Berkshire News Briefs - 10/31/14

Halloween Edition! (Make your own spooky sounds for ambiance while you read this.)

The Pampered Chef Names Tracy Britt Cool Chief Executive Officer (BusinessWire)

The Pampered Chef, Ltd., a Berkshire Hathaway company, today announced that it has appointed Tracy Britt Cool as Chief Executive Officer, effective November 1, 2014. Cool, 30, has been with Berkshire Hathaway for five years, serving as Financial Assistant to the Chairman. In this role, her responsibilities included conducting investment research, analyzing acquisition opportunities, and advising Berkshire Hathaway subsidiaries in various industries. Cool will continue to serve as chairman of Berkshire Hathaway companies Benjamin Moore, Larson-Juhl, and Oriental Trading Company, and will remain on the board of the H.J. Heinz Company.

The Education of Warren Buffett’s protégé (Fortune)

Tracy Britt Cool has spent the last five years getting schooled on spotting talent and running a business. Now she’s the newest female CEO in the Berkshire portfolio. [...] Buffett’s giving Cool, now 30, her first big operating role. On Monday, the Oracle of Omaha announced that Cool will become the CEO of Pampered Chef on November 1, replacing founder and current chief Doris Christopher, a home economics teacher who started the Pampered Chef in 1980 by selling kitchen tools from her basement. Christopher will remain at the company as chairman.

Warren Buffett's newspaper division sells direct mail marketer (Omaha World-Herald)

Warren Buffett’s newspaper division has sold its direct mail marketing company. BH Media Group of Omaha sold World Marketing Inc. to Milwaukee businessman Robert M. Kraft and an investment group for an undisclosed amount. [...] World Marketing’s corporate headquarters and administrative operations in La Vista are moving to Milwaukee. Offices and production facilities will remain in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas and St. Louis. Altogether, the company has 450 employees. World Marketing processes more than 1 billion pieces of mail a year for clients including American Airlines, Kraft Foods, Bristol-Meyers Squibb and Blue Cross Blue Shield.[...]

Buffett’s NetJets China Growth Slowed by Austerity Moves (Bloomberg)

NetJets Inc., the aviation unit of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc., will need about five years to make self-sustaining the chartered jet business it began last month in China, as government officials shun private jets. The Chinese Communist Party’s austerity measures are dragging on growth for private aviation, which also faces an economic slowdown and a lack of general aviation airports, said Robert Molsbergen, president of NetJets’ executive jet management unit. “Typically a lot of the flying in China was done by Chinese officials and that basically is almost all gone,” Molsbergen said [...]

Berkshire Hathaway Names Mary Rhinehart Chairman of Johns Manville (BusinessWire)

(Not surprising, since she was already CEO and President, which is why Tracy Britt Cool gets the top headline this week while this one is tucked in the middle.)

Johns Manville (JM), a Berkshire Hathaway company and global building products manufacturer, today announced that Mary Rhinehart has been named Chairman of the company. Rhinehart was appointed as JM President and Chief Executive Officer in November 2012. [...] Rhinehart has held a variety of roles during her 35-year career, including as general manager of several Johns Manville business units. Before being named CEO, she was Chief Financial Officer, providing her breadth of experience in all financial operations of the company, including M&A. From human resources to supply chain management, Rhinehart’s wide range of responsibilities have also encompassed global business management and strategic business development.

Berkshire’s BNSF to Add Surcharge on Older Oil Tank Cars (Bloomberg)

BNSF Railway Co. plans to apply a $1,000 surcharge for each older crude tank car, denting profits for shale drillers in North Dakota. The railroad owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. is the first major U.S. operator using fees to encourage shippers to scrap the puncture-prone older cars. The charge, which goes into effect Jan. 1, would add about $1.50 a barrel to the cost of transporting oil on them.

Berkshire Hathaway's QSR Chain Dairy Queen Seeks Partner For India Foray (DealCurry)

(QSR = "Quick Service Restaurant")

US based ice cream and QSR chain, Dairy Queen is looking for a partner to foray into the Indian QSR market. The unit of Berkshire Hathaway’s is planning to open its burger chain in the country. The company was said to be in talks with Reliance Retail Ltd. for launching its dairy business in the country, however the deal did not consummate.

50 Warren Buffett Quotes That Will Make You a Better Investor (Fool)

Free e-Book (PDF) from the Motley Fool.

Warren Buffett's success is inspiring. The fact that his ascent has not been successfully replicated is confounding. His nearly 20% annualized returns may go uncontested in the investing hall of fame. What's more, his disarmingly simple philosophy has been freely shared for others to mimic. The pages of this book seek to explain the very best of Buffett's advice.

Berkshire News Briefs - 10/24/14

Earnings announcement for BRK/B: Nov 07, 2014 (Nasdaq)

Warren Buffett Puts Wind in Berkshire’s Sails (WSJ)

Through a majority-owned subsidiary, Berkshire Hathaway Energy, Mr. Buffett plans to double the $15 billion already committed to renewable-energy projects through early this year, and he is on the hunt for more utility acquisitions. [...] The energy unit is key to Berkshire’s future—it generates more than 7% of the conglomerate’s earnings, and is likely to climb—while also providing Mr. Buffett a way to invest Berkshire’s ever-growing cash pile. [...] Another reason many Buffett watchers are paying attention: Berkshire Hathaway Energy is run by Greg Abel, a 52-year-old Canadian who is among the younger executives seen by analysts as possibly succeeding the 84-year-old billionaire as CEO.

Warren Buffett's Berkshire equity portfolio goes awry; loses $5 bn since June 30 (Economic Times)

Sharp drops in many of the stocks owned by Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway in recent weeks hit the sprawling conglomerate's equity portfolio hard. The loss on seven of those holdings alone totals more than $5 billion provided Berkshire's stakes have remained the same since June 30, the last date for which they were disclosed. In particular, Berkshire has been stung by large holdings in IBM and long-time Buffett favorite Coca-Cola, both of which tumbled after disappointing third-quarter results. His penchant for energy stocks hasn't helped either, given the damage done to the prices of energy assets by the slumping global oil price.

Warren Buffett sells more Tesco shares (The Guardian)

Berkshire Hathaway has further reduced its stake in Tesco in the wake of the admission by the investment group’s boss, Warren Buffett, that buying into the troubled supermarket group was a “huge mistake”. In a statement to the stock exchange, Tesco revealed that Berkshire Hathaway had reduced its holding on 13 October to less than 3% – one of the thresholds at which a company must inform the market.

Berkshire Hathaway: 20%+ Undervalued? DCF Calculation (Seeking Alpha)

The intrinsic value of BRK.B is calculated to be $166.94. This represents 22% upside from today's price. Zacks has recently upgraded Berkshire to 1 (Strong Buy) as analyst estimates have moved upwards. Berkshire is well diversified and is strongly equipped to handle adverse macroeconomic conditions. The company has returned an impressive 19.7% average growth in book value for the last 49 years.

Where in the World Is Warren Buffett? Everywhere (Bloomberg)

There's the Warren Buffett of the flavor industry. There's the Warren Buffett of “super-fancy hotels.” There are Buffetts of barges and of bass fishing, of Tampa, Thailand and Turkey. There's even a Warren Buffett of C-block, where a stock-picking, Buffett-quoting convicted murderer has been dubbed the Oracle of San Quentin. [...] while people around the world are anointed "The Warren Buffett of..." this and that, willy-nilly, the 84-year-old investor actually wants his personal brand to take a back seat to the Berkshire Hathaway's.

Berkshire News Briefs - 10/16/14

Buffett's stock pickers are beating the market (Fortune)

In his annual letter to shareholders in April, Buffett revealed that both Weschler and his partner Todd Combs once again “handily” beat the market. “They have made Berkshire billions already that we wouldn’t have otherwise made,” the Oracle of Omaha told CNBC that month. “They both have a fundamental combination of soundness and brilliance.” [...] The company is required to reveal its holdings once a quarter, but it has no obligation to explain which manager chose a particular stock or at what price. As a result, just how well the duo have done has remained a mystery. Fortune set out to solve that mystery. We scrutinized public fillings, sounded out investing pros who know Buffett, Combs, and Weschler, and made some educated guesses.

Dairy Queen Customer Data Compromised by Backoff Malware (Bloomberg)

This story first broke last month when DQ suspected their credit card transactions had been compromised. It's back in the news this week because DQ has now confirmed it after investigating.

International Dairy Queen, the ice cream chain owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc., said customer data were compromised by hackers. The breach with the so-called Backoff malware affected 395 of more than 4,500 U.S. locations, the unit of Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire said today in a statement. The systems contained customer names, and the numbers and expiration dates of their payment cards. Less than 600,000 cards were affected, said Dean Peters, a spokesman for Dairy Queen. The Backoff software has been used to target more than 1,000 businesses, according to the U.S. Secret Service.

Putting the Berkshire Hathaway Brand Before Warren Buffett (NY Times)

More than ever, Mr. Buffett is promoting the Berkshire Hathaway brand instead of himself, the billionaire investor. In a marked shift in marketing strategy, he is pushing the relatively unknown name of his holding company to attract customers to his numerous businesses. [...] The extension of the brand is more than a marketing tactic. At the age of 84, Mr. Buffett faces persistent questions over succession at his conglomerate, whose $336 billion stock market value makes it the country’s fifth-largest company. “This is really an effort to make the brand as recognizable as Buffett himself,” said Greggory Warren, an analyst at Morningstar Research. “He expects the Berkshire brand to replace him longer term.”

And yes, as noted in the article, you can buy Berkshire Hathaway logo clothing, made by subsidiary Fechheimer, here on the Berkshire Wear website.

Warren Buffett rolls out the Berkshire Hathaway brand (Financial Times)

Warren Buffett plans to license the Berkshire Hathaway name to estate agencies in Europe and Asia, in the next phase of a campaign to turn his widely respected investment company into a consumer brand. [...] The number of US estate agencies using the Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices brand will swell to almost 1,400 by next spring, said Earl Lee, chief executive of HSF Affiliates, a franchising joint venture between Berkshire and Brookfield Asset Management. The company will then shift to looking for partnerships with big players in parts of the US where it is not yet strong, including the Midwest, and internationally, including the UK, continental Europe and Asia.

Buffett’s MidAmerican to Invest $280 Million in Iowa Wind (Bloomberg Businessweek)

The energy business at Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc., which has already committed about $15 billion to renewable power, plans to invest an additional $280 million in Iowa wind farms. The MidAmerican Energy Co. unit will develop a new site in Adams County and expand another in O’Brien County next year, the Des Moines, Iowa-based company said today in a statement. Blades for 67 new turbines will be built at a Siemens AG plant in the state.

Warren Buffett Tells You How to Handle a Market Crash (Fool)

"It's better to have a partial interest in the Hope diamond than to own all of a rhinestone," wrote Buffett in 2013.

Peter Buffett shows that even the son of a billionaire can pull up those bootstraps (Washington Post)

People always asked Peter Buffett about his famous last name. “Everybody thought I was related to Jimmy Buffett,” said the composer. “That was the constant question.” Sadly for Parrotheads, he had no ties to the “Margaritaville” songwriter. Once in a blue moon, someone would wonder if he knew that investor in Omaha. Yes, he would answer, I’m Warren Buffett’s son. For most of his 56 years, Peter lived a pretty average, anonymous life: marriage, kids, a low-profile music career. That all changed in 2006 when his dad announced to the world that he planned to give away the bulk of his fortune — now estimated at $67 billion — including a billion to each of his three kids’ charities.

Berkshire News Briefs - 10/8/14

Buffett to Buy Van Tuyl, Create Berkshire Auto Unit (Bloomberg)

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. agreed to buy Van Tuyl Group, the largest privately owned U.S. auto dealership group. The business, with more than 100 franchises, will be renamed Berkshire Hathaway Automotive and continue to be run by Larry Van Tuyl, Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire said today in a statement that didn’t disclose terms. The target company has more than $8 billion of revenue. “I fully expect we’ll buy a lot more dealerships,” Buffett told CNBC in an interview today. “We’ve gone a long time without getting into automobiles, but Larry’s got an operation that we think could be scaled up a lot from where it is.”

Buffett's Van Tuyl purchase puts top retailers in cross hairs (AutoNews)

When Buffett signed a deal to buy Van Tuyl Group last week through his Berkshire Hathaway Inc. investment company, he clearly signaled that the top four dealership groups are in his sights. When a CNBC host mentioned AutoNation Inc. and said it was the country's biggest auto retailer, Buffett quipped: "Temporarily." "This is just the beginning for Berkshire Hathaway Automotive," Buffett said of the new venture, which is being called the biggest acquisition by far in automotive retail history. Terms weren't disclosed, but outsiders estimated the all-cash price tag at over $4 billion.

Ironwood Plastics expanding to keep up with growing demand (Plastics News)

Custom injection molder Ironwood Plastics Inc. has embarked on an ambitious expansion program. The Ironwood, Mich., company will spend $19 million in Twin Rivers, Wis., to buy a building next door to its factory there and to add injection presses. [...] Ironwood’s new strategic push is partly due to it being part of CTB Inc., a Milford, Ind., company that sells internationally. CTB primarily makes agricultural products and most of its molded components are made in house but Ironwood molds a few complex parts for CTB. CTB has been owned by investment giant Berkshire Hathaway Inc. since 2002. The CTB and Berkshire Hathaway connections help Ironwood’s access to capital and give customers more confidence to do business with the custom molder. CTB acquired Ironwood in 2010 from the Stephens family, which had founded it in 1979.

Billionaire Buffett Says Tesco Investment Was ‘A Huge Mistake’ (Bloomberg)

Billionaire investor Warren Buffett said his investment in Tesco Plc was a “huge mistake,” as the U.K. supermarket leader’s share price remains close to an 11-year low amid declining sales and an accounting probe. [...] Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. has held Tesco shares since March 2006, when it acquired a stake for $328.7 million. By 2012, the holding had reached 5.08 percent of the grocer’s shares, worth about 1.3 billion pounds ($2.1 billion). More recently, Buffett has been cutting the stake, owning 3.7 percent of the shares as of Dec. 31, according to Berkshire Hathaway’s annual report.

Warren Buffett’s Big Bet on Renewables in Nevada (NY Times)

Thanks in part to the transmission lines alongside Interstate 15, Mr. Buffett’s company, Berkshire Hathaway, and its subsidiary Berkshire Hathaway Energy stand to make steady, predictable profits in an energy market undergoing transformations. “This is not a value play,” said Christine Tezak, managing director of research at ClearView Energy Partners, referring to Mr. Buffett’s normally conservative investing approach. “He’s looking at this as a way to participate in the structural shift taking place in the power and energy industry.”

California Is Integrating Buffett’s Western Utilities Into Its Grid Balancing Market (GreenTechGrid)

Starting next month, PacifiCorp will start simulating the trading of generation and grid capacity every fifteen minutes on CAISO’s market, with “financially binding” operations to start in November, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. CAISO is also working with NV Energy to add most of Nevada’s grid to its EIM as well, with operations set to start in fall 2015. Both utilities are owned by Berkshire Hathaway [...] The rewards, according to a study by the Energy and Environmental Economics (E3) research group, could add up to $21 million to $129 million for PacifiCorp by 2017 or so, as the company buys lower-cost power from California’s grid or sells its own capacity when CAISO prices are high.

Buffett’s ‘All-Equities’ Pensions Escape Bill Gross Drama (Bloomberg)

Bill Gross’s departure from Pacific Investment Management Co. sent ripples through the bond market. Berkshire Hathaway Inc. pensioners didn’t feel it. Warren Buffett, Berkshire’s chairman and chief executive officer, said today that he didn’t know of a single investment that his company or its dozens of subsidiaries had with Pimco, manager of the world’s largest bond fund. Why? “We manage all of our pensions internally, except for those connected with the utility business,” Buffett said today in an interview with CNBC. “We are all-equities, anyways. We don’t have any bonds in our pension funds.”

The Future Realignment of Berkshire Hathaway Will Be an Investors’ Bonanza (Fool)

[...] even though the Omaha, Neb.-based billionaire is continuing to grow his empire, completing two multi-billion dollar deals in 2013 alone, it is inevitable that Berkshire will someday reverse course and unleash the greatest spin-off investment bonanza the world has ever seen. [...] Upon Berkshire's realignment, these two deals alone could spawn upwards of 50 independent companies. Heinz will be able to spin off over 10 of its corporations to shareholders, and I envision Hortons, along with Burger King, following suit with over 40 separate entities.

Buffett Gets His Wish: Coke Is Revising Executive Pay Plan (Forbes)

It’s been a good week for billionaire investors: on Tuesday, Carl Icahn got his way when eBay announced that it and PayPal will go their separate ways. And on Wednesday, Coca-Cola announced that it will revise the executive pay structure that Warren Buffett recently called “excessive.”

Warren Buffet Dismisses Berkshire's Low Score On LGBT Policies; Says He's Supportive (On Top Magazine)

Berkshire Hathaway Chairman and CEO Warren Buffet has dismissed a report that gave his investment firm a low score for its LGBT policies. Berkshire scored a “0” on the Human Rights Campaign's (HRC) annual Corporate Equality Index (CEI), which ranks companies based on employment policies and practices pertaining to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender employees. [...] “I do not set the policies for the 75 companies,” he said, then added, “Certainly, our managers know how I feel. I am 100% for full rights, in every respect, for gays and lesbians.”

Berkshire News Briefs - 10/1/14

The wrath of Warren Buffett: How Benjamin Moore almost broke his promise (Fortune)

Benjamin Moore is on its third CEO in 2 years, and a combination of strategic zigzags and the dealers’ feelings of betrayal has caused the company to fall behind its main rivals. Moore’s revenues rose a cumulative 40% between 1999 and 2013, while competitors Sherwin Williams and Valspar boosted their revenues, 104% and 196%, respectively. Moore’s revenues declined in the first half of 2014 [...] Buffett says he’s comfortable with the no-big-box stance, even if it means lower sales volume for now. He emphasizes the fact that Moore is a high-end product, what he calls “the best paint out there.” As he puts it, “They’re not the paint for everybody. We’re not in, and we won’t be in, the low-priced paint set… We will not be the top ever in market share. The mass market is going to be bigger than the high-end market. But there will always be a high-end market.”

Buy Like Buffett: A Love Story (Forbes - Video)

Buy Like Buffett: A Love Story is the journey of a young couple expressed through the lens of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. companies, because what says “I Love You” better than a box of See’s candy?

Warren Buffett’s Energy Company Says Net Metering Should Be ‘Eliminated’ (Green Tech Media)

In a strategy document written by SVP Brent Gale for a legal conference in July, Berkshire Hathaway Energy outlined its position on net metering, saying it should be scrapped in favor of a system that recognizes utility fixed-grid costs and utilizes distributed generation at times when it's needed most. [...] Berkshire Hathaway owns a number of regulated utilities, including NV Energy and PacifiCorp. NV Energy and Rocky Mountain Power, a power company run by PacifiCorp in Utah, are both lobbying to make changes to net metering and add fixed charges to the bills of customers getting credited for their solar power.

Similar Story: Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Energy wants to get rid of net metering (Utility Dive)

NetJets gets OK to begin serving China (Columbus Dispatch / AP)

NetJets said yesterday that its new joint venture soon will begin offering private charter flights in China now that regulators there have granted the company an operating certificate. NetJets, which sells partial ownership interests in business jets in the United States and Europe, has been working since 2012 to gain approval to set up operations in China.

Berkshire Expands in Company-Crime Insurance With New AIG Hire (Bloomberg)

Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s specialty insurance business, created last year to expand into new niches, is adding sales of coverage to protect employers against misdeeds by their staffs. Brian O’Neill was hired from American International Group Inc. (AIG) to lead the push into the fidelity and crime insurance market, the unit of Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire said today in a statement.

AIG And Berkshire Hathaway Had Secret Non-Compete Agreement (ValueWalk)

Berkshire Hathaway Inc. and American International Group Inc had a secret non-compete agreement in place over hiring employees for a year that has now ended, according to a recent Bloomberg TV interview. The interview revealed that American International Group Inc threatened legal action in order to encourage Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. to agree not to hire additional AIG’s executives for one year. Berkshire had poached AIG executives Peter Eastwood, David Fields, Sanjay Godhwani and David Bresnahan in 2013 for what Buffett described as a “big time” expansion into business insurance coverage. [...] Benhosche didn’t indicate exactly what the executives may have done wrong, but made references to stealing intellectual property and poaching client business.

Berkshire Hathaway invests in Northwoods values (Stevens Point Journal)

The name of the company is fairly new, but the presence of a travel insurance company led by John Noel in central Wisconsin is anything but. [...] Noel, now president of BHTP, founded Noel Group in 2006 after selling Travel Guard, a travel insurance company he founded in his basement in 1985. Today, Berkshire Hathaway Travel Protection employs about 230 people in Wisconsin and Florida and is expected to grow to about 2,000 workers over the next five years. Noel said in an interview that the majority of those jobs will be located in central Wisconsin, and that he's happy to continue to provide an opportunity for people to live and work in the region.

FlightSafety’s pilot training center at Port Columbus costing $110M (Columbus Business First)

FlightSafety International’s new pilot training facility at Port Columbus International Airport clearly is a major project at 55,000 square feet and the potential to add 90,000. But new information made public by JobsOhio shows just how big the Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK.B) subsidiary’s investment is - $110.5 million. [...] FlightSafety’s $110.5 million capital investment will help it retain 137 jobs and create another 18, adding $1.2 million to its local payroll, according to JobsOhio’s report. The sister company to Columbus-based NetJets declined to breakdown those costs, but industry sources in May said its six flight simulators will run into the millions of dollars.

Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway among possible bidders for Oncor Electric (Ft. Worth Star-Telegram)

CenterPoint Energy, Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway and Hunt Consolidated of Dallas are among companies that signed confidentiality agreements to explore bids for Energy Future Holdings’ Oncor electricity distributor, people familiar with the matter said. [...] Dallas-based EFH, which was taken private in a record leveraged buyout seven years ago, filed for bankruptcy in April with a plan to split off the side of the company that owns the profitable Oncor business. In July, the company — which also operates TXU Energy and Luminant — bowed to pressure from lender groups to gather bids for Oncor. [...] Oncor, which operates the largest distribution and transmission business in Texas, delivers electricity to more than 3 million homes and businesses and serves Dallas-Fort Worth. The company is prized because it’s poised to take advantage of population growth in the state and it has said it plans to invest $1 billion annually in power lines through 2018.

Redundancy costs push Fruit of the Loom further into the red (Irish Independent)

New accounts filed by Dublin registered FOL International - which is owned by the Warren Buffet controlled company Berkshire Hathaway - show that the firm recorded a pre-tax loss last year of €6.78m and this followed pre-tax losses of €23.49m in 2012. FOL International represents clothing manufacturer Fruit of the Loom's European operations. The accounts show that the loss last year occurred after restructuring costs of €6.35m. At its peak, iconic US brand Fruit of the Loom employed 3,500 people in six plants on the island of Ireland. Last year's restructuring comes almost a decade after the company announced in 2004 that it would shut its remaining two factories with the loss of 650 jobs in Donegal and Derry.

Warren Buffett's $750 million grocery bill (WSEE-12)

Warren Buffett may be feeling rotten after investing in a British grocery chain that's gone bad. His famed investment company, Berkshire Hathaway, is the third biggest Tesco shareholder, with a stake of almost 4%. Tesco is the U.K.'s leading supermarket operator. Berkshire is now nursing losses of about $750 million on the investment after the shares plunged by about 43% this year. It paid about $1.7 billion for the stake.

Similar story if you want to read more about Tesco:

The Rise and Fall of U.K. Grocer Tesco That ‘Owned The World’ (Bloomberg)

Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Vice Chairman Charles Munger recently summed up the past seven years of Tesco Plc, Britain’s biggest grocer, in a beat. “Tesco owned the world,” said Munger, whose firm last disclosed a 3.7 percent stake in the company. And “one day, it stopped working so well.”

An alternative take on Buffett and Burger King (MarketWatch)

What really made this deal come together was the financing provided by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway. He was more than eager to do so. On the surface it may be because of the generous preferred financing that was packaged together by Buffett for Burger King, $3 billion of which yields 9%. However, when I look at the deal, Buffett is providing financing at a cheaper rate than what Burger King currently borrows for long-term financing. Why would he do that, as the company is riskier after the acquisition than before? One could argue that the convertibility factor of the preferred stock has some benefit to Buffett. However, is Burger King a company which would normally fit his investment criteria?

How Warren Buffett Plans to Make You Money (Fool)

While the headline news will always be about what stocks Berkshire Hathaway buys and sells, it's critical to understand Buffett doesn't see those investments as the driving forces which will deliver shareholder returns. His first two points indicate as much, and instead he wants us to see that the things which will propel the value of Berkshire Hathaway forward into the future will come from the collection of operating businesses which now make up Berkshire itself.

ATCO lawyer argues verbal cross-examinations needed around sale of AltaLink (Calgary Sun)

Competitor ATCO continues their effort to derail the BH Energy purchase of AltaLink. I thought this story was over, but apparently not.

The impending sale of AltaLink to business mogul Warren Buffet’s energy arm should be subject to an oral cross-examination to protect Alberta consumers from runaway electricity rates, an ATCO lawyer argued Friday. [...] But SNC-Lavalin lawyer Bernette Ho said the reviews have already been fairly handled and accused ATCO of not being fully forthcoming during the process. AltaLink officials say ATCO has tried unsuccessfully to purchase their company.