Room to Run by Lauren R. Rublin

Summary: Barron's 2007 mid-year roundtable survey of influential fund managers. Their picks:

It was another exciting opportunity for me that I owe to my status as a student at a school with a very generous benefactor, Mr. Harvey Eisen, who routinely helps bring the classroom to the real world.

ANALYST ROUNDTABLE: Multiple Choices by Lauren R. Rublin

Cablevision Systems Corp.(2.26% of net assets as of December 31, 2006) (CVC) ($28.48 - NYSE) is one of the nation’s leading communications and entertainment companies. Headquartered in Bethpage, N.Y., Cablevision serves 3 million cable customers in the most important cable TV market – New York.Cablevision also operates and has majority interests in a number of sports related assets, including Madison Square Garden, the N.Y. Knicks, the N.Y. Rangers, the MSG Network, and six other regional sports networks. In addition, Cablevision’s Rainbow Media unit owns high growth cable networks, including AMC, Women’s Entertainment, and IFC. In October 2006, Cablevision’s controlling Dolan family made a bid to take the company private for $27 per share.In January 2007, the Dolans raised their offer to $30 per share.This follows the Dolans’ June 2005 attempt to purchase the cable systems for $21 per share and a $10 per share cash distribution made in April 2006. We view the $30 per share offer as inadequate, given the recent positive dynamics in the cable industry and would look for substantially increased consideration from the Dolan group or a merger with newly public Time Warner Cable.

It was a pretty funny bunch that also included Bill Gross of Pimco and ten others, many with names that are unfamiliar here. Some of them will not be easily forgotten such as Art Samberg, apparently the head asset shuffler in the bunch, for his memorable response when asked to comment on the year just concluded and the prospects for 2007.

Art Samberg: If it ain't broke, don't fix it. China is growing by 9%, 10%. India is growing slightly less. Brazil is growing at a nice rate. I don't see where there's anything all that unusual.We have no inflation in the world. These countries are sucking up commodities, providing low-cost labor. Productivity is slowing but it is still decent. There's no major change in anything. The world economy is growing faster than anything we've ever seen before. In the long term, will jobs get outsourced and the U.S. lose its dominant position? Perhaps. It's a risk. But it ain't going to happen this year. As for housing, price inflation in the United States is no different from what it was in England and Australia, and those markets didn't see a collapse.