Institutional ticker directory tracking stock mentions, long/short ideas, and high-conviction pitches extracted from quarterly hedge fund letters.
| Ticker | Company | Sector | Industry | Pitches | Stance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fund / Manager | Thesis Excerpt | Stance | Period / Date | Action |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Brennan Asset Management, LLC Patrick Brennan | “In our Q3 2025 letter, we detailed our investment in GCI Liberty (later renamed Liberty Capital) and described how we felt that the company traded substantially below the value of the Alaska Cable business, which implied that investors were seemingly ascribing negative value to the prospects of deals from John Malone and company. We noted how investors would have flocked to this type of investment 10 years ago, but the underperformance of US cable and several other Liberty names had caused a severe inversion to anything cable related. In April, GCI acquired Alaska-based fiber infrastructure provider Quintillion in a deal valued at an enterprise price of $310 million. The acquisition combines Quintillion's 1,800 miles of existing subsea and terrestrial fiber with Liberty Capital's statewide telecommunications network. While the acquisition was firmly within Alaska/within telecom (Liberty Capital said it was looking at deals outside both in June 2025), the strategic logic of the deal was compelling as was the purchase price (~7x run rate 2026E EBITDA assuming all synergies). We increased our position following the deal. On May 6, 2026, GCI announced a complicated deal in which the company would acquire ~$107 million of LILAK securities (~6% equity ownership) from Searchlight Capital Partners and was entering discussions with John Malone to swap what we viewed as very cheap GCI shares for Dr. Malone's entire LILAK stake (~7% economic interest but 27% voting interest). We did multiple takes on the press release and instantly felt Michael Corleone-esque frustration about being dragged back into LILAK. GCI's stock promptly fell ~20% as investors expressed instant disdain for (we believe) the asset itself and the multiple conflicts of interest (buying Searchlight out of a failed position at no discount, a swap of cheap GCI shares in an intra-Liberty deal with John Malone). We hated the deal and believed the sell-off was justified. We wrote to GCI, noted that we had closely followed LILAK and explained our reservations about the asset itself and the conflicts of interest. If we or any other GCI investor wanted exposure to LILAK, we simply could have purchased these shares directly. We likely would have sold the entire GCI position but less than one week later, GCI announced that it was terminating discussions with Malone on his LILAK stake and that Malone would repurchase the Searchlight shares GCI acquired at the exact price. There are few 'do overs' in the investment business but here was one. Later in May, we participated in a call with GCI CEO Ron Duncan who, while defending the LILAK asset (we disagree), expressed regret about not anticipating how negatively GCI investors viewed intra-Liberty deals and vowed not to make the same mistake going forward. When we asked about the strength of the 'on-deck' list of possible deals, Duncan essentially said they had looked at multiple deals but passed given the unrealistic valuation expectations of sellers (particularly private equity owners). Duncan noted it was far better to sit tight rather than consummate a poor transaction. Duncan, however, expressed confidence that there will be a time when private equity owners must sell, and he thought the prospects were high for GCI to acquire assets at this time. Amazingly, GCI has kept declining even after the 'redo,' and shares now sit ~35% below levels on May 5. Some of the further selling likely centers around further Starlink concerns following SpaceX's massive ~$1.75 trillion IPO. As noted in our Q3 2025 letter, Starlink is a more legitimate competitor in Alaska versus the continental US. That said, Starlink's incremental gains have occurred in more rural Alaska settings. Furthermore, GCI's heavy concentration of commercial customers provides substantial protection – we are skeptical that a hospital will willingly swap from fiber to an inferior product, especially following the Quintillion deal because GCI will have far more redundancy in its fiber offerings should one ring break during Alaska's harsh winters. We would concede that GCI has few catalysts outside consummating an attractive transaction or conceivably repurchasing its cheap shares. Cable and Liberty names remain deeply unpopular, and it is unclear when this sentiment changes (if ever). That said, we added to our position following the call with Duncan as we think the odds of another intra-Liberty deal have materially declined (we likely would sell if this soft pledge is broken), we believe that GCI's Alaska business is better insulated from fixed wireless and fiber challenges plaguing continental cable names and this competitive positioning should generate a steady stream of free cash flow. Finally, we think the Quintillion deal is positive, the LILAK experience is less likely to be repeated, and we still think that Malone has at least one more great deal left in him. GCI is, in its own way, another test of the investment discipline – a hated, cheap name where the urge to walk away is strongest at precisely the moment the odds of investment success have improved.” | BULL | Q2 2026 Jul 27, 2026 | View Pitch |
Each excerpt above is the manager's commentary on this ticker specifically. The full letter has the rest of their portfolio thinking, risk discussion, and broader institutional context.
