Whether basketball or life The Wizard of Westwood can always be counted on for sage advice.

“Patience is the ability to wait and calmly persevere.  We all grow impatient but some people have more trouble waiting than others do.  We tend to forget that all good things take time.”

Sadly the investment world and its many attention span of a five year old inhabitants forget this lesson.  Their short-term focus causes them to miss out on gems like last week’s announcement that Google is buying Motorola Mobility.

One firm that hit the nail squarely on the head is an Apollo favorite – Dodge & Cox.  As of June 30th it owned 5.4% of Motorola Mobility’s outstanding shares meaning their take at the close of the transaction will be a cool $635 million in cash.  Not too shabby, eh?

The firm has owned Motorola since 2003 – several years prior to its split into Motorola Mobility and Motorola Solutions.  Despite the stock’s steep decline in 2006 they stuck with it because of a strong belief in the company’s businesses, intellectual capital and solid balance sheet – value they believed was not recognized by the markets or reflected in the stock price.  The buyout price – a 63% premium over Motorola Mobility’s August 12th close – shows Google sees that value.

The takeaway is as always – forget the day-to-day nonsense.  Leave it for the Ritalin crowd.