Self-Made Billionaire James Dinan’s Top Picks

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Dinan initiated a position in Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) during the fourth quarter with 9.40 million shares valued at $474.69 million. The tech company’s shares depreciated by 12.01% during the first quarter. The stock was held by 12 billionaires among those that we track, with their total investments valued at $2.37 billion at the end of 2014. D.E Shaw, founded by David Shaw is one of them, as it held about 13.54 million shares valued at $683.75 million.

Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) recently extended the deadline for renegotiation of a search deal that it struck with Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) back in 2010. The contract lasts until 2020, but a clause allows for renegotiation after 5 years. Yahoo also recently added $2 billion more to its share buyback program which is now valued at $2.73 billion. Shareholders of the technology company were particularly pleased when Marissa Mayer, the company’s CEO announced that Yahoo’s stake in Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) would be spun off into a separately-traded public company in the fourth quarter.

A stake in DISH Network Corp (NASDAQ:DISH) was initiated by Dinan during the second quarter of 2013, of 2.06 million shares. At the end of 2014 York Capital had increased that to 5.21 million shares valued at $379.56 million. The stock lost 3.88% of its value during the first quarter. Another prominent shareholder is Boykin Curry’s Eagle Capital Management with 9.24 million shares valued at $673.36 million.

DISH Network Corp (NASDAQ:DISH) made an announcement this year that it will be launching an online TV subscription service priced at $20-per-month which addresses a new category of customers called cord-cutters. That is the name given to people who only watch a few channels and do not want to pay a subscription fee which is north of $70 a month for a wider variety of channels like other cable subscribers do. Cord-cutters have largely migrated away from cable and get their entertainment through other services.

Disclosure: None

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