So, on Friday I took a look at the potential of some Super Bowl advertisements, which leaves today to digest the commercials and say who we thought had the best commercial.

First things first, congratulations New Orleans -- what a win. Second of all, I need to make an editorial comment before I reveal my thoughts on the best commercial: what's up with all the guys in their underwear? I saw enough tighty whities in the span of two minutes during the first half to last the rest of my life. I know one thing, I am not going to go to CareerBuilder.com or wear Dockers thanks to the visage of pasty white men in their underwear standing at the water cooler or singing about pants.

Continue reading Which Super Bowl Ad Won the Night?

Which Super Bowl Ad Won the Night? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 08 Feb 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

To borrow a phrase my high school Latin teacher (whom I absolutely loathed) used to toss around, "Even Homer nods." That said, it's rare that an executive will write openly and with a touch of humor about the worst acquisition of his career. Then again, Warren Buffett is a rare executive.

In his latest letter to shareholders (PDF file -- may take awhile to load) of Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.A), Buffet wrote about his 1993 purchase of the Dexter Shoe Co.

Finally, I made an even worse mistake when I said "yes" to Dexter, a shoe business I bought in 1993 for $433 million in Berkshire stock (25,203 shares of A). What I had assessed as durable competitive advantage vanished within a few years. But that's just the beginning: By using Berkshire stock, I compounded this error hugely. That move made the cost to Berkshire shareholders not $400 million, but rather $3.5 billion. In essence, I gave away 1.6% of a wonderful business -- one now valued at $220 billion -- to buy a worthless business. To date, Dexter is the worst deal that I've made. But I'll make more mistakes in the future -- you can bet on that. A line from Bobby Bare's country song explains what too often happens with acquisitions: "I've never gone to bed with an ugly woman, but I've sure woke up with a few."

Continue reading Warren Buffett on his worst acquisition ever

Warren Buffett on his worst acquisition ever originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sat, 01 Mar 2008 13:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

I'm definitely looking forward to the "Dexter" finale this weekend. The Showtime Networks series is about a serial killer -- who uses his killing talents to snuff other serial killers.

Yes, it's not a typical show. So, maybe that's why the producers are going to do something creative; that is, they have partnered with Meebo to develop a Web 2.0 experience.

So, Dexter fans can chat -- with AIM, Google (NASDAQ: GOOG), MSN and so on -- with executive producers and the talent after the finale.

I had a chance to interview Chase Norlin, who is the CEO of Pixsy (a video search engine), who says:

"This makes perfect sense for Meebo to be in the private label business with instant messaging as the primary application, and certainly seems to be a complement to Showtime Networks' goals. No doubt, video integration into instant messaging applications stands to be a significant trend. Although, in the case of Meebo, I think they will eventually have to offer broader functionality in their private label product in order to win more distribution partners."

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He also operates DealProfiles.com.

Dexter online finale -- something to die for originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sun, 16 Dec 2007 12:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.