TheChek News Flow

Consensus New Positions

* Facebook (FB): Soros Fund, Maverick Capital, Viking Global, and Coatue Management all initiated new stakes in the social media giant during the third quarter. After the company’s IPO debacle last year where shares fell from $40 down to $20, investors gradually started to scoop up shares and warm up to the valuation. More recently, investors have been pleased with the company’s monetization of its mobile platforms.

* DaVita (DVA): Passport Capital, Perry Capital, and Lone Pine Capital all established stakes in this dialysis company during Q3. Shares had recently been hit on news that a proposal by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services would decrease payments to dialysis facilities by $970 million in calendar year 2014 (more details here). And in new Q4 portfolio activity, Berkshire Hathaway has just disclosed additional purchases of DVA shares. This seems to be one of Ted Weschler’s favorite investments and he must have high conviction, as they now own over $2 billion worth of DVA shares. The company also had a 2-for-1 stock split on September 6th and all portfolio tables in this issue have already accounted for this change.

* HCA (HCA): This for-profit hospital network was purchased by the likes of Passport Capital, Omega Advisors, and Viking Global during the quarter. The investment thesis here is that the company should benefit from Obamacare as more patients have access to health insurance. This has also been a longtime (and profitable) holding of Larry Robbins’ Glenview Capital as well.

* 21st Century Fox (FOXA) and News Corp (NWSA): These two securities weren’t necessarily actively purchased by hedge funds in the third quarter, but rather received in a spinoff. Many hedge funds in this issue (including Third Point, Maverick, Blue Ridge, Farallon, Coatue, Tiger Global, Lone Pine, and Viking Global) previously owned shares of the old News Corp entity. This company split up into 2 new companies: 21st Century Fox (FOXA), which houses the entertainment division and ‘new’ News Corp (NWSA) which owns the legacy publishing assets. Many of the funds above chose to hold onto the growth portion of the spin-off (FOXA) and sell the shares they received in the publishing business (NWSA). So even though these positions appear as ‘new’ holdings throughout the issue, just remember that the vast majority of these funds received these via spinoff.

Consensus increase position

* Crown Castle International (CCI): Coatue Management, Glenview Capital, and Lone Pine Capital all added to pre-existing positions in CCI during the third quarter. Shares took a brief hit on worries of rising interest rates, but have since quickly rebounded. This is a play on increased wireless data usage and there is also a potential future catalyst of a REIT conversion.

* Dollar General (DG): This dollar-store giant was purchased again by the likes of Passport Capital, Pennant Capital, and Lone Pine Capital during the third quarter. Shares climbed from $52 to $56 at the end of Q3 and have since traded even higher.

* Monsanto (MON): Hedge funds like Blue Ridge Capital, Viking Global, and Lone Pine all added to their holdings in MON again in Q3. This company provides agricultural products and is known for its seeds and biotechnology. Blue Ridge in particular has owned shares for quite some time.

* TransDigm Group (TDG): Farallon Capital, Maverick Capital, and Tiger Global all added to their pre- existing stakes in this designer and supplier of aircraft components. A large part of the investment thesis here hinges on a strong management team and solid capital allocation.

* Equinix (EQIX): Paulson & Co, JANA Partners, and Lone Pine Capital all bought more EQIX shares during the quarter. Shares have fallen from $230 in the second quarter down to $161 presently and hedge funds have started to dip their toes back into the water of this datacenter and colocation play.

Consensus Sold Positions

* Realogy (RLGY): This real estate brokerage play was once a consensus buy among hedge funds, but now some funds seem to have soured on that bet, including Blue Ridge, Coatue, and Tiger Management. Some of the worries seem to be that rising mortgage rates could deter homebuyers from buying, thus decreasing real estate transaction volume.

* Clearwire (CLWR): This is a consensus sell only because shares no longer trade (CLWR was bought out by Sprint Nextel (S)). Hedge funds that previously owned CLWR stakes include arbitrage-focused firms like Farallon and Paulson & Co, but also Glenview Capital.

* Smithfield Foods (SFD): This was another arbitrage position that was bought out in the quarter by China’s Shuanghui, so shares no longer trade. Again, arbitrage focused firms like Paulson & Co and Farallon were involved here.

* Elan (ELN): This was also an arbitrage play as the company put itself up for sale and shares rose on the possibility of a takeover. Investors such as JANA Partners, Paulson & Co, and Viking Global sold their shares in Q3. Elan agreed to a deal with Perrigo (PRGO) in July for $8.6 billion and shareholders of both companies just approved the merger a few days ago.

* ‘Old’ News Corp Entity (NWSA/NWS): This old stock mainly appears on this list for explanation purposes. The ‘old’ News Corp entity completed a split up into 21st Century Fox (FOXA) and ‘new’ News Corp (NWSA) shares. As such, hedge funds no longer show positions in the old entity because it no longer trades. Instead, they will either show stakes in FOXA, ‘new’ NWSA, or both, depending on what they decided to do after the transaction.

Consensus Decrease Position

* American International Group (AIG): While the company still trades below book value, this stock appears on this list for the second consecutive quarter. Many hedge funds are up big on their positions and are locking in some profits as the discount to book value begins to narrow. Soros, Appaloosa, Pennant, Omega, Blue Ridge, Glenview, Perry, and Fairholme all trimmed their stakes in Q3. Note that Bruce Berkowitz’s Fairholme is not on this list because he still retains a massive $4 billion stake in AIG.

* Priceline.com (PCLN): This is most likely a case of locking in profits as PCLN is up 80% over the past year. Tiger, Bridger, Farallon, Maverick, Pennant, Coatue, and Lone Pine all cut their stakes in this online travel- booking giant.

* Charter Communications (CHTR): Realistically, this stock is more of a mixed activity name. It graces this list because a good amount of funds trimmed their stakes (including Tiger Global, Bridger, Farallon, Soros, Lone Pine, and Coatue). At the same time, some other prominent funds were out buying as well.

* Google (GOOG): This highflying tech stock continues to head higher and hedge funds like Tiger, Passport, Appaloosa, Soros, Lone Pine, and Coatue have reduced their exposure to the name. This is at least partially because their position sizes have increased due to share price appreciation (GOOG is up over 58% over the past year).

* Liberty Global (LBTYA): In the past, some hedge funds were selling Liberty Global voting shares (LBTYA) and instead buying non-voting shares (LBTYK) because they traded at a discount. This quarter, it looks like they were just simply selling some of their LBTYA exposure. Funds that did so include: Soros, Third Point, Maverick, Blue Ridge, and Coatue.

Fed's Bullard says he doubts rate cut to IOER would have an impact; says strong November jobs report (due out Dec 6) would raise chance of tapering in Dec meeting

U.S. To Consider Cellphone Use On Planes

Proposal Would Allow for Calls Above 10,000 Feet

The Federal Communications Commission will propose allowing passengers to use their cellphones on airplanes, people familiar with the matter said.

While phone use would still be restricted during takeoff and landing, the proposal would lift an FCC ban on airborne calls and cellular data use by passengers once a flight reaches 10,000 feet, an FCC official said.

The move comes just weeks after the Federal Aviation Administration said it would allow expanded use of electronic devices during flights, as technical concerns about the airborne use of gadgets fade. Yet it promises to raise a vigorous debate about the social merits of allowing people to make phone calls amid a captive audience at close quarters.

The proposal is scheduled to be discussed at the commission's December meeting. If implemented, it would then be up to the airlines to decide whether to allow voice calls.

In October, the FAA said it would allow passengers to use electronic devices such as e-books or tablets as long as wireless signals were disabled. The agency emphasized that cellphones must remain in airplane mode—with cellular transmissions shut off. Cellphones "cannot be used for voice communications based on FCC regulations," the FAA said.

The proposal will be sent out in what's known as a Notice of Proposed Rule Making, in which the agency will invite comments on the idea before making a final decision. The entire process could take months.

When the FCC made a similar proposal in 2004, it received more than 8,000 comments. The FCC dropped the proposal in 2007 amid objections from flight attendants and other groups who said it would be a nuisance. The FCC also was concerned by a "lack of technical information upon which we may base a decision," according to its 2007 decision.

If adopted, the FCC's order would merely permit airlines to implement wireless technology on planes. It wouldn't require them to do so, and individual airlines would then decide whether to enable voice services on their flights. The FAA would still have to certify any new equipment

The technology to allow cellphone use on planes already exists and has been deployed internationally.

Liberty Global's Next Frontier Could Be Content

Liberty Global LBTYA +0.88% has already bought almost every big cable operator in Europe. But the Nasdaq-listed cable company's deal making might not be limited to pipes. Instead, Liberty's next battleground could be media content.

Liberty has until now successfully brushed aside concerns that it owns little content, save some sports and movie channels in Belgium and the Netherlands. After all, video services delivered over the Internet like Netflix have far less reach in Europe, and 75% of TV viewing is still free-to-air broadcasts. Instead, Liberty spends about $2 billion a year buying programming from other pay-TV operators and broadcasters.

But some U.S. cable operators believe there are benefits to owning both distribution and content; witness Comcast's CMCSA +1.77% takeover of NBCUniversal in February. Liberty could also follow that logic. Its major competitive advantage, offering superfast broadband Internet connections, will eventually fade as telecom operators expand fiber networks, which offer even faster download speeds. That makes having exclusive content more of a draw.

Competition for popular programming in Europe is already stiff, pushing costs up for everyone. In the U.K., where Liberty owns cable operator Virgin Media, BT Group BT.A.LN +0.93% is paying £900 million ($1.45 billion) for the three-year rights to show European soccer matches, more than double what Sky and free-to-air broadcaster ITV ITV.LN -0.11% previously paid, estimates Bernstein Research.

But there's no single solution to address Liberty's shortcomings across the Continent. Exclusive sports rights are sold nationally, and Liberty doesn't have the critical mass in many markets to spread the cost. In Germany, buying a broadcaster makes no sense because Liberty's cable companies don't have nationwide reach. A more appealing option would be co-investing in content with cable peers covering different parts of the country.

Still, in the U.K., Liberty might see merit in an approach for ITV, the broadcaster that produced the internationally popular drama "Downton Abbey." NTL, one of Virgin's legacy companies, bid for ITV in 2006. The broadcaster would give Virgin a platform through which to produce exclusive programs, as well as strengthening its hand when negotiating rights to others' content.

ITV could also be a decent investment. Most of the broadcaster's cost base is fixed, meaning higher retransmission fees and any pickup in TV advertising revenue falls straight to ITV's bottom line. Its free cash flow is forecast to rise 54%, to more than £500 million, over the next two years.

True, ITV's £7.5 billion market value looks a lot for Liberty to swallow so soon after it bought Virgin in February. But Liberty is quickly deleveraging and is forecast to generate $1.9 billion in free cash flow next year. It might wait and see how BT's foray into sports content reshapes the pay-TV market. But sooner or later, ITV could be the sort of deal Liberty might need to consider.

Spotify Raises $250 Million, Valued Above $4 Billion

Daniel Ek, chief executive officer of Spotify, speaks at a news conference in New York in 2011. Bloomberg News

Swedish music-streaming company Spotify AB has secured nearly $250 million in new financing led by Silicon Valley firm Technology Crossover Ventures, valuing the company somewhere "north" of $4 billion dollars, according to multiple people familiar with the deal.

The latest round of funding comes as Spotify is looking to fuel its global growth strategy. While already established in many Western markets, including the U.S., Spotify is aiming to launch its service in some of the world's highest-potential destinations for streaming music, including Japan.

Spotify competes with U.S.-based streaming music services, such as Pandora Media Inc., P +4.04% as well as bigger content providers like Apple Inc. Paris-based Deezer is among the Spotify's competitors in Europe.

The company's revenue has boomed in recent years, more than doubling in 2012 to €434.7 million. Spotify's losses have also widened amid expensive licensing agreements and hefty costs related to expansion into a bevy of new markets.

A year ago, for instance, Spotify was in 17 countries, and now it is available in 32 markets. Spotify has also done deals with 25 telecom operators world-wide.

In a recent interview, Spotify Chief Executive and co-founder Daniel Ek said his company is converting a relatively large number of people who try the service free into actual paying customers. The company has also widened the gap between the revenue it pulls in and the royalties it pays to record labels, artists and publishers.

With Technology Crossover Ventures, Spotify will also add an investor familiar with the content licensing business. The investment firm purchased $200 million in convertible bonds from Netflix Inc. NFLX +2.28% about two years ago, at a time when the video content company was shedding subscribers. Since the deal was struck in late November 2011, the stock has more than quadrupled.

TCV has in the past also invested in real estate website Zillow Inc., Z +1.81% Facebook Inc. FB +1.18% and GoDaddy Group Inc.

Officials with both Spotify and TCV declined to comment.

Spotify last year raised more than $100 million from multiple investors at a valuation of slightly more than $3 billion. In 2011, the company raised $100 million from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Russian investment firm DST Global, at a $1 billion valuation.

Pandora is currently valued at about $5.7 billion. Its stock recently rose 3.8% to $29.53.

Spotify is privately held, and Mr. Ek said in August that at some point investors will likely want to get their money back, potentially through an initial public offering. "If we think that the goal is better aligned by going public, sure we'll contemplate it," he said. "But it's not something I spend any waking time thinking about."

Fed's Bullard: With interest rates near zero, bond buying and forward guidance are the best tools - Aggresive rates cuts in 2007-08 may have gotten the economy stuck at the zero lower bound, exacerbated the commodity boom.

Tesla Motors MIT Technology Review reports that collision-caused fires are more frequent in the Model S than in convential cars

Fed's Bullard: With interest rates near zero, bond buying and forward guidance are the best tools

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TUI Travel Shrs. Said Offered at 365-375 Pence Each in Bookbuild 2013-11-21 17:35:08.82 GMT

By Ruth David Nov. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Shr. sale started today, may close any time, person familiar with the matter says. * Monteray selling 60.1m shrs. in TUI Travel to institutional investors, according to statement * TT@LN gains 0.3% to 389.3 pence today

Link to Company News:{TT/ LN <Equity> CN <GO>}

For Related News and Information: First Word scrolling panel: {FIRST<GO>} First Word newswire: {NH BFW<GO>}

To contact the reporter on this story: Ruth David in London at +44-20-3525-8095 or rdavid9@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Cecile Vannucci at +44-20-3525-7032 or cvannucci1@bloomberg.net

SNB's Zurbruegg: SNB is ready to keep buying CHF in unlimited quantities to defend the floor, franc remains overvalued - With interest rates at zero, the minimum exchange rate prevents an undesired tightening of monetary conditions in the event that the upward pressure on the franc should intensify once again