Certain dynamics in the world truly inspire me. It is often difficult to express, even in the infinitely expansive vocabulary I enjoy within the cereberal confines of my own inner monologue, the glee that overcomes me when I discover a subtle and theretofore unnoticed connection in cause and effect that suddenly opens to me a wider understanding of the world around me.
I was aglow for days after finding the inventory calculation error in management's financial disclosures that vastly understated assets and permitted us to outbid everyone in the otherwise brutal auction we claimed victory in last quarter. I could have walked on air after correctly identifying, through careful examination of their existing portfolio companies, the financial partner that would take a minority co-investment position with us in a recent acquisition. My pattern of requiring of my analysts an automatic 2.5% increase in the discount rate for firms on the West Coast or with more than one Stanford graduate in senior management has earned us hundreds of thousands of dollars and me personally any number of free drinks. And then there was the highlight of my pattern recognition joy; my highly focused take-over from Sinister, LLC's head of IT of the three week old witch hunt that uncovered in a matter of days the notorious and much sought after Sinister, LLC overhead projector thief (who even now languishes in the midst of a criminal prosecution for grand theft).
So it is equally difficult to express my pleasure at the wild success of my Cuban Overlap Failure Index, which old Going Private readers will recognize from back in May; an endeavor that seems almost prescient given recent developments.
Recent victories for the COFI score system?
COFI of Burger King: 18,700
Interesting new COFI analysis?
COFI of Xethanol: 61
COFI of Comverse: 375
COFI of ShareSleuth: 10,400
ShareSleuth is in trouble. Big trouble. COFI can feel it. Xethanol? Not so much.
