Berkshire Hathaway

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Interesting read. I like the joke about taking a piece of Eric Schmidt's $1,000 long bet on self flying airplanes.  

timetocompound.wordpress.com

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Buffett Confronts Search for Next Big Thing After Missed Chances

by Noah Buhayar
May 8, 2017, 6:55 AM GMT+8

Underlying the festivities at Warren Buffett’s annual bash for Berkshire Hathaway Inc. shareholders over the weekend was a sobering fact: Finding the next big thing is hard.

The Berkshire chief executive officer spoke at length Saturday about his failure to pounce on opportunities in tech stocks, the challenge of lining up large deals, and his frustration with a cash pile that’s approaching $100 billion.

“We shouldn’t use your money that way for long periods,” Buffett said of the cash during his meeting in Omaha, Nebraska. “The question is, ‘Are we going to be able to deploy it?’ I would say that history is on our side, but it’d be more fun if the phone would ring.”

It was a notably downbeat moment for the billionaire, who’s spent the past five decades snapping up businesses and stocks. His investments transformed Berkshire from a struggling textile maker into a conglomerate with insurance companies, manufacturers, retailers, utilities and a railroad, as well as an equity portfolio valued at $135 billion.

With thousands of adoring fans watching live (and many more streaming video online), Buffett and Vice Chairman Charles Munger took questions for five hours from the audience, analysts and journalists on topics from investing to public policy.

More details in https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/...ed-chances

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A quick summary, for those who did not fly to Omaha over the weekend, or stayed up to watch the livecast and are not bothered to watch any replays...

What Warren Buffett said about Chinese stocks, buying IBM, not buying Amazon, life and eating junk food
http://m.scmp.com/news/world/united-stat...cks-buying

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Buffett Is About to Make $12 Billion on His Bank of America Bet

By Noah Buhayar  and Katherine Chiglinsky
June 30, 2017, 7:18 PM GMT+8 Updated on June 30, 2017, 8:28 PM GMT+8

Warren Buffett’s bet on Bank of America Corp. is about to pay off with a roughly $12 billion windfall.

The billionaire plans to exercise warrants obtained six years ago in a vote of confidence in Bank of America while its shares were tumbling amid multibillion-dollar probes tied to the housing meltdown. The cash infusion helped the bank put to rest doubts about whether it had enough capital, and its shares have more than tripled since then.

In the 2011 deal, Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. invested $5 billion in Bank of America in exchange for preferred stock and the right to buy 700 million common shares, a stake now worth $17 billion. Berkshire said in a statement Friday that it would convert its preferred shares into common stock once the Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank increases its dividend, now planned for the beginning of the third quarter.

More details in https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/...n-of-stock

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Buffett Nears a Milestone He Doesn't Want: $100 Billion in Cash

By Noah Buhayar
August 7, 2017, 6:00 PM GMT+8

It’s a milestone Warren Buffett probably wishes he weren’t approaching.

Berkshire Hathaway Inc., the conglomerate he’s run for more than five decades, reported Friday that it held just shy of $100 billion in cash at the end of the second quarter.

While that figure highlights the staggering money-making ability of the businesses he’s collected over the years, it’s also a burden. Because Berkshire doesn’t pay a dividend and rarely buys back its own stock, Buffett is on the hook to find ways to invest those funds.

More details in https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/...on-in-cash

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Oncor Is Buffett's Latest Dealmaking Flop

By Scott Deveau , Noah Buhayar , and Matthew Monks
August 22, 2017, 2:54 AM GMT+8 Updated on August 22, 2017, 7:31 AM GMT+8

This year isn’t shaping up to be the stuff of Warren Buffett dealmaking legend.

Buffett’s $9 billion bid to acquire Oncor Electric Delivery Co. started to unravel last week after Paul Singer’s Elliott Management Corp. outmaneuvered the Oracle of Omaha by acquiring a small parcel of unsecured debt. That opened a window for Sempra Energy to swoop in and strike a deal to acquire the Texas utility.

The loss comes six months after another multibillion-dollar Buffett pursuit hit the skids.

In February, his Berkshire Hathaway Inc. committed $15 billion to help Kraft Heinz Co. in a proposed buyout of Unilever. The Anglo-Dutch consumer goods giant rejected the approach, and the offer was quickly pulled.

The collapse of two high-profile pursuits in such a short time frame is a rarity for Buffett, who has spent decades building Berkshire into a sprawling conglomerate through shrewd takeovers. While he’s made many offers that went nowhere, it’s less common for such losses to play out in public.

More details in https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/...aking-woes

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Warren Buffett Was Right About the Airlines

By Chris Bryant
October 2, 2017, 6:15 PM GMT+8

After a string of airline bankruptcies, Warren Buffett has become more positive about the industry's fortunes—in the U.S. at least. Yet the collapse of U.K.-based Monarch Airlines suggests the billionaire investor was also right in his earlier assessment: aviation is often a "death trap" for investors.

Monarch's failure has been long in gestation. Owned by private equity firm Greybull Capital LLP, it has required a succession of capital injections and restructurings in recent years. A year ago, regulators were even rumored to have set up a shadow airline to track the company's flights to the Mediterranean because they feared Monarch might have to cease flying, leaving passengers stranded.

Monarch secured a 165 million pound bailout ($220 million) from Greybull on that occasion, prompting chief executive Andrew Swaffield to insist: "We are not going to go bust". His promise didn't even remain valid for 12 months.

More details in https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/...ong-gadfly

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Here are Warren Buffett's latest stock moves

Julia La Roche
Yahoo FinanceNovember 15, 2017

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-A, BRK-B) stock moves for the third quarter are out.

Buffett’s top buys in the third quarter included Bank of America (BAC), Apple (AAPL), Synchrony Financial (SYF), and Monsanto (MON), filings revealed.

The “Oracle of Omaha” filed his firm’s 13-F filing on Tuesday. Funds of a certain size are required to disclose their long equity holdings in these regulatory filings. They come out 45 days after the end of each quarter.

During the third quarter, Berkshire Hathaway announced plans to exercise its Bank of America warrants once the dividend rate increase took effect. Buffett invested in Bank of America in 2011 as it dealt with legal troubles related to mortgages. According to the filing, Berkshire Hathaway last held 679 million shares in the third quarter, a position valued at just over $17.2 billion. Bank of America is Berkshire Hathaway’s fifth largest equity holding.

More details in https://finance.yahoo.com/news/warren-bu...55554.html

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Buffett's About to Get $3 Billion Back From Burger King Owner

By Noah Buhayar  and Craig Giammona
December 12, 2017, 3:33 AM GMT+8

Warren Buffett’s cash pile is likely to get a bit bigger this week.

Burger King-owner Restaurant Brands International Inc. is scheduled to redeem $3 billion in preferred shares Tuesday from Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. The money helped the fast-food chain finance its 2014 purchase of Tim Hortons.

The redemption will take away a lucrative investment for Berkshire and add to Buffett’s arsenal for investments and takeovers. At the end of the third quarter, Buffett’s Omaha, Nebraska-based holding company had a record $109 billion in cash. The billionaire has struggled some on the deal front this year with two large, potential acquisitions slipping away.

More details in https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/...king-owner

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Warren Buffett's 2017 letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders : http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/letters/2017ltr.pdf