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Howard Marks

Co-Founder and Co-Chairman, Oaktree Capital Management · 1 appearance on the record.

computed by AI from the episodes · how this works → · full disclaimer →

investorfounderexecutiveauthor@HowardMarksBook ↗LinkedIn ↗oaktreecapital.com ↗Wikipedia ↗

Howard Marks co-founded Oaktree Capital Management in 1995, building it into a global leader in alternative investments, distressed debt, and high-yield credit. He is widely recognized for his regular investment memos, as well as bestselling books such as The Most Important Thing and Mastering the Market Cycle.

11statements → 6claims → 4claims resolved → 50%fully supported → 3.73/5average certainty → 2.18/5average debate potential → 5said about them ↓

2 supported 0 partly supported 2 contradicted 2 not checkable as stated how the 6 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

1 prediction · 5 assertions · 2 opinions · 2 insights · 1 disclosure · every statement was checked. The prediction and assertions are the 6 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 4 are resolved, and 2 name no date, number or outcome precise enough to check. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.

The record, in short

What the tape says about how Howard argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.

Their most notable supported claim

Assertion Supported
Howard Marks offered just $100,000 to buy Acclaim out of bankruptcy
“I offered a 100,000 dollars to buy the whole company and people were laughing at me. The trustee laughed at me, everybody. It turns out.”
Howard Marks Aug 5, 2018 ▶ 9:23 1107 Activision Blizzard CEO: ICO's are Just Like Selling Digital Swords in Mortal Combat!

Their most notable contradicted claim

Assertion Contradicted
Acclaim went bankrupt because their auditor fired them
“They couldn't file their public statements or publicly traded company. They, their auditor fired them and they couldn't file anymore.”
Howard Marks Aug 5, 2018 ▶ 10:20 1107 Activision Blizzard CEO: ICO's are Just Like Selling Digital Swords in Mortal Combat!

Expressed certainty vs assessment result

none yet certainty 1
none yet certainty 2
0% certainty 3
67% certainty 4
none yet certainty 5

weighted support: a fully supported claim counts one, a partly supported claim counts half. Each filled bar is clickable and opens exactly those claims; "none yet" means nothing said at that certainty level has resolved yet

How they sound: not measured why? →

We measure speaking style by listening to the audio itself, and a fair number needs at least 2,000 words from one person on tape we have measured. There is too little of Howard Marks on measured tape to publish a rate. This says nothing about how they speak.

Everything Howard Marks said on Top Founders that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →

Opinion
Howard Marks claims VCs only invest in white males from Stanford
“VCs typically only invest in white males from Stanford.”
Howard Marks Aug 5, 2018 ▶ 12:59 1107 Activision Blizzard CEO: ICO's are Just Like Selling Digital Swords in Mortal Combat!
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Howard Marks predicted SaaS models would inevitably transform into ICOs
“You know, for them, the SaaS business is probably the only way a software model is going to work, but it's going to transform itself into the ICO model, which is the blockchain, because it's the logical progression, you know, internet, one point O internet, tw…”
Howard Marks Aug 5, 2018 ▶ 17:55 1107 Activision Blizzard CEO: ICO's are Just Like Selling Digital Swords in Mortal Combat!
Insight
The video game industry invented the modern SaaS subscription model
“By the way, the entire game industry is now a SaaS model, as you probably know, software as a service, because people are now buying either a subscription or they're buying a pay-as-you-go Which is really where the game industry invented it, and the SaaS indus…”
Howard Marks Aug 5, 2018 ▶ 8:01 1107 Activision Blizzard CEO: ICO's are Just Like Selling Digital Swords in Mortal Combat!
Insight
Gaming invented cryptocurrency mechanics long before blockchain existed
“If anybody who's listening understands cryptocurrency blockchain, and all of this technology, it all existed in the game industry before cryptocurrency became popular.”
Howard Marks Aug 5, 2018 ▶ 2:32 1107 Activision Blizzard CEO: ICO's are Just Like Selling Digital Swords in Mortal Combat!
Opinion
Activision is nearly as big as Disney and could become bigger
“No, Activision is independent. It is nearly as big as Disney, or it could become bigger than Disney, but it's Acclaim, my other game company.”
Howard Marks Aug 5, 2018 ▶ 8:46 1107 Activision Blizzard CEO: ICO's are Just Like Selling Digital Swords in Mortal Combat!
Disclosure
Howard Marks bought 30% of Activision for just $400,000 in 1991
“So we bought 30% of the company from one investor was a venture capitalist. We was like, you know what? I'm out. So we paid that, I think, 400 grand.”
Howard Marks Aug 5, 2018 ▶ 4:01 1107 Activision Blizzard CEO: ICO's are Just Like Selling Digital Swords in Mortal Combat!
Assertion Supported
Howard Marks offered just $100,000 to buy Acclaim out of bankruptcy
“I offered a 100,000 dollars to buy the whole company and people were laughing at me. The trustee laughed at me, everybody. It turns out.”
Howard Marks Aug 5, 2018 ▶ 9:23 1107 Activision Blizzard CEO: ICO's are Just Like Selling Digital Swords in Mortal Combat!
Assertion Contradicted
Acclaim went bankrupt because their auditor fired them
“They couldn't file their public statements or publicly traded company. They, their auditor fired them and they couldn't file anymore.”
Howard Marks Aug 5, 2018 ▶ 10:20 1107 Activision Blizzard CEO: ICO's are Just Like Selling Digital Swords in Mortal Combat!
Assertion Contradicted
Activision had $40M in revenue and $60M in losses in 1991
“They had about 60, they had about forty million In revenue with sixty million of losses. It's called negative, negative revenue, which means the cost of making those cartridges at that time cost them more than what they sold it for.”
Howard Marks Aug 5, 2018 ▶ 5:16 1107 Activision Blizzard CEO: ICO's are Just Like Selling Digital Swords in Mortal Combat!
Assertion Supported
CD-ROMs cost 50 cents to manufacture versus $30 for cartridges
“And it cost 50 cents to make the CD, where the cartridge cost 20, 30 dollars.”
Howard Marks Aug 5, 2018 ▶ 11:47 1107 Activision Blizzard CEO: ICO's are Just Like Selling Digital Swords in Mortal Combat!
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Steve Jobs tried to acquire Howard Marks's startup when he was 20
“Well, I met Steve Jobs when I was 20 years old at Apple, because he wanted to buy my company.”
Howard Marks Aug 5, 2018 ▶ 19:08 1107 Activision Blizzard CEO: ICO's are Just Like Selling Digital Swords in Mortal Combat!

The other half of the tape: Howard Marks's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 5 times in 3 episodes on Top Founders. every mention, with the transcript →

Who brings them up most Nathan Latka 5

Every mention by year

tap a year for its mentions
0011212019202020212022episodesmentions
0112019202020212022episodes it came up in
0010.5212019202020212022episodesmentions per episode
2022 1 mention in 1 episode
2021 2 mentions in 1 episode
2019 2 mentions in 1 episode

Appearances (1)

EpisodeDateSpeaking time
1107 Activision Blizzard CEO: ICO's are Just Like Selling Digital Swords in Mortal Combat! Aug 5, 2018 12m
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