i am frm India and in capital markets fr long time but i have taken lot of inspiration frm Warren buffet — Mohnish — ur website and the knowledge i got — has made me understand the investment philosophy that can be used tp generate better returns than bench mark indices — much more peacefully than an average fund manger spends gut wreching moments of life in watching market gyrate voilently over which one has no control

i believe in following principle

ENJOY THE PROCESS MUCH MORE THAN THE PROCEEDS — AS PROCEEDS ARE MOMENTARY — TIME RATIO OF PROCESS TO PROCEED IS SOME THING LIKE THIS INFINITY YO 1 — we will die once and before that we will leave life say 70/80/90 years —- so what shd u cherish — life ( process ) or death ( proceed)

sorry fr this sinister example — but it is enough to drive home the point i suppose

IF U RESPOND I WILL BE HIGHLY OBLIGED and would communicate wth u

I have started putting Free Cash Flow concept to indian markets and will send u just to give u a feel of where equivalent of Dow stks in India stand on approcah given by u

bye

Vinay Vaidya

india

I’m in on this one. I wonder what Joe’s opinion will be… get back to us, Joe, especially if you think I’ve made a mistake haha.

Before anything does upset the applecart, you should know exactly what you are going to do before you buy in the first place. If you like the company, you may consider timeing your exit. If you are not sure or don’t like the company, it may be best to jump ship – even at a (substantial) loss – and move on to the next deal.

All: This is the benefit of having a community of non-conventionalists. Admittedly, I have not gone into PENN in great detail. Give me a few days to rip the deal apart and I will see if I can offer any insight beyond the great comments here.

Q: Can you comment on how things are progressing with this transaction?

A: To my knowledge, very well. … This is a fully financed transaction, like Harrah’s. We had locked-in financing from the outset. Financing with virtually no escape from the banks.

Link

So it appears the primary fears are with both the financing and regulatory approvals. To address the latter, this analyst sees “little risk to Fortress and Centerbridge receiving the necessary licensing approvals.”

http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/ticker/article.aspx?Feed=AP&Date=20080116&ID=8048784&Symbol=FIG

Due diligence should be done of course. I, like you, are a newbie, and would love to know where people like that get their information.

Dan

But I did some learnin’.

From the Definitive Proxy Statement dated Nov. 7, 2007. These regulatory-related things were listed as needing to be completed.

Link

1. the expiration or early termination of any waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976, which is referred to as the HSR Act

2. the receipt of all gaming approvals required to be obtained prior to the effective time

3. the absence of any order, injunction or other legal restraint issued by any governmental entity or any law prohibiting, restraining or rendering illegal the consummation of the merger

So, 3 things.

Current Report dated January 16, 2008

Link

1. “in December 2007, the applicable waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act expired without the Sponsors or the Company having received a second request for information.”

Regulatory problem 1, cleared!

2. “In November 2007, the Ohio Racing Commission approved the Merger”

Partially cleared.

“In February 2008, the Sponsors are scheduled to appear before the New Jersey Racing Commission”

Not cleared yet.

“The Company has not been notified by any other regulatory body of the date on which it might expect the Merger to be considered”

Not cleared yet.

3. Seems like we are good so far.

It looks like this deal has a larger than usual amount of regulation to go through. It doesn’t look to be causing a problem so far, though. I don’t have time right now, but they mentioned that they operate in 15 jurisdictions (or something like that). And I saw an article headline that said Minnesota (or somewhere) is voting to strip a number of cities of their right to have casinos. Can someone look into this? Does PENN operate any casinos in such cities? I will break down this part of the deal when I am out of class.. I’m late now!

All input is appreciated. Remember I’m new.. what have I overlooked?

I’m learning how to look through these types of deals right now. Trying to figure out what sort of lingo means a deal or solid vs what type gives the financing, etc. lots of ways to get out.

Anyway, for this one I am confused where the regulators come in, or if that is past? Can someone point me to the part of whatever filing it is that declares that any regulatory clearance is complete?

Assuming I am overlooking the regulatory approval.. I think that this deal may have such a huge spread because of the distance of the closing date and the financing. How much of a guarantee is a letter of commitment from a bank, where there is no contract or anything happening with the bank until the closing date?

People who know what is going on help me out with breaking this one down a bit please.. I am still really unfamiliar with these types of filings.

Thanks!

I start here:

http://www.mergerinvesting.com/pendingmergers

And then research filings, news etc… using Yahoo or Morningstar. If better sources are available please share…