11 months left to strike a deal. However, he declared that he wouldn't cave under pressure and settle.

Ackman softened the blow by assuring PSTH shareholders that "all is not lost." He expressed confidence that his proposed SPARC— which wouldn't tie up investors' cash or face a two-year deadline like a SPAC — would be approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

If the SPARC and its warrants get the green light, Ackman plans to hand PSTH's $4 billion of IPO proceeds back to its shareholders. The company would distribute $20 in cash per share plus the market value of a SPARC warrant, enabling shareholders to buy into his new vehicle, he tweeted.

Ackman's nod to Buffett is no surprise as he's a longtime admirer of the investor, and his hedge fund held a $1 billion stake in Berkshire as recently as March 2020. However, Ackman and his team exited that position after they learned that Buffett hadn't snapped up bargains when the pandemic tanked markets.

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57 highly influential business and leadership books that can boost your management skills

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most influential books 4X3

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If you want to be successful, you should read about 500 pages per day. Or, that's what Warren Buffet, arguably the most skilled investor of our time, might tell you. Buffet has estimated that he spends approximately 80% of his day reading: "My job is essentially just corralling more and more and more facts and information, and occasionally seeing whether that leads to some action,"he once said in an interview. As Buffett put it, knowledge "builds up, like compound interest."

Many successful people are bookworms. Former President Barack Obama has described the 'indispensable' role books played in his presidency, while Stephen King reads about 80 books every year.

Below, you'll find 57 of the most influential business books — from military tomes and canonical investing playbooks to contemporary titles focused on enhancing emotional intelligence (or learning from cautionary tales). You'll also find memoirs which, as Nahema Mehta, CEO of Absolut Art, told Insider, "could easily be considered books on leadership." 

Descriptions provided by Amazon and edited for length and clarity.

57 influential business books:

'Thinking, Fast and Slow' by Daniel Kahneman

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Two systems drive the way we think and make choices, Kahneman explains: System One is fast, intuitive, and emotional; System Two is slower, more deliberative, and more logical. 

Engaging the reader in a lively conversation about how we think, Kahneman shows where we can trust our intuitions and how we can tap into the benefits of slow thinking, contrasting the two-system view of the mind with the standard model of the rational economic agent. 



"Business Adventures" by John Brooks

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What do the $350 million Ford Motor Company disaster known as the Edsel, the fast and incredible rise of Xerox, and the unbelievable scandals at General Electric and Texas Gulf Sulphur have in common? Each is an example of how an iconic company was defined by a particular moment of fame or notoriety; these notable and fascinating accounts are as relevant today to understanding the intricacies of corporate life as they were when the events happened.



"Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World — and Why Things Are Better Than You Think" by Hans Rosling, Anna Rosling Rönnlund, and Ola Rosling

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When asked simple questions about global trends — what percentage of the world's population lives in poverty; why the world's population is increasing; how many girls finish school — we systematically get the answers wrong. So wrong that a chimpanzee choosing answers at random will consistently outguess teachers, journalists, Nobel laureates, and investment bankers.

"Factfulness" offers a radical new explanation of why this happens, outlining the ten instincts that distort our perspective ― from our tendency to divide the world into two camps (usually some version of us and them) to the way we consume media (where fear rules) to how we perceive progress (believing that most things are getting worse).



"Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead" by Brené Brown

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Every day we experience the uncertainty, risks, and emotional exposure that define what it means to be vulnerable or to dare greatly. Based on twelve years of pioneering research, Brené Brown, Ph.D., LMSW, dispels the cultural myth that vulnerability is weakness and argues that it is, in truth, our most accurate measure of courage. "Daring Greatly" presents a transformative new vision for the way we lead, love, work, parent, and educate that teaches us the power of vulnerability.



"How to Win Friends & Influence People" by Dale Carnegie

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Dale Carnegie's rock-solid, time-tested advice has carried countless people up the ladder of success in their business and personal lives. One of the most groundbreaking and ageless bestsellers, "How to Win Friends & Influence People" will teach you: six ways to make people like you, twelve ways to win people to your way of thinking, nine ways to change people without arousing resentment, and more.



"The Intelligent Investor" by Benjamin Graham

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The greatest investment advisor of the twentieth century, Benjamin Graham, taught and inspired people worldwide. Graham's philosophy of "value investing" — which shields investors from substantial error and teaches them to develop long-term strategies — has made "The Intelligent Investor" the stock market bible ever since its original publication in 1949.

 



'Radical Candor' by Kim Scott

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The idea is simple: You don't have to choose between being a pushover and a jerk. Using Radical Candor ― avoiding the perils of Obnoxious Aggression, Manipulative Insincerity, and Ruinous Empathy ― you can be kind and clear at the same time.

Kim Scott was a highly successful leader at Google before decamping to Apple, where she developed and taught a management class. Since the original publication of Radical Candor in 2017, Scott has earned international fame with her vital approach to effective leadership and co-founded the Radical Candor executive education company, which helps companies put the book's philosophy into practice.



"Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don't" by Jim Collins

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The findings of the "Good to Great" study will surprise many readers and shed light on virtually every area of management strategy and practice. "Some of the key concepts discerned in the study," comments Jim Collins, "fly in the face of our modern business culture and will, quite frankly, upset some people."



'Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance' by Angela Duckworth

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In this instant "New York Times" bestseller, pioneering psychologist Angela Duckworth shows anyone striving to succeed — be it parents, students, educators, athletes, or business people — that the secret to outstanding achievement is not talent but a special blend of passion and persistence she calls "grit."



"The Innovator's Dilemma: The Revolutionary Book That Will Change the Way You Do Business" by Clayton M. Christensen

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Offering both successes and failures from leading companies as a guide, "The Innovator's Dilemma" gives you a set of rules for capitalizing on the phenomenon of disruptive innovation.



'Emotional Intelligence 2.0' by Travis Bradberry & Jean Greaves

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Emotional Intelligence 2.0 delivers a step-by-step program for increasing your EQ via four, core EQ skills that enable you to achieve your fullest potential: Self-Awareness, Self-Management, Social Awareness, and Relationship Management. Emotional Intelligence 2.0 is a book with a single purpose—increasing your EQ. 



"The Outsiders: Eight Unconventional CEOs and Their Radically Rational Blueprint for Success" by William N. Thorndike

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In this refreshing, counterintuitive book, author Will Thorndike brings to bear the analytical wisdom of a successful career in investing, closely evaluating the performance of companies and their leaders. You will meet eight individualistic CEOs whose firms' average returns outperformed the S&P 500 by a factor of twenty — in other words, an investment of $10,000 with each of these CEOs, on average, would have been worth over $1.5 million 25 years later.

You may not know all their names, but you will recognize their companies: General Cinema, Ralston Purina, The Washington Post Company, Berkshire Hathaway, General Dynamics, Capital Cities Broadcasting, TCI, and Teledyne. 



"Lead from the Outside" by Stacey Abrams

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Leadership is hard. Convincing others ― and yourself ― that you are capable of taking charge and achieving more requires insight and courage. "Lead from the Outside" is the handbook for outsiders, written with an eye toward the challenges that hinder women, people of color, the working class, members of the LGBTQ community, and millennials ready to make change. 



“Noise” by Daniel Kahneman, Olivier Sibony, and Cass R. Sunstein

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Imagine that two doctors in the same city give different diagnoses to identical patients — or that two judges in the same courthouse give markedly different sentences to people who have committed the same crime. Now imagine that the same doctor or the same judge makes different decisions depending on whether it is morning or afternoon, or Monday rather than Wednesday. These are examples of noise: variability in judgments that should be identical.
 
In "Noise," Daniel Kahneman, Olivier Sibony, and Cass R. Sunstein show the detrimental effects of noise in many fields, including medicine, law, economic forecasting, forensic science, bail, child protection, strategy, performance reviews, and personnel selection. Wherever there is judgment, there is noise. Yet, most of the time, individuals and organizations alike are unaware of it. They neglect noise. With a few simple remedies, people can reduce both noise and bias, and so make far better decisions.



"Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action" by Simon Sinek

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Simon Sinek starts with a fundamental question: Why are some people and organizations more innovative, more influential, and more profitable than others? Why do some command greater loyalty from customers and employees alike? Even among the successful, why are so few able to repeat their success over and over?



"Think and Grow Rich!" by Napoleon Hill

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Through researching billionaires, Napoleon Hill crafted the philosophy and lifestyle behind those who experienced financial success. Although Hill's aim was to coach others to become like said billionaires, "Think and Grow Rich" is more about encouraging people towards their own perspective goals.



"Blue Ocean Strategy, Expanded Edition: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant" by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne

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"Blue Ocean Strategy" argues that cutthroat competition results in nothing but a bloody red ocean of rivals fighting over a shrinking profit pool. Based on a study of 150 strategic moves (spanning more than 100 years across 30 industries), the authors argue that lasting success comes not from battling competitors but from creating "blue oceans"— untapped new market spaces ripe for growth.



"Too Big to Fail" by Andrew Ross Sorkin

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In one of the most gripping financial narratives in decades, Andrew Ross Sorkin — a "New York Times" columnist and one of the country's most respected financial reporters — delivers the first definitive blow-by-blow account of the epochal economic crisis that brought the world to the brink.



"Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ" by Daniel Goleman

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Through vivid examples, Goleman delineates the five crucial skills of emotional intelligence, and shows how they determine our success in relationships, work, and even our physical well-being. What emerges is an entirely new way to talk about being smart.



"The Lean Startup" by Eric Ries

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Most startups fail. But many of those failures are preventable. "The Lean Startup" is a new approach being adopted across the globe, changing the way companies are built and new products are launched.



"The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" by Stephen R. Covey

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One of the most inspiring and impactful books ever written, "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" has captivated readers for 25 years. It has transformed the lives of Presidents and CEOs, educators, and parents — in short, millions of people of all ages and occupations.



'Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking' by Susan Cain

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At least one-third of the people we know are introverts. They are the ones who prefer listening to speaking; who innovate and create but dislike self-promotion; who favor working on their own over working in teams. 

In "Quiet," Susan Cain argues that we dramatically undervalue introverts and shows how much we lose in doing so. She charts the rise of the Extrovert Ideal throughout the twentieth century and explores how deeply it has come to permeate our culture. She also introduces us to successful introverts — from a witty, high-octane public speaker who recharges in solitude after his talks, to a record-breaking salesman who quietly taps into the power of questions. 



"The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable" by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

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A black swan is an event, positive or negative, that is deemed improbable yet causes massive consequences. In this groundbreaking and prophetic book, Taleb shows in a playful way that Black Swan events explain almost everything about our world, and yet we — especially the experts — are blind to them. 



'Dare to Lead' by Brene Brown

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Four-time #1 New York Times bestselling author Brené Brown has spent the past two decades studying the emotions and experiences that give meaning to our lives, and the past seven years working with transformative leaders and teams spanning the globe. She found that leaders in organizations ranging from small entrepreneurial startups and family-owned businesses to nonprofits, civic organizations, and Fortune 50 companies all ask the same question: How do you cultivate braver, more daring leaders, and how do you embed the value of courage in your culture? 

In this new book, Brown uses research, stories, and examples to answer these questions in the no-BS style that millions of readers have come to expect and love.



'Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don't' Simon Sinek

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In his work with organizations around the world, Simon Sinek noticed that some teams trust each other so deeply that they would literally put their lives on the line for each other. Other teams, no matter what incentives are offered, are doomed to infighting, fragmentation, and failure. Why?

The answer became clear during a conversation with a Marine Corps general. "Officers eat last," he said. Sinek watched as the most junior Marines ate first while the most senior Marines took their place at the back of the line. What's symbolic in the chow hall is deadly serious on the battlefield: Great leaders sacrifice their own comfort — even their own survival — for the good of those in their care.



"Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup" by John Carreyrou

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In 2014, Theranos founder and CEO Elizabeth Holmes was widely seen as the next Steve Jobs: a brilliant Stanford dropout whose startup "unicorn" promised to revolutionize the medical industry with its breakthrough device, which performed the whole range of laboratory tests from a single drop of blood. Backed by investors such as Larry Ellison and Tim Draper, Theranos sold shares in a fundraising round that valued the company at more than $9 billion, putting Holmes's worth at an estimated $4.5 billion. 

There was just one problem: The technology didn't work.



"First, Break All The Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently" by Jim Harter

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Gallup presents the remarkable findings of its revolutionary study of more than 80,000 managers in "First, Break All the Rules,"revealing what the world's greatest managers do differently. With vital performance and career lessons and ideas for how to apply them, it is a must-read for managers at every level.



"Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies" by Jim Collins and Jerry I Porras

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Drawing upon a six-year research project at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business, James C. Collins and Jerry I. Porras took 18 truly exceptional and long-lasting companies and studied each in direct comparison to one of its top competitors.



'Reset' by Ellen Pao

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In 2015, Ellen K. Pao sued a powerhouse Silicon Valley venture capital firm, calling out workplace discrimination and retaliation against women and other underrepresented groups. Her suit rocked the tech world—and exposed its toxic culture and its homogeneity. Her message overcame negative PR attacks that took aim at her professional conduct and her personal life, and she won widespread public support — TIME hailed her as "the face of change." Though Pao lost her suit, she revolutionized the conversation at tech offices, in the media, and around the world. In "Reset", she tells her full story for the first time.



"Guerrilla Marketing" by Jay Conrad Levinson

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When "Guerrilla Marketing" was first published in 1983, Jay Levinson revolutionized marketing strategies for the small-business owner with his take-no-prisoners approach to finding clients. Based on hundreds of solid ideas that really work, Levinson's philosophy has given birth to a new way of learning about market share and how to gain it.



"When Genius Failed: The Rise and Fall of Long-Term Capital Management" by Roger Lowenstein

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Roger Lowenstein captures the gripping roller-coaster ride of Long-Term Capital Management. Drawing on confidential internal memos and interviews with dozens of key players, Lowenstein explains not just how the fund made and lost its money but also how the personalities of Long-Term's partners, the arrogance of their mathematical certainties, and the culture of Wall Street itself contributed to both their rise and their fall.



"The Wealth of Nations" by Adam Smith

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["The Wealth of Nations"] describes what builds nations' wealth and is today a fundamental work in classical economics and touches upon such broad topics as the division of labor, productivity, and free markets.



"Barbarians at the Gate" by Bryan Burrough and John Helyar

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A #1 "New York Times" bestseller and arguably the best business narrative ever written, "Barbarians at the Gate" is the classic account of the fall of RJR Nabisco. An enduring masterpiece of investigative journalism by Bryan Burrough and John Helyar, it includes a new afterword by the authors that brings this remarkable story of greed and double-dealings up to date twenty years after the famed deal.



"The Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron" by Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind

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The Enron scandal brought down one of the most admired companies of the 1990s. Countless books and articles were written about it, but only "The Smartest Guys in the Room" holds up a decade later as the definitive narrative.



"In search of Excellence: Lessons from America's Best-Run Companies" by Thomas Peters and Robert H. Waterman

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Based on a study of forty-three of America's best-run companies from a diverse array of business sectors, "In Search of Excellence" describes eight basic principles of management — action-stimulating, people-oriented, profit-maximizing practices — that made these organizations successful.



"Thrive: The Third Metric to Redefining Success and Creating a Life of Well-Being, Wisdom, and Wonder" by Arianna Huffington

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In this deeply personal book, Arianna Huffington talks candidly about her own challenges with managing time and prioritizing the demands of a career and raising two daughters. Drawing on the latest groundbreaking research and scientific findings in the fields of psychology, sports, sleep, and physiology that show the profound and transformative effects of meditation, mindfulness, unplugging, and giving, Arianna shows us the way to a revolution in our culture, our thinking, our workplace, and our lives.



'Steve Jobs' by Walter Isaacson

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Based on more than 40 interviews with Steve Jobs conducted over two years — as well as interviews with more than 100 family members, friends, adversaries, competitors, and colleagues — Walter Isaacson has written a riveting story of the roller-coaster life and searingly intense personality of a creative entrepreneur whose passion for perfection and ferocious drive revolutionized six industries: personal computers, animated movies, music, phones, tablet computing, and digital publishing.

At a time when America is seeking ways to sustain its innovative edge, Jobs stands as the ultimate icon of inventiveness and applied imagination. He knew that the best way to create value in the twenty-first century was to connect creativity with technology. He built a company where leaps of the imagination were combined with remarkable feats of engineering.



'Becoming' by Michelle Obama

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In her memoir, a work of deep reflection and mesmerizing storytelling, Michelle Obama invites readers into her world, chronicling the experiences that have shaped her — from her childhood on the South Side of Chicago to her years as an executive balancing the demands of motherhood and work, to her time spent at the world's most famous address. With unerring honesty and lively wit, she describes her triumphs and her disappointments, both public and private, telling her full story as she has lived it —in her own words and on her own terms.



'Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future' by Peter Thiel

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The great secret of our time is that there are still uncharted frontiers to explore and new inventions to create. In "Zero to One," legendary entrepreneur and investor Peter Thiel shows how we can find singular ways to create those new things.

Thiel begins with the contrarian premise that we live in an age of technological stagnation, even if we're too distracted by shiny mobile devices to notice. Information technology has improved rapidly, but there is no reason why progress should be limited to computers or Silicon Valley. Progress can be achieved in any industry or area of business. It comes from the most important skill that every leader must master: learning to think for yourself.



'Good Economics for Hard Times' by Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo

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Immigration and inequality, globalization and technological disruption, slowing growth, and accelerating climate change — these are sources of great anxiety across the world, from New Delhi and Dakar to Paris and Washington, DC. The resources to address these challenges are there — what we lack are ideas that will help us jump the wall of disagreement and distrust that divides us. Here, the winners of the Nobel Prize show how economics, when done right, can help us solve the thorniest social and political problems of our day.



'Uncanny Valley' by Anna Wiener

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Part coming-of-age-story, part portrait of an already-bygone era, Anna Wiener's memoir is a rare first-person glimpse into high-flying, reckless startup culture at a time of unchecked ambition, unregulated surveillance, wild fortune, and accelerating political power. With wit, candor, and heart, Anna deftly charts the tech industry's shift from self-appointed world savior to democracy-endangering liability, alongside a personal narrative of aspiration, ambivalence, and disillusionment.



"The Essays of Warren Buffett: Lessons for Corporate America, Fourth Edition" edited by Lawrence A. Cunningham

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[This book's] popularity and longevity attest to the widespread appetite for this unique compilation of Buffett's thoughts that is at once comprehensive, non-repetitive, and digestible. 



"Den of Thieves" by James B. Stewart

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"Den of Thieves" tells the full story of the insider-trading scandal that nearly destroyed Wall Street, the men who pulled it off, and the chase that finally brought them to justice.



"Reengineering the Corporation: A Manifesto for Business Revolution" by Michael Hammer and James A. Champy

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Building on their firsthand experiences, Hammer and Champy show how some of the world's premier corporations use the principles of reengineering to save hundreds of millions of dollars a year, to achieve unprecedented levels of customer satisfaction, and to speed up and make more flexible all aspects of their operations. The key to reengineering is abandoning the most basic notions on which the modern organization is founded.



'Winners Take All' by

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The "New York Times" bestselling, groundbreaking investigation of how the global elite's efforts to "change the world" preserve the status quo and obscure their role in causing the problems they later seek to solve. An essential read for understanding some of the egregious abuses of power that dominate today's news.



'Mindset: The New Psychology of Success' by Carol S. Dweck

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After decades of research, world-renowned Stanford University psychologist Carol S. Dweck, Ph.D., discovered a simple but groundbreaking idea: the power of mindset. In this brilliant book, she shows how success in school, work, sports, the arts, and almost every area of human endeavor can be dramatically influenced by how we think about our talents and abilities.

People with a fixed mindset — those who believe that abilities are fixed — are less likely to flourish than those with a growth mindset — those who believe that abilities can be developed. Mindset reveals how great parents, teachers, managers, and athletes can put this idea to use to foster outstanding accomplishment.



'Rising Strong: How the Ability to Reset Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead' by Brené Brown

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It is the rise from falling that Brown takes as her subject in "Rising Strong". As a grounded theory researcher, Brown has listened as a range of people — from leaders in Fortune 500 companies and the military to artists, couples in long-term relationships, teachers, and parents — shared their stories of being brave, falling, and getting back up. She asked herself, 'What do these people with strong and loving relationships, leaders nurturing creativity, artists pushing innovation, and clergy walking with people through faith and mystery have in common?' The answer was clear: They recognize the power of emotion and they're not afraid to lean into discomfort.



'Atomic Habits' by James Clear

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No matter your goals, "Atomic Habits" offers a proven framework for improving — every day. James Clear, one of the world's leading experts on habit formation, reveals practical strategies that will teach you exactly how to form good habits, break bad ones, and master the tiny behaviors that lead to remarkable results.



'Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World' by Cal Newport

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In "Deep Work", author and professor Cal Newport flips the narrative on impact in a connected age. Instead of arguing distraction is bad, he instead celebrates the power of its opposite. Dividing this book into two parts, he first makes the case that in almost any profession, cultivating a deep work ethic will produce massive benefits. He then presents a rigorous training regimen, presented as a series of four "rules" for transforming your mind and habits to support this skill.



'The Psychology of Money: Timeless lessons on wealth, greed, and happiness'

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Money ― investing, personal finance, and business decisions ― is typically taught as a math-based field, where data and formulas tell us exactly what to do. But in the real world, people don't make financial decisions on a spreadsheet. They make them at the dinner table, or in a meeting room, where personal history, your own unique view of the world, ego, pride, marketing, and odd incentives are scrambled together.



'The 4-Hour Workweek' Timothy Ferriss

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Forget the old concept of retirement and the rest of the deferred-life plan–there is no need to wait and every reason not to, especially in unpredictable economic times. Whether your dream is escaping the rat race, experiencing high-end world travel, or earning a monthly five-figure income with zero management, "The 4-Hour Workweek" is the blueprint.



'Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future' Ashlee Vance

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In "Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future", veteran technology journalist Ashlee Vance provides the first inside look into the extraordinary life and times of Silicon Valley's most audacious entrepreneur. Written with exclusive access to Musk, his family and friends, the book traces the entrepreneur's journey from a rough upbringing in South Africa to the pinnacle of the global business world.

Vance spent over 40 hours in conversation with Musk and interviewed close to 300 people to tell the tumultuous stories of Musk's world-changing companies: PayPal, Tesla Motors, SpaceX and SolarCity, and to characterize a man who has renewed American industry and sparked new levels of innovation while making plenty of enemies along the way.



'Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know'

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Organizational psychologist Adam Grant is an expert on opening other people's minds — and our own. As Wharton's top-rated professor and the best-selling author of "Originals" and "Give and Take", he makes it one of his guiding principles to argue like he's right but listen like he's wrong.

With bold ideas and rigorous evidence, he investigates how we can embrace the joy of being wrong, bring nuance to charged conversations, and build schools, workplaces, and communities of lifelong learners. You'll learn how an international debate champion wins arguments, a Black musician persuades White supremacists to abandon hate, a vaccine whisperer convinces concerned parents to immunize their children, and Adam has coaxed Yankees fans to root for the Red Sox. 



'Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience, and Finding Joy' by Sheryl Sandberg and Adam Grant

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After the sudden death of her husband, Sheryl Sandberg felt certain that she and her children would never feel pure joy again. "I was in 'the void,'" she writes, "a vast emptiness that fills your heart and lungs and restricts your ability to think or even breathe." Her friend Adam Grant, a psychologist at Wharton, told her there are concrete steps people can take to recover and rebound from life-shattering experiences. We are not born with a fixed amount of resilience. It is a muscle that everyone can build.

"Option B" combines Sheryl's personal insights with Adam's eye-opening research on finding strength in the face of adversity. 



'The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers' by Ben Horowitz

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Ben Horowitz, a cofounder of Andreessen Horowitz and one of Silicon Valley's most respected and experienced entrepreneurs, offers essential advice on building and running a startup — practical wisdom for managing the toughest problems business school doesn't cover, based on his popular blog.



'Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion' by Robert B. Cialdini

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In this highly acclaimed "New York Times" bestseller, Dr. Robert B. Cialdini — the seminal expert in the field of influence and persuasion — explains the psychology of why people say yes and how to apply these principles ethically in business and everyday situations.



'Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World' by David Epstein

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David Epstein examined the world's most successful athletes, artists, musicians, inventors, forecasters, and scientists. He discovered that in most fields — especially those that are complex and unpredictable — generalists, not specialists, are primed to excel. Generalists often find their path late, and they juggle many interests rather than focusing on one. They're also more creative, more agile, and able to make connections their more specialized peers can't see.



Warren Buffett, Michael Burry, and other top investors just published their Q2 stock portfolios. Here are 5 key trades they made.

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Summary List Placement

Warren Buffett, Michael Burry, and other leading investors recently disclosed the contents of their stock portfolios as of June 30, revealing they made a range of striking moves in the second quarter.

Funds linked to Bill Miller, Jim Simons, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints all made notable changes to their holdings, signaling their views on everything from Elon Musk's Tesla and Cathie Wood's Ark Invest, to meme stocks such as GameStop and AMC Entertainment.

Here are five of the key trades last quarter:

Warren Buffett slashed his pharma holdings

Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway took a knife to its pharmaceutical holdings last quarter. It sold around $260 million of AbbVie stock, $307 million of Bristol Myers Squibb stock, and $645 million of Merck stock, based on the companies' average closing share prices in the period.

The famed investor's company only bought into the trio in the third quarter of 2020, and boosted its holdings in the fourth quarter. Yet Berkshire turned around and sold roughly $2.4 billion worth of pharma stocks in the first six months of this year, slashing its AbbVie and Bristol Myers Squibb stakes by about 20% and its Merck position by 68%.

While Buffett has been interested in owning a basket of pharma stocks for decades, he hinted in May that he didn't fully understand them and wasn't too comfortable holding them. That may explain the recent disposals.



Michael Burry bet against Cathie Wood

Michael Burry of "The Big Short" fame purchased bearish put options against 235,500 shares of Cathie Wood's flagship exchange-traded fund Ark Innovation last quarter.

The Scion Asset Management chief tweeted in February that the hype around Wood had reached excessive levels. He compared her to past growth investors whose luck ran out, and warned that "Wall Street will be ruthless in the end."

Burry also ramped up his bet against Tesla last quarter. Elon Musk's electric-vehicle company is one of Ark's biggest holdings, underscoring Burry's skepticism of the mass disruption and technological revolution that Wood believes is coming.

The Scion chief is best known for predicting the collapse of the housing bubble in the mid-2000s, and making a fortune by betting on that outcome. He also helped pave the way for the GameStop short squeeze in January by investing in the video-game retailer and agitating for changes at the company back in 2019.



Bill Miller bought into Coinbase

Bill Miller's fund, Miller Value Partners, bought around 122,000 shares of Coinbase worth $30 million last quarter. The investment underscores Miller's continued faith in cryptocurrencies and the larger blockchain ecosystem.

Miller made his fortune as a value investor before losing 90% of it during the financial crisis. However, he's a billionaire today thanks to early investments in Amazon stock and bitcoin.

Notably, his fund sold its GameStop shares before the video-game retailer's stock went stratospheric in January, meaning it missed out on a massive windfall.



Jim Simons' RenTech tripled its AMC stake

Jim Simons' Renaissance Technologies tapped into the meme-stock boom last quarter with a well-timed bet on AMC Entertainment.

The quantitative hedge fund, founded by the Cold War codebreaker and MIT math professor in 1978, tripled its stake in AMC in the three months to June 30. The movie-theater chain's stock price skyrocketed nearly 500% in the period as retail investors piled in. As a result, RenTech's position jumped nearly 20-fold in value to $103 million.

In contrast, RenTech slashed its stake in Tesla by 75% last quarter, reducing the value of its position to $138 million at the end of June.



The LDS Church cashed out its GameStop profits

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints took its GameStop profits off the table last quarter.

Ensign Peak Advisors, the church's $100 billion investment fund, invested in GameStop in the fourth quarter of 2020. The value of its position ballooned by about 900% in the first three months of the year thanks to the short squeeze on the stock.

Ensign didn't list GameStop in its latest portfolio update, suggesting the fund cashed out the stake last quarter. It likely pocketed about $9 million from the exit, based on GameStop's average closing share price in the period, or as much as $14 million it if sold when the stock surged in June.







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