What is this Glenn - you didn't write it.... an editorial piece?
(I didn't read the NYT article... I've got too much to do watching fights and spending
money)
Michelle,
I did not write it and did not mean for it to come across that way here is the entire email:
"Street Life
Monday, March 15, 1999, 7:00 p.m.
Big Mergers, But No Dow 10,000 Yet
By Andrew Serwer
Everything you want out of the stock market, EXCEPT Dow
10,000. Stocks were up strongly across the board on
Monday: We had record closes on the Dow and S&P, but
for all you with a spoilsport streak, the Dow climbed
82, to 9958, missing 10,000 by--well, you can do the
math--okay, 42!! Bad thing: The advance decline line
was flat. (Hey, it was the first close over 9900. And
the transports were up 137 points on UAL news! See
Loose Change.) NASDAQ climbed 49, to 2431. Long bond
fell to 5.51%. Techs, financials, transports, you name
it, Kemo Sabe, they all rocked the house today. Here's
what's been tickling our (CAT!) fancy today:
(FINALLY!) MERGERS THAT MATTER.... Fleet buying
BankBoston (geez, why?!?) for $16 billion. (Yeah! A big
bank merger!) Hey, it's amazing how the guys at Robby
Stephens have made out!!... DuPont buyin' up all of
Pioneer Hi-Bred for $7.7 billion.... El Paso is buying
Sonat for $6 billion. So there you go. We did about $30
billion of deals today. Not bad, amigos. Not bad!!
BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY.... Okay, so the report from Citizen
Buffett came out. WSJ story was lame (talked about what
he DIDN'T talk about)! NYT's piece was better. But it's
tough to do fast. Anyway, with some friendly guidance
(!), I thought we could point to a few salient points.
Going through the shareholder's letter we learn:
Buffett knows his Wagner (or least likes to rap about
it). And GEICO rocked. Numbers were great. (Also, in
1995, GEICO spent $33 mil in marketing. In 1999, the ad
budget is $190 mil.) Its market share grew
tremendously, but only from 3% to 3.5%--car insurance
biz is soooo huge.... Also, Buffett loves Executive Jet
(EJA), accounted for 31% of all corporate jet rental in
'97, but he thinks its potential is huge. (Last year,
Buffett spent more than nine times his salary at
Borsheim's and EJA.) Buffett paid a special one-time
fee to the SEC of $30 mil, in connection with the Gen
Re deal! The float in his P&C business is some $23
billion (compared with $17 million in 1967 when he got
in the biz), but the reinsurance biz is soft now,
according to Buffett. More from the report tomorrow....
Interestingly, BRK-A fell $4,300, to $76,000. Maybe
investors were bummed out Buffett didn't disclose that
he owned 20% of Yahoo! (or something!).
AMAZON.... Did you see the New York Times Magazine
story on Amazon.com? Pretty good, actually. The point
was, the STOCK is the story!! (Like Marshall McLuhan,
the media is the message.) That the company's line
business almost is its stock price. Better than the
usual NYT Mag piece, which is increasingly irrelevant
(stories like "The Triumph of Intellectual Transgender
Sexuality on American Campuses" or "Golda Meir's
Enduring Legacy." YEAH! BTW, where did Intel close
today??). Anyway, good Amazon story. Couple quibbles:
Author kept saying how bad the jobs were
there--journalism error 101: SHOW them how bad, never
really described. And as far as Amazon being a cult,
well, all new, hep companies are like that (Dell,
Starbucks, Sun, etc....). And forget about Bezos'
wife.... But it was worth reading....
IF SWEET 16 WERE COMPANIES (special for Joe Nocera, new
and improved!)....
Duke = Microsoft (Coach K is Bill)
UCONN = Sun (So go get it!)
Kentucky = IBM (always there, but Tubby's more of a guy
than Lou)
Auburn = Amazon (for real?)
Southwest Missouri = Dollar General (where's the
library at?)
St John's (wort!) = Texas Instruments (used to be good,
good again?)
Purdue = Pioneer Hi-bred (I don't know!)
Iowa = Hewlett-Packard (nothing fancy; win one for Lew
and Tom!)
Florida = Ascend (go figure!)
Gonzaga = eBay (up $14, to $156 today. Tomorrow?)
Miami (FL) = Burlington Coat Factory (not Burlington
Industries)
Oklahoma = Home Depot (I'm being generous. NAJARA!)
Michigan State = GE (blue collar, but when it works, it
hums)
Temple = Compaq (need respect? Then earn it!)
Ohio State = Wendy's (Dave Thomas Country!)
Maryland = Lucent (real good, but how good?)
OTHERS:
Stanford = Oracle (ooops!!)
Carolina = Coke (not this year!)
SEND 'EM IN
Loose Change
AOL. The juggernaut. Up almost $6, to $102, a new
high.... Netscape is now at $91 (up $6), all because of
AOL, says Joe Kernan in his General and Soldiers
discussion, which was actually funny. (Bill, you are a
good straight man!) Think about it, this stock was $14
and flat on its back!! Prince Alwaleed owns a bunch of
Netscape, as if he needs it!!... Mister Soft climbed
$5.50, to just under $166. So did SunW, up almost $6,
to $109.50.... The mega-transport rally came from UAL,
which preannounced some JUICY numbers, up $6, to $73.
Other airlines were strong, too.... Here's a little
question: How many days does Mr. Ludwig work at Bankers
Trust? It's not really true that he flies up from
Washington three days a week to his big office filled
with those fancy flags? Or is it?... Winners: eBay up
$14, to $156. Network Solutions way up, too.... Read
Dr. Ed (Yardeni)? I call him MR. Ed (nyark nyark!)....
This from Alex Taylor, ace car dude! "According to the
rags, Ford is preparing a backup bid for Nissan. My
advice: Don't go there! Why would Ford want a bankrupt
automaker in a mature, stagnant market that is likely
to resent any attempt by a foreign company to rescue
it? And Ford, remember how much trouble you have had
with Mazda, just getting through to the employees and
figuring out how much debt the company has? Well,
Nissan is more complicated, more bureaucratic, and
likely to be a lot more antagonistic. This is not a
cheap deal at any price." Thanks, Alex. But one thing.
Tell us what you really think!!... Ty Warner, the guy
who created Beanie Babies, bought NYC's Four Seasons
Hotel for $275 million. Apparently, it's his favorite
hotel and he just had to have it. (Thanks, Amy!)....
Got a great list of computer failures from Peter
Neumann of SRI International in Menlo Park. Just a list
of thousands of 'em: "USS Yorktown Aegis missile
cruiser dead in water for 2.75 hours after unchecked
divide by zero in application on Windows NT Smart Ship
Technology." And "Matsushita's Panasonic Interactive
Media filter spews out vulgarities." And thousands
more!! Call him up, he'll send!... Hey, why can't they
catch Eric Rudolph (NO relation to Wilma, by the
way!)?... Coaching changes in the NBA: Hey GMs, it's
not the coaches, it's the players! Would Phil Jackson
have won titles without you-know-who and Scottie?
Not!!! And quick, who is the coach of the Utah Jazz?
Who was former coach? As for Calipari, he's a bad man.
So later, Cal.... you foolish thing....
Talk Back to Street Life....
Why let Serwer, Amy, and Nelman have all the fun?!
Post your comments and questions about today's
column on our boards, located at
fortune.com; |
