market folly

Barry Rosenstein's hedge fund JANA Partners released its year-end 2010 letter and in it we see they've returned 14.3% annualized since inception in April 2001. JANA returned 8.4% last year and you can see how they stack up against others in our post on 2010 hedge fund returns.

New Positions

We'll start with the newest additions to JANA's portfolio as they fall in the special situations category. They like these companies now that they are considering value-maximizing moves.

Cablevision (CVC): This cable company caught their eye due to the announced spin-off of Rainbow Media (cable networks that include the hit show Mad Men). This tax-free transaction will take place by the middle of the year and JANA likes that this spin-off will leave a more pure-play cable company that could be a consolidation target.

Market Folly readers will recall that many hedge funds owned CVC earlier last year (including JANA) due to the company's spin-off of Madison Square Garden (MSG) in a value-unlocking event. We wouldn't be surprised to see more event-driven/catalyst aficionados purchasing this name for the same reasons JANA has.

Williams Companies (WMB): Rosenstein's hedge fund has previously owned this stock before and returned due to the CEO's retirement in October 2010. JANA says, "We expect that WMB will find a way to separate their large exploration and production portfolio from their pipeline assets."

Renault SA (RNO FP): JANA is looking for the company to set higher free cash objectives and to resume dividend payments.

Embedded below is JANA Partners' year-end 2010 letter where you'll also find updates on their stakes in TNT NV (TNTTY), Charles River Labs (CRL), and Convergys (CVG). Email readers come to the site to read the letter:



For other hedge fund letters, we've started to post a bunch of other prominent manager commentary including:

- David Einhorn's Greenlight Capital letter
- John Paulson's year-end letter to investors
- Summary of Kleinheinz Capital's letter
- Dan Arbess & Xerion Fund's 2011 strategy