Just what we needed, page-182

Acca - from the previous qtly re CISCO, CVT appears to have been unfortunately caught up in the CISCO Chairman succession transition hiatus - where there's been a change of guard, reprioritisation of strategies, work programs, allocation of resources across restructured divisions etc

That is, CVT has been largely sidelined while these other corporate issues are bedded down. After which CISCO will review where all its external contract arrangements are at (if they haven't done so already) and realign the bolt-ons to get the best fit, if you grasp my lingo.

Hopefully we'll get more feedback on this in the next qtly with an updated timeline and activity program.


On another quirkier note, Acca, did you ever come across that quote re Mr Market.

Mr. Market is an allegory created by investor Benjamin Graham who asks the reader to imagine that he is one of the two owners of a business, along with a partner called Mr. Market. The partner frequently offers to sell his share of the business or to buy the reader's share. This partner is what today would be called manic-depressive, with his estimate of the business's value going from very pessimistic to wildly optimistic. The reader is always free to decline the partner's offer, since he will soon come back with an entirely different offer.

The example makes it clear that the sole reason for the change in price is Mr. Market's emotions. A rational person will sell if the price is high and buy if the price is low. He would not sell because the price has gone down or buy because the price has gone up. Graham instead believes that it is important to focus on whether the stock valuation of a company is reasonable after calculating its value through fundamental analysis.

This is where Warren Buffet, Chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-B), comes in. When asked about the philosophy that brought him an estimated net worth of about $74 billion, Warren Buffett commented “This imaginary person out there -- Mr. Market -- he's kind of a drunken psycho. Some days he gets very enthused, some days he gets very depressed. And when he gets really enthused, you sell to him and if he gets depressed you buy from him. There's no moral taint attached to that.”

Buffett ended the discussion with another simple mantra: “Emotions are contagious, and emotions have no business in investing.”


CVT is not immune to the antics of Mr Market and we should take note of who the author of Mr Market is and who was quoting him.