David Einhorn Hasn't Talked To Bruce Berkowitz About St. Joe (JOE)
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In an interview with DealBreaker, hedge fund manager David Einhorn of Greenlight Capital said he hasn't discussed The St. Joe Company (NYSE: JOE) with the company's largest shareholder Bruce Berkowitz of Fairholme Capital, although he said, "I haven't tried that hard."
Einhorn, who been short he stock since 2006, has been calling St. Joe extremely overvalued and presented his short thesis again at the recent Value Investing Congress. Meanwhile Berkowitz continues to buy the stock and was recently appointed to the board of directors along with another associate of the fund.
In a recent Reuters interview, Berkowitz said he would buy the entire company if he was able to. Commenting on Einhorn's short, he said. "I want to send him a box of chocolates... This is the kind of advertising you just can't buy. The company should hold a David Einhorn Memorial Investment Week."
Below are excerpts from the interview discussing the matter (BL = Bess Levin from DealBreaker; DE = David Einhorn)
BL: Have you talked to Bruce Berkowitz [whose Fairholme Capital Management is St. Joe's largest shareholder]?
DE: No, but I haven’t tried that hard.
BL: He's denied you?
DE: We've been short St. Joe's since 2006. It developed for a while, I talked about the position at Ira Sohn in 2007 at a pretty good length. I don't think he had his position then. Somewhere along the line he started buying up all the stock. We knew someone who knew him and I told that person we'd talk to him about it and we were told Bruce doesn't want to talk to you. I thought that was the end of that. Then he gave an interview at WealthTrack saying, "I don't want people calling and tell me we're right, I want people calling me and telling me why we’re wrong." I just could not let that one go [laughs], so I wrote him a letter saying, "let’s talk about this, maybe you can talk us out of it or maybe we can do your shareholders a service." He never responded, and then at the Value Investing Congress in October, someone asked if we'd talked with Berkowitz. We hadn't and we still haven't.
BL: Have investors on the opposite side of one of your long or short calls ever convinced you you were wrong about something?
DE: Yes, and I'm glad you asked that question! We were short Goodyear from 2001 to 2004, maybe 2005. And we heard that David Tepper had bought a big position and we called him up and we argued it out and as I listened I realized his argument was about as good as mine, so we covered.
You can read the entire interview here
Einhorn, who been short he stock since 2006, has been calling St. Joe extremely overvalued and presented his short thesis again at the recent Value Investing Congress. Meanwhile Berkowitz continues to buy the stock and was recently appointed to the board of directors along with another associate of the fund.
In a recent Reuters interview, Berkowitz said he would buy the entire company if he was able to. Commenting on Einhorn's short, he said. "I want to send him a box of chocolates... This is the kind of advertising you just can't buy. The company should hold a David Einhorn Memorial Investment Week."
Below are excerpts from the interview discussing the matter (BL = Bess Levin from DealBreaker; DE = David Einhorn)
BL: Have you talked to Bruce Berkowitz [whose Fairholme Capital Management is St. Joe's largest shareholder]?
DE: No, but I haven’t tried that hard.
BL: He's denied you?
DE: We've been short St. Joe's since 2006. It developed for a while, I talked about the position at Ira Sohn in 2007 at a pretty good length. I don't think he had his position then. Somewhere along the line he started buying up all the stock. We knew someone who knew him and I told that person we'd talk to him about it and we were told Bruce doesn't want to talk to you. I thought that was the end of that. Then he gave an interview at WealthTrack saying, "I don't want people calling and tell me we're right, I want people calling me and telling me why we’re wrong." I just could not let that one go [laughs], so I wrote him a letter saying, "let’s talk about this, maybe you can talk us out of it or maybe we can do your shareholders a service." He never responded, and then at the Value Investing Congress in October, someone asked if we'd talked with Berkowitz. We hadn't and we still haven't.
BL: Have investors on the opposite side of one of your long or short calls ever convinced you you were wrong about something?
DE: Yes, and I'm glad you asked that question! We were short Goodyear from 2001 to 2004, maybe 2005. And we heard that David Tepper had bought a big position and we called him up and we argued it out and as I listened I realized his argument was about as good as mine, so we covered.
You can read the entire interview here
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