McDonald's Corp on Friday said it plans to end its 40-year relationship with ketchup maker H.J. Heinz Co, since that company is now led by Bernardo Hees, the former chief executive of hamburger rival Burger King Worldwide Inc. "As a result of recent management changes at Heinz, we have decided to transition our business to other suppliers over time," McDonald's said in a statement.
Buffett's Berkshire cuts Tesco stake by $485 million (Chicago Tribune / Reuters)
I think the Tesco sale is related to Marmon's IMI purchase... Berkshire keeping UK money in the UK to avoid the tax issues of moving money to and from the US.
Billionaire Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc has slashed its stake in Britain's Tesco by 300 million pounds ($484.75 million), weeks after the world's No.3 retailer posted disappointing half-year results. [...] Berkshire, a Tesco shareholder since 2006, cut its holding to 3.98 percent from 4.98 percent on October 16, filings on the London Stock Exchange website showed. However it still remains one of its biggest investments outside the United States. Berkshire's Marmon Group had announced on the same day that it had agreed to buy two businesses from British engineering company IMI for 690 million pounds.
Buffett: Why I didn't buy the Washington Post (CNN / Fortune)
As the Graham family exits emotionally from the Washington Post newspaper, and new owner Jeff Bezos stays mum about his plans, some fresh details about who did not buy the paper have emerged. Participating in a Q&A last week at Washington's Metropolitan Club, Warren Buffett, 83, spoke of his long-term affection for the paper and said he had "briefly" considered buying it when it went on sale earlier this year. But he then decided the purchase wouldn't work.
MidAmerican Energy Holdings Company Earns No. 1 Spot in Industrial Customer Satisfaction Among U.S. Electric Utility Companies (Business Wire)
MidAmerican Energy Holdings Company ranks No. 1 in the U.S. for overall customer satisfaction among large commercial and industrial customers of electric utility holding companies, according to 2013 data released this week by TQS Research, Inc. The company’s ongoing emphasis on customer satisfaction and sharing of best practices resulted in all three of MidAmerican Energy Holdings Company’s U.S. utilities – MidAmerican Energy Company, Pacific Power and Rocky Mountain Power – contributing to the top ranking. MidAmerican Energy Company, based in Des Moines, Iowa, earned a very satisfied rating of 95.4 percent from the large commercial and industrial customers included in the survey.
Jain feeds Buffett’s hunger (Insurance Insider)
This story is really "inside baseball" about the insurance industry, and very heavy on the metaphor, which you can see from the intro.
People are starting to worry about him. The changes in diet. The idiosyncratic decisions. The silence. He isn't quite the man he used to be, isn't quite himself. Everyone is talking about it: speculating about his motives, glossing his actions, promulgating theories, kvetching about its implications. Which is to say that Ajit Jain, the softly spoken, smiling carnivore par excellence of the reinsurance world has of late taken up omnivorous habits. Where Jain was previously notorious for holding aloof until he scented blood, then attacking ferociously and making off with hefty chunks of red meat in his mouth, the last two years have seen him extend his diet in surprisingly catholic ways.
Willis to Allocate Risks to Insurers Including Berkshire (Bloomberg)
Willis Group Holdings Plc, the third-largest insurance broker by market value, agreed to allocate as much as 25 percent of premiums from the London corporate specialist market to pre-selected insurers. Underwriters in the group include Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc., People’s Insurance Company (Group) of China Ltd. and Hiscox Ltd., said Colleen McCarthy, a spokeswoman for the London-based broker. [...] Aon Plc, the second-largest broker, announced a similar deal with Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire in March to shoulder risks from the Lloyd’s of London market. Berkshire agreed to provide Willis’s clients additional coverage for oil drilling following BP Plc’s 2010 spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
Johns Manville expands micro glass fibre nonwoven capacity in Germany (Innovation in Textiles)
I'm mostly including this link because I don't find opportunities to talk about Johns Manville very often.
Johns Manville, a Berkshire Hathaway company and a leading manufacturer of premium-quality building, specialty and filtration products, has completed an expansion of its micro glass fibre nonwoven production for air filtration media in its plant in Wertheim, Germany. The company’s micro glass fibre nonwovens are used as top-performance media in HVAC filtration applications and also as aircraft insulation. The company also recently announced an additional investment of EUR 32 million in a state-of-the-art PET spunbond line for filtration products at its production site in Berlin.
Also, the nationwide rebranding of "Prudential Real Estate" into "Berkshire Hathaway Real Estate" continues on, with Austin and Kansas City the major markets making the switch in the past week. I gave up on posting all the press releases from all the real estate brokerages and all the small-town newspaper business section stories, but this story is still in progress.
The Buffetts on Charity, Succession, and TV (Bloomberg Video)
Berkshire Hathaway chairman/CEO Warren Buffett, board member Howard G. Buffett and Howard W. Buffett, executive director at Howard G. Buffett Foundation, talk with Betty Liu about their book “40 Chances,” their philanthropic endeavors, succession at Berkshire Hathaway and Warren Buffett’s love of the TV show “Breaking Bad.” They speak on Bloomberg Television’s “In The Loop.”
Warren Buffett shows off his ukulele skills (Today)
"Now, here it is, your moment of zen..."
Warren Buffett — business mogul, investor, philanthropist ... ukulele player? The 83-year-old financial legend stopped by TODAY with son Howard G. Buffett and grandson Howard W. Buffett to discuss their new book "40 Chances" but also showed off his lesser known talents in the Orange Room: singing and playing the ukulele. As if the billionaire doesn't have enough going for him. He said he learned to play in college for an age-old reason. "I play off and on, but I just wanted to impress a girl I was keen on," Buffett said. "It didn't work."
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