Berkshire News Briefs - 7/28/16

Buffett Buys $1.8 Billion ‘Gem’ of a Medical Insurer in N.Y. (Bloomberg)

Berkshire Hathaway Inc. agreed to buy Medical Liability Mutual Insurance Co., extending Chairman Warren Buffett’s leadership in the business of protecting doctors against lawsuits.

The target company is the largest underwriter of medical professional liability insurance in New York and will convert from a policyholder-owned to a stock business, Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire’s National Indemnity unit said Monday in a statement that didn’t disclose terms. Policyholder surplus, a measure of assets minus liabilities, was $1.8 billion as of Dec. 31, according to the statement. The deal is expected to be completed in the third quarter of 2017, pending regulatory and customer approvals. [...]

Berkshire Hathaway Wants to Insure Your Doctor (Fool)

There are two broad types of insurance companies: stock insurers and mutual insurers. Stock insurers are institutions owned by investors seeking to earn a return on their investment. Mutual insurers are owned by their policyholders. Mutual insurers are to insurance what credit unions are to banking.

MLMIC is a mutual insurer. But Buffett's acquisition isn't just altruistic; Berkshire Hathaway is obviously buying MLMIC to make money. Thus, for the deal to go through, MLMIC will have to convert to a stock insurance company. Its policyholders will then receive a payout that MLMIC currently estimates to be roughly equal to premiums paid to the company during the 3-year period from July 2013 to July 2016. [...]

Buffett Says Earnings Guidance Can Lead to Corporate Malpractice (Bloomberg)

Warren Buffett, who is among business executives pushing for improved corporate governance, said that the practice of telling Wall Street what to expect from quarterly earnings can distort management’s priorities.

“Guidance can lead to a lot of malpractice,” the billionaire chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. said Thursday on CNBC. “It doesn’t have to, but I think if the CEO goes out and says, ‘We’re going to earn $1.06 next quarter,’ I think that if they’re going to come in at $1.04, there’s a lot of attempts to find a couple extra pennies some places.” [...]

Lawsuit over Acme Brick retirement plans to move forward (Ft. Worth Star-Telegram)

A lawsuit challenging reduced retirement benefits at Acme Brick can move forward after a federal appeals court ruled that parent Berkshire Hathaway acted improperly.

The suit, filed in 2014 by Acme’s former chief financial officer Judy Hunter, who oversaw the plans, alleged that Berkshire, the Nebraska-based conglomerate run by billionaire Warren Buffett, used “strong-arm tactics” to force the Fort Worth-based brick company to reduce retirement plan benefits. [...]

There's Nothing 'Surprising' About Geico's New Campaign (Advertising Age)

Geico has tapped a big name for a spot in its newest campaign—Marco Polo, the Middle Ages explorer famous for traveling Asia. In a humorous ad that stays true to the insurer's quirky humor, an actor appears as Mr. Polo in an outdoor swimming pool as children play the popular Marco Polo discovery game. Mr. Polo continues to say "Si, scusi," as he believes the kids are looking for him. A voice-over says, "Playing Marco Polo with Marco Polo? Surprising. What's not surprising? How much money Amanda and Keith saved by switching to Geico," as the camera shows real-life Geico customers holding a sign asserting $645 in savings. Meanwhile, a llama noses around the pool. [...]

Berkshire Hathaway Takes on Texas' Three-Tier System (Wine Business)

In another potentially historic case, McLane Company Inc., which has sold food products in Texas sine since the 1980s through the AmeriServ and McLane Foodserice trademarks, has called into question Texas’ “One Share Rule,” by filing a complaint with the Texas Alcohol Control Board (TACB) in Austin. Its parent company, Berkshire Hathaway Inc., owns a two-percent share in Walmart and doesn’t believe that this is a justifiable reason for McLane not to be able to distribute alcoholic beverage in Texas. [...]

How Warren Buffett & Elon Musk Both Compete and Contrast on Energy (Fortune)

Musk and Buffett see the energy and transportation sectors changing in similar ways, and, over the past few years, their companies have increasingly competed with each other over both solar energy and electric cars. [...]

That two of the world’s savviest business minds seem to disagree over how key parts of how the clean energy sector will develop are reflects how the world’s energy transformation is still in its early days. Their opposing viewpoints about fossil fuels also highlight Musk’s entrepreneurial vision-driven spirit with Buffett’s down-to-earth profit-driven investment strategy. [...]

Warren Buffett's Latest Utility Challenge in Nevada (Fool)

When Nevada regulators agreed earlier this year to allow MGM Resorts, Wynn Resorts, and Las Vegas Sands to leave NV Energy, one of Berkshire Hathaway's largest utility assets, it opened a slew of problems for the utility. Not only could the utility lose 7% of its demand if all three casino companies left, but data company Switch has now also challenged why it wasn't allowed to leave the utility a year ago. [...]

Berkshire's Duracell to close South Carolina plant, affecting 430 workers (Reuters)

Duracell said it plans to close a battery-making plant in South Carolina that employs 430 people, making the announcement fewer than five months after being acquired by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc.

The shutdown of the Lancaster, South Carolina, plant, which made AA batteries, will begin in March and should be completed by the middle of 2019, Duracell said in a statement dated Wednesday.

Duracell is consolidating its North American production of AA and AAA batteries into a plant in LaGrange, Georgia. [...]

Purchases by auction are not really Buffett's style (Omaha World-Herald)

Pardon us if it seems like Berkshire Hathaway Inc. may not be bidding to acquire Oncor Electric Delivery Co., the Texas electricity distribution company that is coming out of bankruptcy.

Sources are telling Texas newspapers that Berkshire Hathaway Energy is a bidder in a high-profile auction for the company after an earlier $18 billion purchase fell through. [...]

But Berkshire CEO Warren Buffett has been so adamantly opposed to auction-style purchases that it could be the Berkshire rumors are being floated to keep other buyers interested and bidding as much as possible. [...]

Berkshire News Briefs - 4/12/16

Buffett Deputy Jain Will Add Gen Re Oversight as Montross Exits (Bloomberg)

Ajit Jain, long considered a top candidate to replace billionaire Warren Buffett as chief executive officer of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., is expanding his oversight of the company’s insurance operations.

Gen Re, one of the major reinsurance businesses at Berkshire, said Tuesday that CEO Tad Montross, 60, will step down by the end of this year. His replacement hasn’t been named, but will report to Jain, said Sabine Denne, a spokeswoman for the reinsurer.

Berkshire Hathaway Sees Power Market as Electrons' Match.com (Bloomberg)

Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s energy unit has been courting three dozen power transmission operators in the western U.S. to join its utilities and the California grid in trading power across their borders electronically and instantaneously. This means traders wouldn’t need to pick up the phone or send e-mails each hour to schedule the purchase and sale of renewables while hoping the sun and wind hold out until the next hour.

This so-called Energy Imbalance Market is the equivalent of creating a “Match.com for electrons,” Jonathan Weisgall, vice president of government relations at Berkshire Hathaway Energy, said [...]

Clayton Homes buys Alabama manufactured-housing company (Knoxville News Sentinel)

Maryville-based Clayton Homes has acquired manufactured-home builder River Birch Homes of Hackleburg, Ala.

In a release, Clayton Homes said the purchase includes all operating assets of River Birch Homes, and is effective immediately.

River Birch, which makes single- and multi-section homes and markets them in nine states throughout the Southeast, has nearly 240 employees in the Hackleburg area, in northwest Alabama.

The company was started in 1997 by owners Delmo Payne and Gerald Terrell.

Acme Brick Co. to close Springfield and Edina brick facilities for good this year (Minneapolis Star Tribune)

Texas-based Acme Brick Co. will officially shut its Minnesota operations for good later this year, a move that will affect 19 employees.

The company will keep its Edina sales office open to serve customer orders through Sept. 30. Its Great Lakes Plant in Springfield, Minn., which stopped producing bricks in 2014, will not restart production as expected. Instead it will sell its remaining inventory at the Edina facility and through select distributors.

Acme acquired the Great Lakes Plant in January 2008. It was Minnesota’s last operating brick plant and was formerly part of Ochs Brick Co. [...]

Fire at Nebraska Furniture Mart warehouse caused estimated $1.4 million in damage (Omaha World-Herald)

Insurance officials still are investigating the cause of a fire that caused an estimated $1.4 million in damage in Nebraska Furniture Mart’s flooring warehouse Sunday.

The flooring center remained closed Monday, but the retailer is operating normally otherwise.

The fire involved boxes of laminate flooring and as a result was quite smoky, retired Furniture Mart executive Bob Batt said. [...]

Acquisitions lead Lubrizol to expand its offerings (Crain's Cleveland Business)

Lubrizol Corp. is expanding its health care product offerings and investing $15 million in the effort, the Wickliffe-based company announced at the Medical Design and Manufacturing West trade show and conference in Anaheim.

Expanding Lubrizol LifeSciences offerings has in part been made possible with the recent acquisition of Vesta Inc. and Particle Sciences, whose capabilities are turning the company’s health-care business into the “polymer-based drug delivery company” of the future, company reps said [...]

Shaw industries land on Forbes' "America's Best Employers of 2016" list (Chatanooga Times Free Press)

Calhoun-based Mohawk Industries, the world's largest flooring maker, and Dalton-based Shaw Industries, the world's largest carpet maker, are two the best industrial manufacturers in the country to work for, according to the latest Forbes' "America's Best Employers of 2016" list. [...]

Shaw ranked 282 overall [out of 30,000], and number 18 in the engineering/manufacturing category. [...]

Shaw is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway, Inc., with more than $4.8 billion in sales and more than 22,000 employees.

Chinese aviation firm to take 25% stake in NetJets China (Flight Global)

Chinese business aircraft manager Business Aviation Asia will take a 25% stake in the China unit of fractional ownership firm NetJets. [...]

NetJets China is a joint venture between the US-based fractional ownership giant and a consortium of Chinese investors, led by private equity firm Hony Capital and Fung Investments. It operates two aircraft on a charter basis in the mainland. [...]

Initial bids for Kansas utility Westar Energy due this week (Utility Dive)

Initial bids for Westar Energy are due this week, according to Bloomberg, and the company has reportedly been courted by a wide range of potential investors, from Canadian investment companies to rival utility Ameren.

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway has also been named as a potential suitor, with the Hillsboro Free Press reporting it is not the first time the billionaire investor has considered acquiring the utility. [...]

Brooks Unveils London Transit-Inspired Adrenaline GTS 16 (Footwear News)

Brooks Unveils Boston Marathon Shoe Inspired By New England Lifestyle (Footwear News)

Brooks Running is rolling out some unique-looking running shoes in conjunction with some of the most popular marathons.

Top running brands are getting ready for the upcoming Boston Marathon, prepping sneakers for the celebrated race. One such brand is Brooks, with a reimagined iteration of its Adrenaline GTS 16, hitting stores in April. The Brooks “Nantucket” Adrenaline GTS 16 is scheduled to hit stores Friday and retail for $130.

New book offers detailed analysis of Buffett’s investments (Omaha World-Herald)

Yefei Lu, a portfolio manager for Shareholder Value Management of Frankfurt, Germany, analyzes 20 of Berkshire’s investments, from the Sanborn Map Co. in 1958 to IBM in 2011, in a forthcoming book, “Inside the Investments of Warren Buffett” [...]

In a final chapter titled “What We Can Learn From Buffett,” Lu says Buffett, chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., seeks “an abundance of relevant objective data for the companies in question.”

Berkshire News Briefs - 5/25/15

Warren Buffett Is Sending Mixed Messages on Green Energy (Bloomberg)

Warren Buffett highlights how his Berkshire Hathaway Inc. utilities make massive investments in renewable energy. Meanwhile, in Nevada, the company is fighting a plan that would encourage more residents to use green power.

Berkshire’s NV Energy, the state’s dominant utility, opposes the proposal to increase a cap on the amount of energy that can be generated with solar panels by residents who sell power back to the grid in a practice known as net metering.

Power investor Warren Buffett backs Israeli power saver tech (Times of Israel)

Bandwidth isn’t the only thing the burgeoning cell network is consuming more of. Already electricity costs account for a large chunk – as much as a third – of operating costs, and that amount will likely get larger as networks get bigger and more devices come on line. [...]

To solve that problem, eVolution Networks has developed a big-data solution that examines the relationship between phones, usage rates, locations, energy costs, and other factors, to activate and deactivate base stations as needed.

And although it sounds like a technical, even prosaic solution, top investor Warren Buffett likes the idea – enough to invest in the company. eVolution announced this week that Berkshire Hathaway Energy subsidiary IES Holding and GE Ventures have invested $22.5 million.

(See also: eVolution's press release)

Geronimo Energy Sells Portfolio Of Wind And Solar Projects To BHE Renewables (North American Wind Power)

Geronimo Energy has sold a portfolio of wind and solar energy projects to BHE Renewables, a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway Energy.

The sale includes the Grande Prairie Wind Farm, located in Holt County, Neb.; the Walnut Ridge Wind Farm in Bureau County, Ill.; and a portfolio of Minnesota solar project developments. The Grand Prairie and Walnut Ridge acquisitions were previously announced by BHE Renewables.

Berkshire Hathaway Cuts Stakes in Charter Communications, Viacom (WSJ Moneybeat)

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. reduced its stake in several media-company holdings–including Charter Communications Inc., Viacom Inc. and Liberty Global PLC–in the first quarter. [...] Berkshire increased its stake in 21st Century Fox by 1.48 million shares. [...] Berkshire sold 3.28 million shares in National Oilwell Varco, in its latest move away from energy companies that have been hurt by the collapse in oil prices. [...] Additionally, in the most recent quarter, Berkshire reduced its stake in Bank of New York Mellon Corp., selling off 1.3 million shares.

As always, Dataroma has an excellent chart of Berkshire Hathaway's holdings, highlighting the most recent changes.

Berkshire CEOs pull back the curtain on Buffett and business (Fort Worth Business Press)

On Monday, May 18, an executive panel featuring the CEOs of four Fort Worth-based Berkshire Hathaway companies – Dennis Knautz of Acme Brick, Carl Ice of BNSF, Randy Watson of Justin Brands and Paul Andrews of TTI – sat with moderator Matt Rose, executive chairman of BNSF, and discussed working with Buffett. The event, titled Breakfast with the Berkshires, was presented by Leadership Fort Worth at the Fort Worth Club. [...]

Aside from BNSF, Acme, Justin and TTI, Berkshire Hathaway continues to have a big interest in North Texas. In October, Berkshire Hathaway acquired Dallas-based Van Tuyl Group, which has several Fort Worth area dealers and is the largest privately owned U.S. auto dealership group. Several other Berkshire Hathaway companies either have large operations here or are subsidiaries of other Berkshire companies. NetJets operates Dallas Jet Charter, and Mouser Electronics in Mansfield is a subsidiary of TTI. Speaking just prior to the panel discussion, Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price said Berkshire brands contribute thousands of jobs and billions of dollars to the region.

Berkshire Hathaway's Sustainable Competitive Advantage (Fool)

Another edge that Berkshire enjoys is its diversification. Its operations and investments span many industries, such as insurance, railroads, energy, home building, jewelry, furniture, paint, private jets, candy, recreational vehicles, ice cream, chemicals, newspapers, underwear, tools, food-service equipment, and car dealerships, among others. When one sector is in a slump, others may not be, and can provide offsetting effects. That's especially true because some of his businesses are in defensive and not very cyclical industries: When the economy is stalled or slumping, people will still use energy and buy insurance and underwear.

Time to Take Profit in Berkshire Hathaway Stock? (Fool)

Warren Buffett's company, Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK-A) (NYSE:BRK-B), has been rewarding shareholders handsomely for many decades. (Indeed, the company just celebrated its 50th anniversary, with 40,000-plus shareholders gathering in Omaha for the company's annual meeting.) Over the past 30 years, its stock has grown by an annual average of 17.3%, and over the past decade, it has returned a market-trouncing 10.2%.

After all that growth, is it time to take profit in Berkshire Hathaway stock? Should you consider selling?

Warren Buffett can’t seem to get enough of Wells Fargo (San Francisco Business Times)

Warren Buffett appears to have embraced the adage that you can never get enough of a good thing.

At least that might explain why he recently plowed more money into some of his largest holdings, including some $350 million into Wells Fargo, which he has described as his favorite bank. He was picking up shares of the San Francisco-based bank even as the stock traded at all-time highs this year. Perhaps Buffett sees Wells fitting into his strategy of buying wonderful companies at a “fair price.”

Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance Launches Crime Protection with Innovative Impersonation Endorsement in Canada (Marketwatch)

Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance (BHSI) today announced that it is introducing the Crime Protection Policy and the Executive Impersonation Coverage endorsement for large public and private companies in Canada.

"Designed by BHSI executives with more than three decades in the fidelity and crime insurance market, our Crime Protection Policy makes it easy for brokers and customers in Canada to secure broad coverage and address the rising risk of fraud losses," said Michael Densham, Vice President, Executive and Professional Lines, Canada, BHSI.

Berkshire News Briefs - 9/12/14

Berkshire Challenges Lawuit Over Benefits at Brick Unit (Bloomberg)

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK/A) didn’t break promises on retirement benefits to employees of a brick-making business it acquired in 2000, the company said in a challenge to a lawsuit filed last month. [...] The plaintiffs have misinterpreted the agreement to acquire Fort Worth-based Acme, Berkshire said today in a statement. The plaintiffs mistakenly contend that the acquisition “required Acme to permit participants to accrue additional defined benefits forever, at the same rate that benefits were being accrued at the time of the acquisition,” Berkshire said today. The plaintiffs also contend the acquisition required “additional 401k matches forever,” at the same rate as the matches in 2000, Berkshire said.

Railroad union rejects contract with BNSF that would have allowed one-person crews (Minneapolis Star Tribune)

A railroad union has rejected a deal with BNSF that would have allowed one-person crews on as much as 60 percent of its tracks. [...] The deal would have allowed BNSF to use one-person crews on tracks where a system capable of stopping the train remotely had been installed. But trains that carry hazardous materials, such as crude oil and chemicals, would have continued to have two-person crews. BNSF operates tracks in 28 states in the western U.S. and two Canadian provinces. The railroad, based in Fort Worth, Texas, said it has Positive Train Control systems installed on about 60 percent of its 32,500 miles of track.

Dairy Queen still light on details of data breach (Minneapolis Star Tribune)

A week after crooks hacked into its customers’ financial data, Dairy Queen still hasn’t released specifics on the breach. Still, the Edina-based company said in a statement Thursday it has “determined that only a small portion of our 4,500 U.S. stores are potential victims of the criminal activity. The stores are not geographically clustered and each has a mitigation plan.” [...] Dairy Queen’s efforts to track the hack may be complicated by its business structure. Almost all of its stores are owned by franchisees, so there could be a multiplicity of information technology systems. Dairy Queen has 3,000 franchisees in the United States, many operating just a handful of stores. Of course, such a decentralized system like Dairy Queen’s may also have impeded a wider hack. [...] Dairy Queen was stricken with “Backoff” malware, and last week the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said that more than 1,000 retailers could have been hit by it. Backoff is believed to be behind a hack announced in mid-August by Eden Prairie-based Supervalu, which affected just over 1,000 grocery and liquor stores; and the massive attack on Target during the 2013 holiday season, which exposed the financial data of 70 million customers.

Shaw files ‘epic’ suit against flooring rival Carlisle (Atlanta Constitution-Journal)

Shaw Industries Group, the Dalton-based carpet and flooring producer, is suing a competitor for trademark infringement and deceptive trade practices over the use of the word ‘epic’. In a lawsuit filed recently in federal court in Atlanta, Shaw claims Carlisle Wide Plank Floors refuses to drop the word “epic” from its marketing, a “mark” that Shaw said it has had exclusive rights to use since 2006. Carlisle, based in Stoddard, NH., calls itself “the epic wide plank floor company.” In marketing material, the company says it produces the widest, longest center-cut plank floors available in the world and that its product is “truly epic.” [...] Shaw said it licenses the use of “EPIC”, which the manufacturer uses as a reference for “engineered wood flooring”, from Omaha-based Columbia Insurance Co., which owns the mark. Both companies are subsidiaries of billionaire Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway investment firm.

Buffett Called Hatch to Gauge U.S. Tax Inversion Policy (Bloomberg)

Billionaire investor Warren Buffett called U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch to gauge Congress’s direction on curbing tax inversions, the senator said today. Buffett, chairman and chief executive officer of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., is helping finance Burger King Worldwide Inc.’s purchase of Tim Hortons Inc. and its move to Canada. That transaction could be affected by legislative and regulatory changes being considered in Washington. [...] The call happened before Burger King “reached final agreement” on the deal and “consequently well before it was announced” on Aug. 26, Debbie Bosanek, Buffett’s assistant at Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire, wrote in an e-mail today. [...] Charles Munger, Berkshire’s 90-year-old vice chairman, said yesterday that Berkshire will pay the U.S. government more because of its $3 billion investment in the deal. “Anyone who thinks this is a great tragedy and a great injustice is stark raving mad,” Munger said regarding the fact that the new company will be based in Canada. “It’s a non-event.”

The 1 Peculiar Trait Shared by Warren Buffett's Energy Investments (Fool)

Since the beginning of last year, Berkshire has made two major additions to his portfolio in the energy industry -- ExxonMobil and Suncor Energy -- and has also added significantly to his position in one other -- National Oilwell Varco. On the surface, they look like pretty different companies. You have the largest integrated oil and gas company, a specialist in the Canadian oil sands business, and an oil and gas equipment and services supplier that has a corner on building drill rigs and related equipment. [...] It all comes down to generating fat stacks of cash from continuing operations. It's not just that these companies are really good at generating free cash flow from continuing operations, it's that they are the best at it in their respective realms.

Colahan to leave RSA for Berkshire Hathaway in Australia (Post Online)

The names and resumes of the people involved here aren't as important as the bigger story between the lines that Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance is expanding to Asia and Australia.

Post understands Chris Colahan, CEO RSA Asia, is leaving the company to oversee a new operation for Berkshire Hathaway in Australia. [...] Post understands Colahan will help set-up Berkshire Hathaway Specialty in Australia and New Zealand, while Marc Breuil, formerly head of AIG Hong Kong, has been tasked with heading up its Asia operations. Berkshire Hathaway has also recruited Marcus Portbury AIG's regional casualty head for Asia-Pacific. [...] Buffett has reportedly authorised Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance to apply for licenses in Sydney, Europe, Hong Kong and Singapore.

Berkshire Hathaway Inc. CEO Warren Buffett the Social Media Leader on Twitter Inc (TWTR) Amongst Fortune 500 CEOs (Insider Monkey)

Berkshire Hathaway Inc. CEO and legendary investor Warren Buffett is the leading Fortune 500 CEO on Twitter Inc, in spite of making just five tweets since he joined the social media network last year, and none since February of this year. While underscoring the reverence people have for Buffett on the one hand, it also speaks to the fact that not many prominent CEO’s are making use of social media [...]

Ex-Bengal Ickey Woods does 'Ickey Shuffle' in Geico ad, internet loves it (CBS Sports)

Former Bengals running back Ickey Woods only played in 37 games during his brief NFL career, but that was long enough for him to give us the 'Ickey Shuffle.' Woods would do the shuffle after every touchdown he scored, which meant 15 shuffles in 1988. The shuffle was everywhere in 1988 because the Bengals made it all the way to the Super Bowl. Thanks to Geico, the shuffle is now back.

Berkshire News Briefs - 9/5/14

Buffett’s Burger King Deal Has Warrant for 1.75% Stake (Bloomberg)

Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s $3 billion of financing for Burger King Worldwide Inc.’s planned takeover of Tim Hortons Inc. gives billionaire Warren Buffett the option to buy a 1.75 percent stake in the combined company. Buffett’s company received the warrant to buy common shares and agreed to purchase 30,000 preferred shares as part of the deal, Miami-based Burger King said yesterday in a regulatory filing. The perpetual preferred securities pay a 9 percent coupon. [...] “Berkshire’s participation on this deal demonstrates its ability to use its strong balance sheet and massive cash generation to capture very attractive returns, even without the backdrop of a financial crisis,”[...]

Canadian identity wrapped up in homegrown ‘Timmy’s’ (Omaha World-Herald)

Few things unite Canadians the way Tim Hortons does. [...] So news last week that Burger King will buy Tim Hortons -- helped by $3 billion of preferred equity financing from Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway -- served as a bittersweet reminder of how beloved the homegrown chain is in Canada. Seventy-five percent of all the coffee sold at fast-food restaurants in Canada comes from “Timmy’s,” [...] While the takeover by Burger King, which is based in Miami but controlled by a Brazilian private equity fund, is getting much attention in Canada, it’s not causing panic. U.S.-based Wendy’s recently owned Tim Hortons and its brand remained intact. Wendy’s then spun off Tim Hortons as a separate company in 2006 after more than a decade of ownership.

Acme Brick employees sue Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway for cutting retirement benefits (Fort Worth Star-Telegram)

Two employees and a retiree of Fort Worth-based Acme Brick Co., including the company’s chief financial officer, have sued the company and its parent, Berkshire Hathaway, alleging the company improperly reduced the company match on its 401(k) retirement plans and froze its pension plan. The class action suit, filed Aug. 15 in U.S. District Court in Fort Worth, says Berkshire Hathaway, run by multi-billionaire Warren Buffett, broke a pledge it made when it acquired Acme with Justin Industries in 2000 not to reduce benefits in the company’s retirement plans. [...] Acme Brick’s senior management on July 15 voted to make changes to the retirement plans urged by Buffett, Berkshire’s chief executive officer, and Marc Hamburg, its chief financial officer. Otherwise “Berkshire Hathaway intended to divest itself of Acme as a subsidiary,” the lawsuit says. [...] The lawsuit alleges that the changes to Acme’s retirement plans violate the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act, commonly known as ERISA.

'The whole system is suffering': Words of frustration, caution at hearing on rail delays (Omaha World-Herald)

BNSF is working on improvements with all the gusto it has, company marketing chief Stevan Bobb said. “We know our service has not met your needs,” said Bobb, addressing the room full of farmers, grain cooperative officials and other shippers. Bobb noted the the company’s shipments from North Dakota — a state bulging with wheat, corn, barley, crude oil, soybeans and many other commodities — are at a record. Grain shipments from North Dakota this year, Bobb said, are still higher than a year ago, delays or not. BNSF, he told commissioners, is shifting railcars to the region and counting on track improvements scheduled to wrap up in October. “We should have the capability to move record volumes. Note that I said should,” Bobb said. “If all the bushels want to move in the same month, your railroad could be running like a sewing machine and you are still going to be late.”

Why Bill Gates And Warren Buffett Are Railroad Rivals (Business Insider)

[...] even though both billionaires are philanthropically entwined, when it comes to the old-school realm of investing in North America's railroads, Gates and Buffett part ways. [...] In Gates' case, his railroad stake can be viewed as simply an investment -- evidently a timely one -- but nothing more than that. Gates isn't running CN. But Buffett, because Berkshire Hathaway owns BNSF, is effectively running the railroad.

Buffett Search for Sure Thing Propels 76-Year Junk Food Quest (NewsMax)

Billionaire investor Warren Buffett got his entrepreneurial start at age 7, buying six-packs of Coke for a quarter, then hawking the beverages for a nickel apiece on hot summer nights. Now, at age 83, he’s still betting on simple indulgences. Berkshire Hathaway Inc. agreed Tuesday to provide $3 billion of financing for Burger King Worldwide Inc.’s purchase of doughnut chain Tim Hortons Inc. [...] Berkshire also owns See’s Candies and Dairy Queen, which sells ice cream and burgers. In 2008, Buffett’s firm helped finance Mars Inc.’s purchase of chewing-gum maker Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co. [...] For fast-food chains and candy and soda companies, Buffett “can look into the future and not have to wonder if they’re going to be doing great things,”

Why Buffett's son bought Rosa Parks archive (CNN Money)

Howard Buffett, the youngest son of the billionaire investor, said he was thinking of his mother when he paid $4.5 million for a trove of historic belongings left by civil rights activist Rosa Parks. "I knew that my mom would think that it was something that should get done," Buffett told CNNMoney. [...] "This is an incredible part of history, and to have that history locked in a chamber somewhere is not right," Buffett said. Buffett runs the Howard G. Buffett Foundation, which works in the developing world to improve agriculture and clean water delivery. He said the Parks material would be turned over to an institution that would ensure its availability to historians and others.