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Strategies & Market Trends : Value Investing -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Freedom Fighter who wrote (10112)	3/3/2000 6:21:00 PM
From: Michael Burry	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 78748

I'm getting a whiff the healthcare sector is turning a bit. WellPoint (one of my favorite, best managed HMOs) partners with ING to offer to buyout Aetna. Then Manor Care, the best-run nursing home operator, gets takeover activity news. Several stocks have made good technical moves. I just sold my two favorite healthcare stocks - SNH and HRC. Bought back HRC today as it jumped on large volume. Certainly felt like eating crow, but there was no other conclusion than to buy into this stock. SNH didn't move hardly at all. I'd like to get back into that too. Frustrated that I just sold. This is one of those cases where maybe a depressed sector is turning and it would be a good time for solid and timely buys. One thing to consider about HRC is that intranet and internet-based purchasing/vendor activity should eventually lead to higher margins. Mike

To: Freedom Fighter who wrote (10112)	3/3/2000 11:40:00 PM
From: Roy Glen	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 78748

Wayne, I have been looking at BRK recently and like just about everything I see. However, I have two concerns which I would appreciate your comments on. First, the company, as you mentioned, is becoming much more of an insurance concern and much more heavily weighted towards catastrophic insurance. With the concern about global warming and changing weather patterns, I wonder whether statistical records from the past provide an adequate data base for calculating future risk. Second, most other corporations have moved away from the kind of radical diversification BRK practices. Buffet seems to make it work by concentrating on capital allocation while granting radical delegation to carefully chosen executives. As these managers retire, I wonder whether this conglomerate system can keep working. Further, if shareholder value would be best realized by spinning these companies out, would corporate dogma prevent it ? Thanks in advance, Roy