That investment would be worth 2.188bil today, if they bought it for 1bil then that's a nice profit. And until they sell the shares it's not a profit.

In the current market turmoil it's worth considering selling shares and turning them into cash. But is there a bank safe enough to put the cash into ;-)

Barclays share price over the past 2 years has fallen 800%, from over £8 to £0.58 now. If you had bought in 2004 at £4, then sold in 2007 at nearly £8 you would have made similar profit to comcast. Hanging on until now would have meant massive losses.

Until you sell the share it's not profit, it's a risk. They may go up, they may go down. It's a tough call.

Microsoft buying Yahoo, what does Yahoo have and do that Microsoft need? If Microsoft takeover will they mess up Yahoo? Can MS buy Yahoo and turn it around?

It was a profitable company, and a sound investment... and so the idea of any company run by Steve Balmer hanging onto stock like that is anathema. He's a sort of anti-predicter, really: it's worth having people like Steve around, simply to watch what it's NOT worth doing, for the next twelve, to twenty four, months.