Archive

November. 2019

Free webinar on cryptocurrencies; Investing in Retail Turnarounds; Update on At Home; One Family Built Forever 21, and Fueled Its Collapse

By Whitney Tilson

Empire Financial Daily,
Tuesday, November 12, 2019
1) As I’ve written many times before, I think cryptocurrencies like bitcoin are nothing more than a techno-libertarian pump-and-dump scheme, mostly foisted on gullible individual investors. So it was with great interest that I sat down for the first time last Friday with Eric Wade in Los Angeles, the editor of Stansberry Research’s Crypto Capital […]

The Making of the World's Greatest Investor; Child Abusers Run Rampant as Tech Companies Look the Other Way; New York State Writes Down Value of Tesla Plant in Buffalo

By Whitney Tilson

Empire Financial Daily,
Monday, November 11, 2019
1) I just read and highly recommend this new book: The Man Who Solved the Market: How Jim Simons Launched the Quant Revolution. Here’s a Bloomberg article about it: How Jim Simons Built the Best Hedge Fund Ever… And here’s one from the Wall Street Journal: The Making of the World’s Greatest Investor. 2) This […]

Meet Wall Street's Best Dealmaker; Large Bitcoin Player Manipulated Price Sharply Higher; Will the U.K. officially exit the European Union by Feb. 1?; Garmin's self-flying plane

By Whitney Tilson

Empire Financial Daily,
Friday, November 8, 2019
1) I really enjoyed this profile of the guy with the best record in the buyout business from 2005 to 2014, which made him the first Puerto Rican-born billionaire… Meet Wall Street’s Best Dealmaker: New Billionaire Orlando Bravo. Excerpt: That grit and perseverance eventually propelled him to the top echelons of the private equity world. […]

Tony Seba on non-linear disruptions; Kim Iskyan's thoughts on the Aramco IPO

Empire Financial Daily,
Thursday, November 7, 2019
1) At the Robin Hood conference last week, I enjoyed the presentation by author and entrepreneur Tony Seba, which he posted here (31 minutes – an earlier, longer version is here). He discussed “S” curves and how we tend to underestimate the rate of adoption of new technology. Here are two examples: One, Google estimated […]

Uber's lock-up expires today; Pinterest and Peloton get whacked; Avoid the unicorns; Airfare trick; Norwegians Told to Pee in the Shower to Save Water

By Whitney Tilson

Empire Financial Daily,
Wednesday, November 6, 2019
1) As I mentioned in yesterday’s e-mail, today is the lock-up expiration from the IPO of ride-sharing app Uber Technologies (UBER). This will make 1.5 billion shares available to trade, increasing the float by an estimated 2 to 4 times. There’s some historical precedent for a situation like this, with social media company Twitter (TWTR) […]

Updated thoughts on Uber; Rajeev Misra Built SoftBank's Huge Tech Fund. Now He Has to Save It; Adam Neumann and the Art of Failing Up

By Whitney Tilson

Empire Financial Daily,
Tuesday, November 5, 2019
1) Eight days ago, at the Robin Hood Investors Conference, I pitched ride-sharing company Uber (UBER), with the stock at $33, as my favorite short idea. I warned the audience that its upcoming third-quarter earnings were likely to disappoint. Sure enough, the company reported lousy numbers after the close yesterday. Of note, Uber… Missed estimates […]

Berkshire Hathaway earnings; Buffett's Investment Was Blocked by BofA's Call Center; The Making of the World's Greatest Investor

By Whitney Tilson

Empire Financial Daily,
Monday, November 4, 2019
1) Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-A) reported impressive third-quarter earnings on Saturday (here are the release and 10Q). Glenn Tongue, my former business partner at T2 Partners and Kase Learning, shares his take on it: Berkshire’s earnings further reinforce our view that Warren Buffett has built a company that is unprecedented in terms of sustainability of earnings, […]
Whitney Tilson

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About Whitney Tilson

Prior to creating Empire Financial Research, Whitney Tilson founded and ran Kase Capital Management, which managed three value-oriented hedge funds and two mutual funds. Starting out of his bedroom with only $1 million, Tilson grew assets under management to nearly $200 million.

Tilson graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College with a bachelor's degree in government in 1989. After college, he helped Wendy Kopp launch Teach for America and then spent two years as a consultant at the Boston Consulting Group. He earned his MBA from Harvard Business School in 1994, where he graduated in the top 5% of his class and was named a Baker Scholar.

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