Gina Rinehart: "don't just sit there"

"There is no monopoly on becoming a millionaire. If you're jealous of those with more money, don't just sit there and complain. Do something to make more money yourself - spend less time drinking, or smoking and socializing and more time working." - Gina Rinehart, the Australian mining heiress

WSJ: More Facebook shares ready to be sold

Facebook Inc.'s initial public offering and its subsequent stock-price tumble have been the subject of so much scorn, outrage, controversy, criticism and ridicule that to add anymore is just piling on.

My advice: Give it a couple of months. By then, you might think there hasn't been enough criticism.

That is because Facebook is still overpriced and it is about to be walloped by a flood of shares hitting the market.



More Pain to Come for Facebook

Peter Thiel cashes out of Facebook

Peter Thiel, an early-stage Facebook investor and co-founder of Paypal, was among the key insiders selling shares after a lockup expired last week.

A SEC regulatory filing shows that Thiel, sold about 20 million shares of Facebook through affiliates such as his Founders Fund and other entities. The shares were sold for between $19.27 and $20.69, for a total of about $396 million.

Facebook investors get what they paid for

In honor of Mark Zuckerberg and his jets, flights and everything else Facebook, Elton John plays "Mark Bennie and the Jets" for us.

Is Warren Buffett now a short-term speculator?

Warren Buffett has told the investment world that he is "a long-term investor."

Based upon recent Berkshire Hathaway disclosures, we find Buffett dumping long-term blue chip stocks such as Kraft Foods Inc. (KFT) and Procter and Gamble Co. (PG).

Warren Buffett has told the investment world that he doesn't invest in technology because "he doesn't understanding it" and that it runs counter to Graham-Dodd Value Investing.

Based upon recent Berkshire Hathaway disclosures, we now find Buffett dumping  his investment in semiconductor firm Intel (INTC).

Warren Buffett has told the investment world that he strongly dislikes derivatives.

Based upon recent Berkshire Hathaway disclosures, we now find Berkshire reporting huge losses in its derivatives portfolio.

The financial staff at The Think Billions blog look forward to more Berkshire Hathaway disclosures to the SEC.

Alice Cooper: Billion Dollar Babies Tour 1973

Rogue UK Bank Hides $250 Billion in Iranian Transactions

Standard Chartered seemingly played a shell game of hide the Iranian money. But now it has been caught by the state of New York and others and now must suffer the consequences and pay up.

New York State's banking regulator said the UK bank Standard Chartered Bank, motivated by millions of dollars in fees, schemed with the Iranian government to launder $250 billion over the years.

update:

Aug. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Standard Chartered Plc Chief Executive Officer Peter Sands hit back at a New York regulator's claims the lender broke US sanctions, and challenged the accuracy of the watchdog's assertions.

Crazy Billionaire Hans Kristian Rausing finally pleads guilty

Drug-addict Billionaire heir Hans Kristian Rausing has pleaded guilty to preventing the lawful and decent burial of his wife's body.

The judge said: "In carrying out your intentions, you acted with deceit and deliberation, equipping yourself with items you used to try to prolong the act of concealment. The effect in due course was firstly to cause great concern amongst those anxious as to your wife’s whereabouts, and then to cause the dreadful shock of discovery in distressing circumstances, firstly for those who had to uncover the body but especially for your wife’s parents who were in the room when their daughter’s body was discovered."

Telegraph article

(previous from ) Think Billions -

article

The Facebook hit to UBS: $350 million

ZURICH—UBS said it took a loss of more than $350 million on the ill-fated Facebook Inc. initial public offering, wiping out nearly half of its second-quarter profit, and it accused Nasdaq OMX Group Inc. of a "gross mishandling" of the stock-market listing.

Wall Street Journal article

Eike Batista drops $6 Billion in 48 Hours

Brazilian mining magnate Eike Batista loves to talk in superlatives. He's the richest man in Brazil and talks frequently about becoming the richest man in the world. His autobiography is sub-titled "The Path of Brazil's Greatest Entrepreneur." And whether it's racing speedboats or marrying Playboy models, he lives life to the maximum. But now, Brazil's Donald Trump may have set a new record - for the largest amount of wealth lost in 48 hours.


article

Facebook: A Dog with Fleas

Gordon Gekko to Bud Fox - Wall Street (1987)

"Not bad, but that's a dog with different fleas."

The stock is in a nose-dive. The CEO is offering Wall Street no guidance on future operating expectations. People are now calling the company FaceBerg. Investors feel "Zucker-punched." Mark Cuban exited the stock weeks ago with a $200k hit to his personal balance sheet. The last minute over-pricing of the Facebook IPO (as recommended by the Facebook CFO) now looks like an exercise in pure greed.

But, nevertheless, and in the interest of fair reporting and commentary, the stock and the company still has fans. This is what passes for sophisticated financial analysis on Wall Street these days:

"The company's user base currently comprises the third-largest country in the world, and its emphasis on mobile platforms suggests to us that it can become the largest country in the world in a matter of years. Facebook has immense value, which may not be readily apparent from its near term earnings, but which is substantial nonetheless." - Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter

Billionaires continue to buy Netflix

Betting on a continued turnaround at Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX), billionaire investors such as Julian Robertson and Steven Cohen continue to build positions in the stock according to SEC reported data.

7/24 update ---

Businessweek article-Netflix's 2Q numbers disappoints, stock tumbles

Microsoft Reports Loss Due to Write-down

Microsoft Corp. Reports First Huge Loss As Public Company

A substantial accounting write-down of $6.2 billion related to the company's 2007 acquisition of aQuantive, an online advertising company, has wiped the software maker's entire Q4 profit.

previous on ThinkBillions-

Microsoft stock continues to go nowhere, but Steve Ballmer has a plan!

Thank you Marissa Mayer!

Thank you for what??? .... you dare blog!


Well where do we begin?


Thank you for NOT being Scott Thompson!


Thank you for NOT being Jerry Yang!


Thank you for NOT being several other complete bozo's that have been run in and out of the Yahoo! sand box executive suite over the past! ten! years!


Basically, we are saying: Thank you Yahoo! for NOT making a Yahoo!-like decision!

Dell is still 'not just a PC company anymore'

MICHAEL DELL:  Well, in the last five years or so, we've really made a concerted shift in our business towards end-to-end IT solutions.  And if you think about the businesses that Dell is in today, there are really four of them.  Certainly, we start with the client business, which is kind of transforming with all the things that are going on in mobility and client virtualization and that brings new needs in terms of security and those kinds of challenges that exist.

Fortune interview