Berkshire News Briefs - 2/3/18

Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, and JPMorgan are creating a new healthcare company to tackle the 'hungry tapeworm' of rising costs

Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, and JPMorgan Chase are creating a new business designed to lower healthcare costs for US-based employees in a move that could shake up the managed-care industry.

The companies were not specific about what kind of enterprise they aim to create, noting only that they wanted to improve employee satisfaction while reducing costs, according to a joint release. Still, the news was enough to send shares of managed-care providers lower. [...]

Berkshire Hathaway Utility Unit Shuffles Top Executives

Berkshire Hathaway is shuffling the executives in charge of its utility unit after promoting Greg Abel to oversee all of Berkshire's non-insurance businesses.

Abel's promotion to vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway was announced Wednesday. Following that move, Berkshire promoted MidAmerican Energy CEO William Fehrman to replace Abel at Berkshire Hathaway Energy. [...]

Berkshire Hathaway Energy includes MidAmerican, PacifiCorp, NV Energy and several other utilities.

With Fehrman moving up to oversee Berkshire Hathaway Energy, Des Moines, Iowa-based MidAmerican promoted Adam Wright to be its new CEO. [...]

Ajit Jain Reports $109 Million Stake in Berkshire Hathaway

One of Warren Buffett’s top deputies has amassed a stake in Berkshire Hathaway Inc. valued at more than $100 million.

Ajit Jain, the insurance executive who was named a vice chairman of Buffett’s conglomerate earlier this month, disclosed the holdings in a regulatory filing on Thursday. A large portion of the stake is held by a foundation and trusts in his family’s name, and his wife also owns some of the shares. Jain directly controls about $22 million of the stock. [...]

Potential Buffett Heir Reveals What May Be Just the Start of His Berkshire Stake

[...] A regulatory filing on Friday shows Abel indirectly holds about $2.1 million of stock in the Omaha, Nebraska-based company. But a separate disclosure last year noted an agreement that could catapult his holdings higher. That filing showed he could convert a stake in Berkshire’s energy business into more than $400 million of stock in the conglomerate.

The new filing was triggered by his promotion last week to vice chairman for non-insurance operations at Berkshire, a position that will put him in charge of businesses ranging from BNSF Railway to Dairy Queen. [...]

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway had an amazing 2017. 2018 isn’t looking too bad, either.

[...] The Jain and Abel ascension followed a momentous 2017 for Berkshire Hathaway that saw the company’s “A” shares break $300,000 per share. It closed at $320,000 on Thursday, but you can still buy the Berkshire “baby B” shares for $213.

Also last year, Berkshire’s cash-on-hand surpassed $100 billion as Buffett/Munger scurried to find new investments. The Republican tax plan that became law late last month gifted a one-time, $37 billion windfall to Berkshire shareholders, which helped raise the stock price.

Not least of all, Buffett won a $1 million, decade-old bet with a hedge-fund bigwig. Buffett said he could do better than a portfolio of hedge funds by investing in boring, index fund over 10 years. Buffett gave the money to Girls Inc., one of his favorite charities.

So where does Berkshire Hathaway go from here? [...]

Iscar Wants to Expand Galilee Factory, but It Can’t Find Workers

Iscar, the Israeli maker of machine tools owned by U.S. billionaire investor Warren Buffett, wanted to build an additional plant at its headquarters in the Galilee town of Tefen. Eli Cohen, the minister of economy and industry, was there to help with an offer of a 50-dunam (12.5-acre) site at no cost.

Cohen wanted to ensure that as Iscar grows, it grows in Israel, rather than just overseas. But it doesn’t look like the plant will be built after all, and that’s because there aren’t enough skilled workers to hire, sources close to the company told TheMarker. [...]

New headquaters, expanding workforce at Guard

Berkshire Hathaway Guard Insurance, having moved its headquarters to downtown Wilkes-Barre’s Public Square, is now in the process of filling about 170 jobs it says have been made possible by the move.

The project, which began late last year, is well underway with many departments having moved to the building at 39 Public Square, which Westguard Insurance Co. purchased for just over $5 million in November, according to Guard officials. [...]

GUARD’s annual sales have grown sixfold to approximately $1.2 billion since 2007, and the insurer had run out of space for its more than 675 employees, most of them working in five different spots in the downtown.

Wilkes-Barre, wanting to retain the company, facilitated a $1 million Local Share Account grant to help the project. The state added another $855,000 grant. [...]

Your Next Running Shoes Will Be Custom-Built for You

[...] biomechanical assessment, part of a service and philosophy that Brooks calls Run Signature, has long been in use by the company to help guide its customers to the best-fitting shoe in its arsenal. But the options so far have been limited to what Brooks can sell off the shelf.

Now Brooks, the top brand in specialty running with 25% of the shoe market, according to the NPD Group, wants to take that a step further. The company is working with tech stalwart HP to marry a runner’s gait information with a three-dimensional foot scan generated by HP’s new FitStation device. HP’s technology can measure pressure along the foot as it lands in each stride. The data help Brooks determine how much polyurethane to inject in a shoe’s sole to achieve the right density for as many as 30 zones of your foot.

At a time when Adidas, Nike, and other sportswear companies limit footwear customization to color and material, Berkshire Hathaway–owned Brooks seeks to create running shoes with customized performance elements as well as build data-rich digital customer profiles. [...]

Philanthropist Susie Buffett to help launch Navy's newest littoral combat ship into fleet

The Navy's newest Independence-class littoral combat ship will join the nation's fleet Saturday with a commissioning ceremony in San Diego, and the future USS Omaha has close ties to the family of Berkshire Hathaway Chairman and CEO Warren Buffett.

Susie Buffett, an Omaha philanthropist and the billionaire's daughter, is serving as the ship's sponsor. [...]

Warren Buffett is expected to attend along with other prominent leaders from Nebraska. [...]

Back in 2015, she formally christened the future USS Omaha at the Austal USA shipyard in Mobile, Alabama, with a bottle of bubbly. [...]

Berkshire News Briefs - 1/10/18

Berkshire Hathaway Inc. News Release

On January 9, 2018, Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s Board of Directors voted to increase the number of directors comprising the entire Board of Directors from twelve to fourteen. Gregory E. Abel and Ajit Jain were then elected to serve as Directors to fill the resulting vacancies on the Board of Directors. In connection with their election to the Board of Directors, Warren E. Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway’s Chairman and CEO, appointed Mr. Abel to be Berkshire Hathaway’s Vice Chairman – Non-Insurance Business Operations and Mr. Jain to be its Vice Chairman – Insurance Operations. [...]

Warren Buffett: 'I feel terrific,' and moves toward succession are not related to my health

Warren Buffett told CNBC on Wednesday the appointment of two new vice chairs at Berkshire Hathaway is "part of a movement to succession over time," and has nothing to do with any change in his health. [...]

"They are the key figures," Buffett said. "They both have Berkshire in their blood."

"There is not a horse race at all," he added. "They both have their areas of specialty."

Buffett and his 94-year-old longtime partner, Charlie Munger, are staying in their respective positions as chairman and CEO and vice chairman. [...]

Speculation had centered on Abel and Jain as possible successors, and Buffett told CNBC that elevating them would have also made sense five years ago. He said he decided about six weeks ago to make the move, saying to himself, "why not now." [...]

It was Munger's idea for Abel, Jain, and himself to all have vice chair titles, Buffett said. [...]

Warren Buffett wins $1M bet against hedge funds and gives it to girls' charity

In 2007, the famed billionaire investor made a $1 million bet that an S&P 500 stock index fund would outperform a basket of hedge funds over the course of a decade.

The index fund returned 7.1% compounded annually over the 10-year period, easily beating the 2.2% average return of a basket of funds picked by asset manager Protégé Partners, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Buffett promised to give the prize money to his local affiliate of Girls Inc., a non-profit organization that provides programs designed to inspire "all girls to be strong, smart and bold." [...]

Berkshire Hathaway could gain $37 billion from GOP tax cuts

Berkshire Hathaway, the conglomerate led by Warren Buffett, stands to gain an potential $37 billion from the GOP's tax cuts, according to new research from Barclays.

"We now estimate Berkshire Hathaway's 4Q book value could be boosted by about $37 billion resulting from the US corporate tax reform due to a decline in its deferred tax liability," analysts at the firm wrote in a report on Monday.

The authors also said the reduction in the corporate tax rate could lift the company's earnings power by as much as 12 percent "in 2018 and beyond," and it could repatriate some foreign profits and use it for investment. [...]

Warren Buffett Shares the Secrets to Wealth in America

I have good news. First, most American children are going to live far better than their parents did. Second, large gains in the living standards of Americans will continue for many generations to come. [...]

This game of economic miracles is in its early innings. Americans will benefit from far more and better "stuff" in the future. The challenge will be to have this bounty deliver a better life to the disrupted as well as to the disrupters. And on this matter, many Americans are justifiably worried. [...]

Warren Buffett's Love for Burger Joints Is Landing Him Billions of Dollars

The financing deal gives RBI the option to redeem some, or all, of Berkshire's preferred stock. It indicated it would fully redeem the stake, plus dividends that have accrued from it. The redemption rate alone is 9.9%, which means Buffett is getting an effective interest payment of $297 million on the original $3 billion in financing.

On top of that are the dividends, which are hefty at 9% per year. This adds $810 million onto his return, which doesn't factor "an additional amount, if necessary, to produce an after-tax yield as if the dividends were paid by a U.S.-based company," according to a recent Berkshire regulatory filing.

On top of that, Buffett's investment vehicle still owns that RBI stake derived from the warrant. At the most recent closing stock price, that holding would be worth over $523 million, even after we net out the exercise price. [...]

Brooks Needs Runners Who Hate to Run

Within a few years of Weber taking over, Brooks became the best-selling brand at specialty stores. Then Fruit of the Loom Inc., which is owned by Berkshire Hathaway Inc., bought the company in 2006. Brooks flew under Berkshire’s radar for a couple of years until Todd Combs, one of Warren Buffett’s investment managers, brought it to his attention. Combs is a triathlete; Ted Weschler, another top Berkshire investment manager, is a marathoner. Buffett may not have realized it, Combs said, but this random shoe company was doubling in size every three years.

Soon after, Buffett met with Weber, who explained his all-­running-only-running strategy. Buffett liked the idea of focusing on a niche market. “He thinks long-term,” Weber says of Buffett, who told him: “Whatever you do, just make the brand stronger.”

So that’s what Weber did. Buffett was so pleased by Brooks’s success that in 2012 he spun it off from Fruit of the Loom, which didn’t have footwear experience. As Berkshire holdings go, Brooks is small, accounting for a sliver of the $24 billion it made in 2016. But for Buffett, it appears to be a source of pride. [...]

Q&A with Lubrizol’s Eric R. Schnur

Q: There are numerous references in company literature to values handed down from its founders. What are those values?

A: Fundamentally, our corporate philosophy comes down to three things. It’s about people and how important they are. I talk to employees at all of our major locations and ask them about the company, its culture and what they would never want to change. The first answer always is our focus on people. They feel the company really cares about people. This is something I felt walking through the door that first day at the pilot plant. There is a focus on safety. You cannot care deeply about people and expect them to work in an unsafe environment. We operate chemical plants. Those can be unsafe environments if you don’t invest in them and have policies and procedures. The last is business and corporate ethics.. Never do anything illegal. When you have thousands of people around the world, that doesn’t mean everyone is acting perfectly every single moment of the day. But we are vigilant about it. We do things the right way. It isn’t just a slogan. We want to move faster and drive quicker decision making, all the things companies our size talk about. But the focus always is on people, ethics and safety. [...]

Berkshire Hathaway subsidiary to remove idle crude oil rail tankers from New York forest preserve after governor's objections

A Berkshire Hathaway subsidiary has decided to remove its idle crude oil rail tankers from a New York forest preserve after the state’s governor objected to their storage there.

Chicago-based Union Tank Car said Tuesday that all 65 cars it has in the Adirondack Forest in northeast New York will be removed by mid-January. [...]

Russell Brands announces layoffs

A total of 75 permanent employees of Russell Brands LLC were notified Friday that they would be laid off. [...] The reduction in force is expected to drop the number of people employed at what is now primarily a distribution center down to around 250 people. [...]

Just six years ago, Russell Brands still had 750 employees in Alexander City. Earlier this year when it was announced that the company would cease manufacturing of athletic team uniforms, company officials said it was unclear how the move would impact the estimated 500 Russell employees who were working in Alexander City at that time. [...]

Oriental Trading CEO who turned company into profitable part of Berkshire dies at 56

Sam Taylor, who guided Oriental Trading Co. from bankruptcy into one of Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s local success stories, died more than a year after being diagnosed with a lethal form of brain cancer. He was 56. [...]

Taylor came to Omaha with his family — wife Stephanie and daughters Ashton, Celine and Mallory — in May 2008 to take over the troubled company, which had been saddled with high debt through a series of buyouts and refinancings. [...]

With the turnaround underway, in 2012 Taylor successfully pitched Oriental Trading to Berkshire CEO Warren Buffett, explaining how its La Vista distribution system, catalogs, online sales system and staff could become a profitable part of Berkshire. [...]

Berkshire News Briefs - 9/3/16

Warren Buffett’s company tops up on Phillips 66 shares (CBS News)

Warren Buffett’s company now controls more than 15 percent of Phillips 66 stock after buying another 414,065 shares of the oil refiner this week.

Berkshire Hathaway disclosed the latest purchases in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday.

Berkshire now owns about 79.5 million shares of Phillips 66 (PSX), which represents 15.2 percent of the Houston-based company’s stock. [...]

Here's How Warren Buffett Could Lose a Major Cash Cow as Dow Chemical Rallies (Fortune)

[Berkshire Hathaway] has been collecting roughly $225 million a year (or $8 a second) in interest from his Dow Chemical stake since 2009. That year, Buffett provided Dow with $3 billion to help finance its purchase of chemical maker Rohm and Haas. As part of the agreement, the industrials giant gave the investor preferred stock and slapped on a hefty 8.5% annual payment on top of it.

But the contract came with a back door for Dow. Starting in April 2014, should shares of Dow Chemical close above $53.72 for 20 days in any consecutive 30-day trading period, Dow can convert Buffett’s preferred shares into common stock—canceling the Oracle’s $8-a-second payout. Each of Dow’s common shares pay a mere 3.4% annual regular dividend, so it’s of little surprise that Dow Chemical has indicated that it fully intends to convert Buffett’s stake should the conditions be met. [...]

Berkshire’s Jain Tells Gen Re Staff to Fix ‘Problem’ With Costs (Bloomberg)

Ajit Jain, one of Warren Buffett’s top managers at Berkshire Hathaway Inc., has a message for the staff that he oversees at Gen Re: It’s time for their business to get much leaner and less bureaucratic.

After taking charge of the reinsurer this year and installing a longtime deputy to lead the operation, Jain sent a memo to employees detailing five areas, including compensation and sales channels, where changes should be made. He also called for increasing business unit autonomy, accepting modifications on the terms of some risk-transfer deals and reducing complexity. [...]

Iowa Approves Massive Wind Farm Amid Utility's Push for 100 Percent Renewable Energy (GovTech)

The Iowa Utilities Board has given MidAmerican Energy the green light for the utility's plans for a $3.6 billion wind energy investment, the largest renewable energy project in the state.

The state board on Friday gave final approval for the utility's Wind XI farm.

The project -- first announced in April -- is part of Des Moines-based MidAmerican's goal to reach 100 percent renewable energy for Iowa customers. [...]

BNSF launches faster intermodal service between Pacific Northwest, Texas (Progressive Railroading)

Starting Sept. 12, BNSF Railway Co. will offer intermodal customers a new service to move freight between the Pacific Northwest and Texas, the Class I announced yesterday.

Under the new service, shippers who move commodities and consumer goods between Portland, Ore., or Seattle and Dallas/Fort Worth will be able to cut transit times by up to two days when compared to rail transit time options currently in the marketplace, BNSF officials said in a press release. [...]

Berkshire Affiliates Refund $95K After Market-Based Rate Ruling (RTO Insider)

NV Energy and PacifiCorp returned nearly $95,000 to generation customers after FERC revoked market-based rate authority for Berkshire Hathaway Energy affiliates in four neighboring Western balancing authority areas and imposed cost-based rates. [...]

The commission restricted Berkshire’s market-based rate authority in June after ruling that the company’s affiliates failed to disprove that they collectively exercise horizontal market power in the PacifiCorp East, PacifiCorp West, Idaho Power and NorthWestern balancing areas [...]

Berkshire Hathaway, Transformed (Bloomberg)

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway took its first step toward becoming a conglomerate back in 1967 by stepping from textiles into insurance, which would become its lifeblood. Nearly fifty years later, it's evolved again.

The $358 billion company's steady foray into energy, railways and manufacturing (among other sectors) has radically changed its earnings profile over the past decade. As a result, once-core insurance divisions such as Geico have become a much smaller part of the overall business. In fact, Berkshire's insurance arm is expected to contribute just 25 percent of its total 2016 pre-tax operating earnings, less than half the 57 percent that it accounted for in 2006. [...]

86 Reasons We Love Warren Buffett (Fool)

Tuesday, Aug. 30, is Warren Buffett's 86th birthday. Each year, I celebrate the Babe Ruth of Investing's birthday by adding another reason we love our hero. [...]

Berkshire News Briefs - 5/27/16

Berkshire Hathaway's quartery 13-F came out last week, detailing last quarter's stock transactions. Dataroma has an easy-to-understand format for keeping up with BRK's holdings.

Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway takes new stake in Apple, ups stake in IBM (CNBC)

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway has taken a new stake in Apple and upped its holdings in IBM, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing Monday.

Berkshire portfolio managers Todd Combs and Ted Weschler, who each invest about $9 billion, made the investments.

Berkshire's new stake in Apple totaled 9.8 million shares, while the company boosted its shares of IBM by 198,853 to 81.2 million shares. [...]

Berkshire also boosted its holdings in Visa by 3.6 percent to 10.2 million Class A shares, increased its stake in Phillips 66 by 22.9 percent to 75.6 million shares, and upped its stake in Bank of New York Mellon by 3.6 percent to 20.8 million shares.

Berkshire reduced its holdings in a number of big names, as well. It lowered its holdings in Wal-Mart Stores by 949,430 to 55.2 million shares, and dissolved its stake in AT&T, according to the 13F filing.

Berkshire slashed its Procter & Gamble stake by 99.4 percent to 315,400 shares, and also reduced its stake in MasterCard by 5.6 percent to 4.9 million Class A shares.

Why Berkshire Hathaway Bought Into Apple (Fool Video)

Warren Buffett is famously anti-tech, but his company, Berkshire Hathaway, has recently become a shareholder of Apple.

In this segment from the MarketFoolery podcast, Chris Hill, Jason Moser, and Taylor Muckerman explain why the billionaire investor's company bought in. Learn why Apple isn't the same investment now that it was 10 years ago and why this move is much more in line with Berkshire's investment philosophies than it first seems. To wrap-up, the team runs down a couple other moves Berkshire Hathaway announced in its most recent 13-F filing.

Warren Buffett, Quicken Loans founder in Yahoo bid (Reuters)

Berkshire Hathaway Inc Chairman Warren Buffett is backing a consortium vying for Yahoo Inc's internet assets that includes Quicken Loans Inc founder Dan Gilbert, people familiar with the matter said on Friday. [...]

The consortium is in the second round of bidding in the auction for Yahoo's assets, the people said. Buffett is helping finance the offer, one of the people added. [...]

Susan Decker, who worked at Yahoo in several senior roles between 2000 and 2009, including president and chief financial officer, is now a director on Berkshire's board.

Warren Buffett: I may help bankroll billionaire Dan Gilbert's bid to buy Yahoo (CNBC)

Berkshire Hathaway has offered to be a potential finance partner for fellow billionaire Dan Gilbert's bid to buy Yahoo, Berkshire Chairman and CEO Warren Buffett confirmed to CNBC.

"I'm an enormous admirer of Dan and what he has accomplished in Quicken Loans‎. Yahoo is not the type of thing I'd ever be an equity partner in. I don't know the business and wouldn't know how to evaluate it, but if Dan needed financing, with proper terms and protections, we would be a possible financing help," Buffett told CNBC. [...]

Berkshire’s Jain Taps ‘Secret Weapon’ Raiguel to Run Gen Re (Bloomberg)

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. promoted longtime reinsurance executive Kara Raiguel to run the company’s Gen Re unit, which has struggled to expand amid increased competition.

Raiguel will take over from Franklin "Tad" Montross, according to an internal memo confirmed by Gen Re. She has been at Berkshire for 15 years and was a key deputy to Ajit Jain, who runs the company’s namesake reinsurance operation and recently took on responsibility for Gen Re as well.

Read Ajit Jain’s Memo About the New CEO at Berkshire’s Gen Re (WSJ Moneybeat)

For Berkshire investors, the two-page memo may be interesting for more than the information it provides about Ms. Raiguel. It also offers a glimpse of Mr. Jain’s writing style, and it sounds a fair bit like the folksy, jargon-free tone that Mr. Buffett favors. Mr. Jain has long been thought by outside observers of Berkshire to be one of the leading candidates to replace Mr. Buffett. [...]

Richline Group Acquires Nordt (BusinessWire)

Richline Group, Inc. has the pleasure to announce the acquisition, effective June 1, 2016, of John C. Nordt, Inc. [...] a leading manufacturer and supplier of precious metal products to the jewelry industry. Founded in 1872 in New York City, Nordt has operated in Roanoke Virginia since 1984.

Here's How Berkshire Hathaway Gets a $63 Billion Interest-Free Loan From the U.S. Government (Fool)

[...] Berkshire Hathaway has some structural advantages that are less well understood. One of them is the size of its deferred tax liabilities – a whopping $63.2 billion, based on the most recent data [...]

A deferred tax liability arises from temporary differences between a company's financial accounts and its tax accounts. [...] Because it is assumed that companies will eventually realize the investment gains achieved through the sale of their winning stocks thereby incurring capital gains tax, that future liability is reflected on the balance sheet as a deferred tax liability.

Berkshire's NetJets settles U.S. immigration bias claim (Reuters)

NetJets, the luxury plane unit of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc, agreed to settle U.S. charges that it discriminated against immigrant workers by requiring them to provide extra documents to prove their employment eligibility.

The settlement calls for NetJets to be monitored by the U.S. Department of Justice for two years, improve training of its human resources staff, and pay a $41,480 civil penalty, the department said in a Friday statement. NetJets denied wrongdoing in agreeing to settle, and cooperated in the probe.

A NetJets spokesman said the government found "inadvertent errors" in the company's processes for verifying workers' residency. "There was no intent to discriminate," he added.

Berkshire Hathaway Insurance Group Invests In Technology (Travel Market Report)

Most people don’t think of Berkshire Hathaway as a hip modern brand. Warren Buffett is a conservative, patient investor who still owns a flip phone and brags he has sent one e-mail his whole life. What many might not know is that his Berkshire holding company owns a travel-insurance business that is making a mark for itself by offering high-tech, consumer-centric products and services. [...]

BHTP continues to invest in mobile technology and will be releasing a new version of its mobile app in the coming weeks. [...]

Berkshire News Briefs - 9/11/15

Warren Buffett says Berkshire Hathaway still shopping abroad (Reuters)

Billionaire investing icon Warren Buffett said on Tuesday there are dozens of countries in which his sprawling Berkshire Hathaway Inc conglomerate would be interested in buying new businesses.

Berkshire earlier this year agreed to acquire a German motorcycle apparel and accessories retailer - a purchase that Buffett described as an advertisement to markets that he is shopping abroad. [...]

Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Increases Holdings in Phillips 66 (Business Finance News)

Berkshire Hathaway Inc. increased its investment in Phillips 66. The purchase of another 3.51 million shares of US oil refiner has sum the total number of stakes to 11.4%. Berkshire now holds about 61.5 million shares in the company, with net worth of $4.98 billion. [...]

Another reason for Mr. Buffet’s investment might be that Phillips is one of the customers of Berkshire’s Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) railroad division. With the supply glut in the economy, more refining opportunities existed for refiners. In order to get the oil to the markets, Phillips turned towards BNSF for service. An increased stake in Phillips 66 might be in best interest of BNSF. [...]

Of would-be $1B fees, trips to Omaha and hardball negotiating: Behind the scenes of the Precision-Berkshire deal (Portland Business Journal)

A new Securities and Exchange Commission document outlining specifics of the pending Precision Castparts Corp. sale to Berkshire Hathaway offers insights into the worlds of two upper-echelon business leaders. [...]

Before the companies reached that point, though, many pieces needed to all into place. Here's a truncated timeline, based on last week's SEC filing. [...]

Follow Buffett Reinsurance Guru’s Sage Advice (WSJ)

When Ajit Jain can’t see value in reinsurance, investors across the industry should worry.

The man who runs Warren Buffett’s reinsurance business told The Wall Street Journal this summer that Berkshire Hathaway would be putting more money into normal commercial and retail insurance instead.

Mr. Jain’s views are almost as influential among reinsurers as Mr. Buffett’s are among investors. [...]

Symmonds' stand a boost for Seattle-based Brooks Running (King 5)

[...] Symmonds, after all, is a two-time Olympian and six-time U.S. Champion. He won the 800-meter race at the U.S. Nationals earlier this year and was poised to be a part of last week's events.

That was until he was asked to sign a document.

"I'm outspoken and some would say brash, arrogant, I don't know," he said. But he felt like he needed to take a stand, when USA Track and Field required him to sign a Statement of Conditions to take part in the competition. He declined. "I wasn't going to sign a contract without all the terms defined."

That's because Symmonds felt the contract required him to wear Nike branded Team USA gear all the time in Beijing. He's sponsored by Seattle-based Brooks Running and says he's a loyal guy.

"I'm a businessman and when you have partners you try to protect those partners. I want to run for Brooks for another 10 years."

Nevada solar update: Senator Harry Reid takes on Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway in net metering debate (Lexology)

Nevada’s solar net metering policies will continue until year end, perhaps in part thanks to Senator Reid (D-NV) who threatened to intervene in the state’s Public Utilities Commission’s (PUC) review of the policy. Senator Reid, a staunch renewable energy advocate, believed that residential solar in Nevada had gotten a “lousy deal,” and pointed the finger at Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway. [...]

While NV Energy is promoting policies that make roof top solar potentially uneconomic, Warren Buffet has boosted his holding company’s massive investments in large-scale renewable energy—an attractive investment in the state due to Nevada’s ample solar incentives for industrial sized installations for businesses and power companies. [...]

Richline Debuts Wearable Style News Website (IDEX)

The Richline Group has announced the launch of a wearables news website. The company says that WearableStyleNews.com “brings a unique ‘function needs fashion’ perspective to the rapidly growing world of wearables.”

The site will focus on the designers, technologists, and manufacturers who are leading the wearable industry. The blog features curated and original content, including interviews with industry talent such as Uri Keren, CEO and co-founder of Hermes Innovation, Scott Amyx of Amyx+McKinsey and Amanda Parkes, Chief of Technology & Research for Manufacture NY. [...]

Warren Buffett On LTCM, Blind Spots, Leverage, and Unnecessary Risk (Alpha Architect)

Notes and highlights from a Buffett talk from 2007. The full talk and Q&A is on YouTube.

Here's an excerpt of Buffett talking about the collapse of Long-Term Capital Management (LTCM):

The whole story is really fascinating because if you take John Merriwether, and Eric Rosenfeld, Larry Hilibrand, Greg Hawkins, Victor Haghani, the two Nobel Prize winners, Merton and Scholes, if you take the 16 of them, they probably have as high an average IQ as any 16 people working together in one business in the country…an incredible amount of intellect in that room. Now you combine that with the fact that those 16 had had extensive experience in the field they were operating in…In aggregate, the 16 had probably had 350 or 400 years of experience doing exactly what they were doing. And then you throw in the third factor that most of them had virtually all of their very substantial net worths in the business. So they had their own money up. Hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars of their own money up. Super high intellect, working in a field they knew. And essentially they went broke. And that to me is fascinating. [...]

Berkshire Hathaway 2014 Annual Report & Letter Roundup

The Berkshire Hathaway 2014 Annual Report and Warren Buffett's Letter to Shareholders was released today. This year's letter, celebrating the company's 50th anniversary of Buffett's ownership, also includes a special letter from Vice Chairman Charlie Munger.

• Buffett and Munger's Letters.
• The Annual Financial Report. This PDF also includes the letters, so if you download this one, you don't need the first link.

Don't have time to read the 148 page annual report? Here are some good articles I have found around the internet today that summarize and highlight.

Warren Buffett, Charlie Munger say their eventual departures won't slow Berkshire Hathaway (Omaha World Herald)

In an essay on the company’s past and future, Chairman and CEO Warren Buffett, 84, said it’s likely to keep growing but not as rapidly as in the past, and he said the company might pay its first dividend sometime in the next 10 or 20 years. Vice Chairman Charlie Munger, 91, writing directly to Berkshire shareholders for the first time, said that his and Buffett’s eventual departures won’t slow down the company and that Berkshire already has executives qualified to be CEO.

Warren Buffett vows never to spin off Berkshire Hathaway subsidiaries (Financial Times)

Warren Buffett has vowed never to spin off any of Berkshire Hathaway’s subsidiaries, in a full-throated defence of the “sprawling conglomerate” he has assembled over the past 50 years. [...] “Berkshire is now a sprawling conglomerate, constantly trying to sprawl further,” he said.

Warren Buffett knows who next Berkshire CEO is (CNN Money)

"The board and I believe we now have the right person to succeed me as CEO -- a successor ready to assume the job the day after I die or step down," he wrote in his latest annual letter to investors. Buffett added that the next Berkshire CEO would be someone that already works at Berkshire and is "relatively young." And while Buffett chose to be coy, Berkshire's vice chairman and long-time Buffett friend Charlie Munger seemed to suggest that it's a two-man race to succeed Buffett. Munger, in his own remarks in Buffett's letter, specifically named Berkshire reinsurance head Ajit Jain and Berkshire Energy CEO Greg Abel as "proven performers who would probably be under-described as 'world-class.'"

If you want a summary of the actual financials reported, there's this one:

Berkshire Hathaway net falls, operating profit rises (Reuters)

Net income fell to $4.16 billion, or $2,529 per Class A share, from $4.99 billion, or $3,035 per share, a year earlier. Quarterly operating profit rose 5 percent to $3.96 billion, or $2,412 per share, from $3.78 billion, or $2,297 per share. [...] Book value per share, which Buffett considers a good measure of Berkshire's worth, rose 8.3 percent from a year earlier to $146,186. For all of 2014, profit rose 2 percent to $19.87 billion, or $12,092 per share, while operating profit rose 9 percent to $16.55 billion, or $10,071 per share.

And finally, a really long one where Wall Street Journal writers live-blogged as they read the letter this morning. It's almost shorter to just read the letter than read their notes. But some of their commentary is interesting:

Analysis: Warren Buffett’s Annual Berkshire Letter (WSJ MoneyBeat)

We’ve read everything through a few times now, and one thing about this year’s letter stands out above all else: Mr. Buffett isn’t writing solely for the people who will read the letter this weekend. He’s clearly hoping this document will be one Berkshire’s leaders will look back on for decades to come. Scattered throughout are instructions to the men and women who will oversee Berkshire after he’s gone, even if they’re not always couched that way. For example, when he writes on page 9 that underwriting profitability “is a religion” at Berkshire’s insurance units, it’s a reminder to guard against a slippage in standards in that part of the company. And when he writes on page 28 that Berkshire’s CEO and board will be very careful before using stock to fund a future acquisition, it’ll later serve as a warning for those executives if they ever consider such a maneuver. And lest the board forget, he says that for a Berkshire CEO, “character is crucial.” He also says that “neither ego nor avarice” should drive him to earn as much as other CEOs of big-name companies. Other parts of the letter use far loftier rhetoric to rally the troops and look to the future. Berkshire rests on “a rock-solid formation” of the company’s existing big operating units. “Looking ahead, Charlie and I see a world made to order for Berkshire,” he says. “Our ambitions have no finish line.”

Berkshire News Briefs - 1/23/15

Lower oil prices affect Berkshire Hathaway (Salt Lake Tribune)

Berkshire is one of the biggest shareholders in Wal-Mart Stores and holds a stake in Costco Wholesale, both of which are trading near all-time highs. Lower gasoline prices could boost consumer spending this year, benefiting retailers. [...] Both jet-fuel and diesel prices have been falling, potentially reducing costs for Berkshire's luxury aviation unit, NetJets, and its trucking company, McLane. [...] Surging U.S. oil production has been a boon to Berkshire's largest subsidiary, BNSF Railway Co. The company has seen an increase in oil carloads from North Dakota's Bakken region and spent heavily to accommodate them. Some of that demand could go away if oil prices stay low for a prolonged period.

Warren Buffett's investing successors blew it in 2014 (Fortune)

Todd Combs and Ted Weschler both appear to have failed to beat the market in 2014. Combs missed the mark by the most. His portfolio appears to have fallen slightly, down 0.3%, in 2014. [...] Weschler did better. His picks rose 6.7%. Still, that wasn’t enough to best the S&P 500, which was up by just over 11%, before dividends, in 2014. (Fortune calculated the returns of Combs and Weschler before dividends as well.) It was the first year both Combs and Weschler lagged the market index since they joined Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway.

Warren Buffett's Secret Stocks (Fool)

The critical distinction is that Berkshire Hathaway files what is known as a "13F Combination Report." In it is stated in plain sight that (emphasis added) "a portion of the holdings for this reporting manager are reported in this report and a portion are reported by other reporting manager(s)." In other words, what we see in the Berkshire Hathaway 13F filing are the stocks Berkshire Hathaway, owns. But another company, General Re New England Asset Management -- which is owned by Berkshire -- also files a 13F that further discloses what is included in Berkshire's stock portfolio. So what happens when we combine the holdings in the 13F's filed by Berkshire Hathaway and General Re New England Asset Management relative to what is shown in the annual report?

Brooks Breaks Tape on Momentous Year and Kicks Off 2015 with Clear Focus on Being No. 1 Choice for Runners Worldwide (BusinessWire)

For Brooks Running Company, 2014 was a year of milestones: among other noteworthy mileposts, Brooks reached half a billion dollars in annual sales, moved into a new state-of-the-art global headquarters and celebrated its 100-year anniversary. To cap it off, Brooks posted a 15 percent increase in revenue growth year-over-year driven by a 13 percent increase in U.S. footwear sales and a 32 percent increase in EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) sales on a local currency basis. Additionally, Brooks Canada clocked in more than 37 percent year-over-year revenue growth since formed as a wholly owned subsidiary in 2014.

Texas-sized Furniture Mart store can fit 3 Walmart Supercenters inside (Omaha World Herald)

Ed Lipsett, store director of the massive Nebraska Furniture Mart under construction in this Dallas suburb, takes great pride in the breadth of the new store. At 560,000 square feet, it’s big enough to fit three Walmart Supercenters inside. [...] Lipsett and other marketing executives with the Omaha-based store — owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway — recently allowed reporters to take a peek inside. The two-story, $400 million store, with its attached warehouse, is about 40 percent completed and has taken two years to build. Store officials declined to reveal a precise opening date. [...] The store will anchor a $1.5 billion, 433-acre development project being built by Berkshire Hathaway. Several restaurants and hotels are also planned.

BNSF Railway Re-evaluates Plan for Safer Cars Amid Client Talks (Bloomberg)

BNSF Railway Co., the railroad owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc., is reconsidering a plan to buy 5,000 oil-tank cars built to new safety standards after some customers voiced concern about the initiative. “At first everybody applauded us for doing it,” BNSF Chairman Matt Rose said today during a panel discussion in Washington on oil-by-rail safety, without specifying which concerns were raised. “We’re going to go back and talk to our customers and see what they want us to do.” [...] Rose said the company also decided to delay its purchase until regulators establish a standard. While thicker walls are warranted, speed restrictions would hurt other businesses that rely on trains to haul their products, he said.

Ajit Jain's Value To Berkshire Hathaway (Seeking Alpha)

In 1998, BH Reinsurance had a float of $4.3BN and by 2013, the float had increased to $37BN based on Ajit Jain's risk management capability and a staff of less than 50 people. Moreover, the share of BH Reinsurance as a percentage of total Berkshire's total float increased from 19% in 1998 to 48%. The other contributors to Berkshire's float include General Re, GEICO & "Other Primary".

Berkshire Hathaway Corporation and Leucadia National Corporation Appoint Justin Wheeler CEO of Berkadia (BusinessWire)

Berkshire Hathaway Corporation and Leucadia National Corporation today announced the appointment of Justin Wheeler, currently Leucadia’s Chief Operating Officer, as Chief Executive Officer of Berkadia Commercial Mortgage LLC. Since April 2014, Mr. Wheeler has been Berkadia’s acting CEO and, upon becoming Berkadia’s permanent CEO, Mr. Wheeler will be stepping down from his position as Leucadia’s COO. Berkadia, a joint venture of Berkshire Hathaway and Leucadia, is an industry leading commercial real estate company providing comprehensive capital solutions and investment sales advisory and research services for multifamily and commercial properties.

Warren Buffett Watch: Berkshire meeting to offer anniversary book, more time for sales (Omaha World Herald)

Good news for shareholders who shop at Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s annual meeting. For the first time, the exhibition hall at the CenturyLink Center Omaha will be open for business on the Friday afternoon before the meeting, as well as during the Saturday meeting on May 2. And this year the hottest item might be a special bargain, Berkshire Chairman Warren Buffett told me: A commemorative book to mark the 50th anniversary of the day he bought the New England textile company known as Berkshire Hathaway.

7 Things You Need to Know About Berkshire Hathaway (Fool)

Millions of words have been written about Berkshire Hathaway, and most of them have been devoted to CEO Warren Buffett. This is understandable, since Berkshire is truly a product of Buffett's guiding hands over the past half-century, turning the small regional textile maker into one of the great investing stories in modern history. Berkshire is an amazing collection of companies and stocks that Buffett has acquired over the years, but there's a lot to know about this mega conglomerate. Let's consider seven things you need to know about Berkshire Hathaway. Whether you're a shareholder, considering investing, or just interested in this great company, you might be surprised by some of the things on this list.

12 of the Best Things Charlie Munger Has Ever Said (Fool)

In financial media, you see quotes from Warren Buffett everywhere, as he's well known as one of the best stock-pickers around. The words of his longtime business partner Charlie Munger, however, don't make many headlines -- and that's a shame. [...] "If you buy something because it's undervalued, then you have to think about selling it when it approaches your calculation of its intrinsic value. That's hard. But if you buy a few great companies, then you can sit on your ass. That's a good thing."

Berkshire News Briefs - 10/29/13

Ketchup changeup: McDonald's dropping Heinz after CEO change (Reuters)

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."

Berkshire News Briefs - 5/1/13

Sorry, You Will Never Be Able To Trade Like Buffett (Investor Place)

Here’s a dirty secret of financial media: Putting Warren Buffett in a headline is pretty much guaranteed to give your article decent appeal. So it’s no surprise that everyone under the sun tries to derive meaning from even the slightest change Buffett makes — or more precisely, that his investment firm Berkshire Hathaway makes. A few years ago, Buffett liked railroads and Buffett liked banks. Last year, he started to like newspapers. And as I just wrote last week, Buffett doesn’t like gold and hasn’t for some time. But while interesting and good for clicks, this kind of oversimplification isn’t very helpful to investors.

New Ajit Jain Signals in the Berkshire Hathaway Tea Leaves (WSJ)

Today’s revelation that Berkshire Hathaway Inc. had poached four top executives from American International Group Inc. was big news all on its own. But it could also offer an important hint about a topic that’s a constant topic of speculation for Berkshire shareholders: who’s going to replace Warren Buffett. The four new hires, experts at insuring large and unusual risks, are defecting from AIG to set up a new property-casualty unit at Berkshire that reports directly to Ajit Jain, the mastermind behind many of Berkshire’s past successes in the world of insurance.[...]

But if it turns out that Jain is the one to fill Buffett’s shoes, the AIG executives who start their new jobs at Berkshire on Monday morning constitute a formidable bench that could step in to Jain’s current role as Berkshire’s insurance guru.

What Do Buffett's 4 New AIG Hires Mean for Berkshire Investors? (Fool)

On Friday, Berkshire Hathaway announced it has hired four senior executives from American International Group. So who, exactly, did Buffett snag from the notorious insurance giant? First, there's Peter Eastwood, a 22-year AIG veteran who most recently headed up the company's domestic property-casualty operations. Next, David Bresnahan served as president of AIG's Lexington unit since June, 2011. Then there's Sanjay Godhwani, who was president of AIG's property-casualty operations in Latin America and the Caribbean. Finally, Berkshire also hired David Fields, who formerly worked as AIG's president of risk finance.

Did Berkshire's Poaching Just Send AIG Back Into the Abyss? (Fool)

Executives move from from one company to another all the time -- that's a normal proceeding of the business world. But when several high-ranking executives leave all at once for the same company, we're often seeing a piece of a larger puzzle. That's what we saw this past Friday, when it was announced that four top employees were defecting from AIG to join the team at Berkshire Hathaway. [...]

So with three of the new employees heading major P&C units for AIG, their knowledge will surely help Berkshire to expand where necessary. The final member, Bresnahan, led the excess and surplus operations -- one of AIG's most successful segments, with the company dominating the market with an estimated 20% share.

The Smartest Thing Warren Buffett Ever Said (Fool)

Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett is never shy about sharing wisdom. The brilliant investor is known for witty quips ("Rule No. 1: Never lose money. Rule No. 2: Never forget Rule No. 1.") as well as longer parables (such as "The Superinvestors of Graham-and-Doddsville"). But could any one of Buffett's gems of wisdom be the best? Could there be one Buffett-ism to rule them all? To find out, I grabbed five game Fools to weigh in.

What's the Best Way to Value Berkshire? (Morningstar)

Given its complexity, as well as the size and diversity of its businesses, valuing Berkshire Hathaway is unquestionably a challenge. The most commonly cited methods for valuing the company's shares include the use of an earnings-based multiple, a book-value-based multiple, a two-column approach, a float-based methodology, and, finally, a discounted cash flow valuation. In some cases, investors will use a combination of these different methodologies to value different parts of the business, or as a way to triangulate their own estimates. We believe that understanding the benefits and shortfalls of each of these methodologies can provide valuable insight into the ways in which different investors are approaching the firm's overall valuation.

Buffett Challenger Kass Prepares For Meeting, Munger Test (Bloomberg)

Buffett, 82, has sought to refocus attention at the meeting on Berkshire by allowing journalists and analysts to alternate with the audience in asking questions of him and Vice Chairman Charles Munger. Kass, founder of Seabreeze Partners Management Inc., answered Buffett’s call to change the panel by adding an investment professional who’s betting on the stock’s decline. “He wanted to spice up the annual meeting, and to make it more interesting from the context of the questions, as opposed to a bunch of softballs or non-Berkshire-related political questions, tax questions, policy questions,” Kass said.

IT pro has a hair-raising hobby (IDG)

Berkshire Hathaway Media Group is the collective name for all the newspapers Warren Buffett bought last year.

By day Chad Roberts, 35, is a Windows Server and Exchange administrator for Berkshire Hathaway Media Group. For play he's an award-winning competitive beardsmith and founder of the RVA Beard League in Richmond, Va. [...]

"I think since a lot of IT guys are behind the scenes, back in the server room, or off in some corner, the cultural expectations are different from, say, that of the sales staff who are a public face of the company and need to appeal to the absolute maximum number of potential clients. In IT, it's more about knowledge, results, and ability, than your choice of hair style."