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Strategies & Market Trends : Graham and Doddsville -- Value Investing In The New Era -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: porcupine --''''> who wrote (839)	9/30/1998 10:38:00 AM
From: porcupine --''''>	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1722

Buffett bid for LTMC would have ousted Merriweather (who was ousted for rigging Treasury Bond bids when Buffett ran Salomon) "AIG, Buffett made bid for ailing hedge fund - WSJ" NEW YORK, Sept 30 (Reuters) - Investor Warren Buffett, American International Group (NYSE:AIG - news) and Goldman Sachs & Co. offered last week to buy Long-Term Capital Management LP for $250 million, a newspaper reported Wednesday. According to this morning's editions of the Wall Street Journal, the Buffet bid would have required the ouster of Long-Term Capital founder John Meriwether. The hedge fund rejected the offer, and later that same day agreed to a huge rescue plan involving 15 banks including Goldman and also the Federal Reserve, the paper reported. Under the alternate bid, the fund's investors would have received 5 percent of the $4.6 billion their stakes were worth, the Journal said. The buyout group intended to put up another $3.75 billion to run the portfolio, the paper added, citing sources familiar with the deal. According to the paper Buffett was not available for comment and AIG, Long-Term Capital and Goldman Sachs declined comment.

To: porcupine --''''> who wrote (839)	9/30/1998 10:42:00 AM
From: porcupine --''''>	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1722

Buffett Not Fazed By Finance Crisis -- AP Wednesday September 16, 5:21 pm Eastern Time By JOE RUFF Associated Press Writer OMAHA, Neb. (AP) -- Billionaire investor Warren Buffett says he's not shaken by global financial market turmoil. ''It isn't the end of the world at all,'' Buffett said Wednesday at a meeting of shareholders of his company, Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRKa - news; BRK - news) ''I'm used to things bobbing around,'' said Buffett, who is known for buying stock for the long haul. ''It doesn't change my outlook on value at all.'' His comments came at a special shareholders meeting, which approved Berkshire's $22 billion acquisition of General Re (NYSE:GRN - news) of Stamford, Conn., the nation's largest insurer of insurance companies. General Re's stockholders are set to vote Friday, but Buffett said more than half the proxy votes are in and they overwhelmingly approve the deal. Still pending is the approval of federal regulators, but the companies expect the merger to be completed before the end of this year. Berkshire's portfolio already includes investments in Coca (NYSE:KO - news)-Cola, Gillette, American Express (NYSE:AXP - news) and Walt Disney. Much of General Re's $24 billion investment portfolio is in bonds, which historically have earned lower long-term returns than stocks. Buffett said he won't immediately change the insurer's investments. ''I don't have any desire to convert General Re's portfolio to a 100 percent stock portfolio, because I don't see anything to do with it,'' Buffett said. ''But it will happen, and when it happens it will be a tremendous advantage compared with other insurance companies.'' Buffett spoke to about 1,000 shareholders gathered at the ornate Orpheum Theater in downtown Omaha. He addressed several topics, especially world market turmoil. ''I'm not getting any great edge over other investors by reading about what is going on in Russia. The only thing that is going to make us money is investing in good companies at an appropriate price,'' he said. In trading Wednesday on the New York Stock Exchange, where it is the most expensive stock, Berkshire Hathaway's Class A shares were up $1,300 to $60,500 each. The Class B stock, the second-most-expensive shares on the NYSE, gained $39 to close at $2,018.

To: porcupine --''''> who wrote (839)	9/30/1998 7:44:00 PM
From: porcupine --''''>	Respond to of 1722

Cendant's Profit Becomes a Loss By BLOOMBERG NEWS -- September 30, 1998 The Cendant Corporation, a marketer and franchiser whose stock plunged after it disclosed accounting irregularities said Tuesday that it lost $217.2 million last year, instead of earning net income of $55.5 million reported earlier, after restating its earnings. The company lost 27 cents a diluted share, compared with a profit of 6 cents, after changing the way it books revenue and expenses for certain businesses. Cendant owns brands such as Howard Johnson. Cendant is complying with a request by the Securities and Exchange Commission that it change the accounting methods of a unit that sells discount shopping and other services to fee-paying members. The unit is at the center of allegations of accounting flaws. The commission asked Cendant to defer booking fees until the end of the period in which members can receive refunds, and it also said the expense of mass mailings and advertising to draw members must be reported as they are incurred. Compounding the effect of the new technique is the "significant growth" in memberships for which costs will be booked this year and revenue booked later. Shares of Cendant fell 68.75 cents Tuesday, to $12.625.