Berkshire News Briefs - 7/7/18

Warren Buffett is big winner after US bank stress tests

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway is poised to net about $1.7bn in dividends after Wells Fargo and other banks in which he is a shareholder sailed through the Federal Reserve’s annual stress tests. [...]

Berkshire is one of the biggest single investors in the financial sector globally. It is the number one shareholder in lenders including Wells, Bank of America and American Express, and has sizeable stakes in several others. [...]

Amazon-Berkshire-JPMorgan Health Venture Takes Aim at Middlemen

The health venture established by Amazon.com Inc., Berkshire Hathaway Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. will take aim at intermediaries in the health-care system as a part of a broad effort to reduce wasteful spending, the venture’s newly named chief executive officer said.

The still-unnamed business will initially seek to develop ways to improve care for the more than 1 million individuals who get health insurance from the three firms. Over time, the venture will make those innovations available freely to other companies, meaning that if it’s successful, its effects could be felt more broadly among the more than 150 million people in the U.S. who get their health insurance through work. [...]

Warren Buffett hands reins of World-Herald, other Berkshire Hathaway newspapers to Iowa firm Lee Enterprises

As the newspaper industry navigates a decline in print circulation and advertising revenue, hometown owner Warren Buffett is assigning the fate of his own BH Media Group to an out-of-town company.

Lee Enterprises of Davenport, Iowa, will manage The World-Herald and the 29 other Berkshire Hathaway-owned daily newspapers, the companies announced Tuesday in a five-year agreement that could bring Lee $50 million over five years.

Berkshire Hathaway's Acquisitive Clayton Lands Arbor Homes

After an 18-month courtship, Maryville, Tenn-based Clayton Properties Group closed on the acquisition of Indianapolis' No. 1-ranked home building firm, Arbor Homes, adding to its 8-state map a 24-year old private builder whose signature stock in trade is a rarity these days: the profitable below-$200,000 site-built home.

The 7th regional site-build jewel in the Clayton crown adds to its suddenly hefty portfolio of regional firms--on pace to deliver as many as 4,500 homes in 2018--gives the Berkshire Hathaway unit fresh headway and a platform to launch further inroads in its goal to provide people priced out of many housing markets with an attainable path to homeownership. [...]

BNSF estimates 230,000 gallons of oil spilled in NW Iowa

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds visited Saturday to authorities assigned to clean up 230,000 gallons of oil that spilled Friday morning into the Little Rock River near Doon in northwest Iowa.

The spill was caused by a derailed BNSF train. [...]

The company reported later Saturday that about 100,000 gallons of the 230,000 gallons of spilled oil had been contained, and that oil would be removed from the immediate area with oil-water separators. [...]

How Warren Buffett and Bill Gates ended up walking into an Old Market store

Warren Buffett and Bill Gates didn’t just wander into an Old Market nostalgia store the day after the Berkshire Hathaway shareholders meeting in May, with “Little Brown Jug” playing in the background.

No, some of Gates’ staffers had been to Omaha in the past and were fascinated by Larry Richling’s Fairmont Antiques & Mercantile store/Hollywood Candy, 1209 Jackson St., and its combination of candy store, memorabilia collections, soda fountain and more.

The Gates group decided that it would be just the place for an episode of Gates’ video blog, showing the two friends having a good ‘ol time in Omaha. [...]

Berkshire News Briefs - 2/23/18

Berkshire Hathaway released its quarterly 13F statement, detailing its stock holdings as of Dec. 31, 2017.

Here's a summary from Dataroma.

Buffett's Bumpy Ride With IBM Draws to a Close With Stock Sales

Warren Buffett is just about done with International Business Machines Corp.

His conglomerate, Berkshire Hathaway Inc., reported that it cut its stake in Big Blue by 94 percent during the fourth quarter, essentially drawing to a close a rare blemish on his investing record. [...]

IBM was always a curiosity for Buffett followers. He’d spent years telling them that technology companies were outside his area of expertise then plowed more than $10 billion into the company in 2011. [...]

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway loves loathed Israeli drug stock Teva

After news hit Wednesday that Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway had made a $358 million investment in Israel-based drug company Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, a skepticism lingered even as shares of the heavily shorted stock soared.

What does Berkshire Hathaway see in an out-of-favor drug stock that has languished — Teva shares have declined by roughly half in the past year — that the rest of Wall Street doesn't?

Maybe nothing special. And the size of the bet — at $358 million — is within the discretionary stock selling mandates of Buffett's hedge fund lieutenants, Ted Weschler and Todd Combs. But the bet is consistent with Buffett's long history of value investing, albeit with a twist. [...]

Phillips 66 agrees to repurchase shares from Berkshire Hathaway subsidiary

Phillips 66 said it will buy back shares worth $3.28 billion from a Berkshire Hathaway subsidiary, in a transaction that could ease regulatory pressure for Berkshire, the conglomerate run by Warren Buffett.

Phillips 66 will repurchase 35 million shares for $93.725 per share. The buyback will bring Berkshire's stake in Phillips 66 to slightly below 10 percent. [...]

Buffett's BNSF railroad eyes blockchain for shipping freight

BNSF Railway Co, a unit of the billionaire’s conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway Inc (BRKa.N), on Monday said it has become the first major U.S. railroad to join the Blockchain in Transport Alliance.

The alliance is a group of more than 200 companies examining how best to use the digital ledger technology behind bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in the transport industry.

It hopes to establish blockchain standards in such areas as vehicle maintenance, quality control and fraud prevention.

Among its members are shippers FedEx Corp and United Parcel Service Inc, tire maker Bridgestone Corp, German software company SAP SE, and some banks and brokers [...]

Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Is Cutting More Jobs Across Newspaper Group

BH Media Group is reducing staff by 148 employees and not filling 101 vacant positions, representing a total of about 6 percent of its workforce, the company said Tuesday in a statement. The organization is seeking to trim expenses because of declining advertising revenue.

Among the cutbacks, Buffett’s hometown newspaper, the Omaha World-Herald, is eliminating 43 positions including vacant ones, the paper reported on its website Tuesday. Eleven newsroom employees were among those let go. [...]

Buffett's Business Wire suffers cyberattack

Business Wire, the corporate news release distributor owned by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc, on Tuesday said it has been suffering for nearly a week from a cyberattack designed to disable it.

The company said it has been experiencing a "directed and persistent" denial of service attack since Jan. 31, though customer information has not been compromised.

"Our website slowed down," said Neil Hershberg, a senior vice president at Business Wire, in a phone interview. "At no point were clients unable to get our releases to us. Our distribution network was totally unaffected by this attack." [...]

Warren Buffett is retiring from Kraft Heinz board

Warren Buffett is retiring from the board of directors of Kraft Heinz, a subsidiary of his company Berkshire Hathaway.

"Mr. Buffett decided to retire from the board as he decreases his travel commitments," Kraft Heinz said in a press release on Friday.

The 87-year-old billionaire will retire after his term ends at the Kraft Heinz annual meeting of stockholders, the company said. [...]

Berkshire Hathaway News Briefs - 10/7/17

Buffett bets on truck stops, to buy majority of Pilot Flying J

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc bought a major stake in Pilot Flying J, the largest U.S. truck stop operator, and said it will become the majority owner in six years, deepening its commitment to the American economy.

Pilot Flying J has more than 750 locations in 44 U.S. states and Canada selling gas, diesel fuel, and convenience goods, and offering trucks more than 70,000 parking spaces and 5,000 diesel lanes.

While terms for Tuesday's transaction were not disclosed, Pilot Flying J is 15th-largest private company in the United States, with annual sales of $19.6 billion, Forbes magazine said. The family-run company employs more than 27,000 people.

Berkshire bought 38.6 percent of Pilot Flying J from several investors and plans to boost ownership to 80 percent in 2023.

The controlling Haslam family retained a 50.1-percent stake, and will own the remaining 20 percent once Buffett takes over. [...]

Why Autonomous Trucks Aren't A Threat To Buffett's Investment In Pilot Flying J

As fast charging of EVs takes greater hold across the U.S., places like Pilot Flying J will become even better revenue machines than they are now. When truckers and car travelers stop at one of their places now for gas and diesel, they are apt to shop as well during the 15-20 minute stay they have now. Fast charging of batteries, which takes up to 45 minutes, will extend the time a customer has to spend money on goods, as well as the changing service itself.

The point of Buffett’s investment is not just to take advantage of the strong business of Pilot Flying J now as a well branded, preferred network of truck stops serving today’s long-haul diesel truck driver, but as a growing network of places to serve the needs of gas, diesel and EV vehicles. [...]

Berkshire Hathaway's New Moat? Helping America's Family-Run Businesses Protect Their Legacy

[...] Buffett’s held out Berkshire as a safe place for family-owned businesses to turn to when they want to sell and he's beginning to pile up a major trove of deals.

In 2006, Buffett took control of Israeli billionaire Stef Wertheimer’s precision tool company ISCAR, ponying up $4 billion for 80% of the business and taking full control a handful of years later. The Pritzker family turned to Berkshire in 2007, selling a 60% stake in their industrial conglomerate Marmon Holdings, then the world’s 36th largest privately-held company. Seven years later, Berkshire bought the remaining 40% of Marmon and that year it also bought Van Tuyl Auto Group, America’s largest private-held car dealership operator with $8 billion in annual revenues. For Larry Van Tuyl, son of company founder Cecil Van Tuyl, the deal was a 'no-brainer' way to protect a proud legacy; he took a role as chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Automotive when it closed in early 2015.

Now Buffett is at again. On Tuesday morning, Berkshire Hathaway announced it will take a 38.6% investment in travel center operator Pilot Flying J , buying shares from the Haslam family of Tennessee. [...]

Nine years ago Warren Buffett bet on an unknown Chinese battery maker, and it’s sort of paying off

Nine years ago this week, as stocks were tanking in the global financial recession, Warren Buffett put money into a little-known mobile phone battery maker in Shenzhen. This year, with China making it clearer than ever that fossil-fuel cars aren’t going to be welcome for long, that bet is doing better than it’s done in a while.

On Sept. 27, 2008, MidAmerican Energy, controlled by Buffett’s holding company Berkshire Hathaway, announced it was putting $230 million (paywall) into China’s BYD, paying about HK$8 a share (a little over US$1). Back then, BYD, which started out in 1995, was just on the verge of getting into selling electric vehicles. It’s now China’s biggest seller of electric vehicles and saw its stock price increase nearly 60% this year, sending the value of MidAmerican Energy’s stake to about $1.9 billion as of Monday’s closing price. [...]

Russell to cease production of athletic uniforms

Fruit of the Loom, the parent company to Russell Athletic & Activewear, announced Thursday it was getting out of the team uniform business. [...]

“Today, we will begin to transition away from the team uniform business to allow greater emphasis on the consumer retail market. With this shift, we will continue to offer high quality athletic lifestyle and performance apparel for distribution through multiple retail and wholesale channels, including continued distribution of collegiate licensed products along with non-uniform apparel through the team dealer network.” [...]

Dairy Queen, getting a new CEO, looks to freshen brand

International Dairy Queen Inc. will be getting a new chief as the company continues an effort to modernize its  77-year-old brand.

The Edina-based company said Thursday that President and CEO John Gainor will retire at the end of the year and current Chief Operating Officer Troy Bader will take his place, effective Jan 1. [...]

Dairy Queen, a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., has been replacing its old-style restaurants in recent years to compete in the cutthroat quick-service restaurant category. Through its DQ Grill and Chill remodels, the company has updated its seating, beefed up its menu with more food items and tried to offer more specials and creative ice cream treats. It also has made a deliberate push to expand internationally. [...]

Berkshire Weathers the Storms

Given the storm damage and flooding created by hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria during the third quarter, we find it unlikely that wide-moat Berkshire Hathaway will come away unscathed. [...] While we expect the company to experience material losses, it is more than adequately reserved to deal with this year’s hurricane season. [...]

All in, we’re probably looking at $1.5 billion-$3.0 billion in total insured losses for Berkshire’s insurance operations from hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria (based on the dispersion of insured losses from other periods of heavier hurricane activity), with our expectations being somewhere in the middle of that range.

For some perspective, Berkshire recorded $3.4 billion in hurricane-related losses in 2005 when hurricanes Katrina ($2.5 billion), Rita, and Wilma ($900 million) struck the Gulf Coast, with Geico reporting $200 million in pretax losses, General Re posting $685 million in insured losses, and BHRG seeing $2.5 billion in pretax losses. With Hurricane Sandy in 2012, Berkshire’s total insured losses were $1.1 billion on a pretax basis, with $490 million coming from Geico, another $266 million tied to General Re, and $364 million from BHRG. [...]

Consolidation of BH Media Group newspaper printing begins at Journal plant

The consolidation of newspaper printing by BH Media Group’s North Carolina affiliates has begun at a $10 million expansion of the Winston-Salem Journal’s production plant. [...]

The consolidation involves the News & Record of Greensboro, as well as newspapers in Morganton, Marion, Hickory, Statesville and Mooresville printed at the Hickory Daily Record. The plant eventually will take over printing for newspapers in Concord and in Rockingham County. [...]

Berkshire Hathaway's Gen Re Targets Indian Market

General Re, a unit of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. which won a license to open an Indian office in May, is seeking a larger slice of the world’s fastest-growing reinsurance market.

The unit plans to expand in health and life insurance, as well as explore opportunities in property and casualty cover, said Venkatesh Chakravarty, chief executive officer of General Reinsurance AG India Branch. [...]

Building a business in India could help Gen Re’s turnaround. A glut of capital in the global reinsurance industry in recent years has caused prices for some kinds of coverage to sag. Rather than take on policies at those lower rates, Gen Re has said it’s turning away some business.

By contrast, India’s reinsurance market, grew at a compound annual rate of 26 percent from 2012 to 2016, according to Reports Monitor, luring in global reinsurers. [...]

Buffett's Berkshire Expands Bet on Italy With Stake in Cattolica

Berkshire Hathaway Inc. said Thursday it agreed to buy about 9 percent of Italian insurer Societa Cattolica di Assicurazioni Scrl from Banca Popolare di Vicenza SpA, one of two failed banks in the northern region of Veneto. [...]

The purchase follows the December acquisition by Berkshire unit Marmon Holdings Inc. of Modena, Italy-based Zephir SpA, a manufacturer of industrial tractors and vehicles that move train cars in rail yards. Earlier last year, Marmon announced it would buy Italian pasta-equipment maker Dominioni Punto & Pasta Srl and catering-equipment firm Angelo Po.

While Italy, Europe’s third-largest economy, has been struggling with slow growth, Buffett has long said he’s willing to endure sluggish periods at businesses with attractive long-term prospects. [...]

Berkshire Hathaway starts building 212-MW wind farm

BHE Renewables LLC, a unit of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Energy, has commenced construction on a 212-MW wind farm in Illinois, the Putnam County Record said Tuesday. [...]

BHE Renewables bought the Walnut Ridge project from renewables developer Geronimo Energy LLC in 2015. The scheme has a power purchase agreement (PPA) for 140 MW with the General Services Administration (GSA) of the US government. [...]

Inside Buffett’s Precision Castparts, a Union Scores a Foothold

On Friday, a group of about 100 welders at the company’s manufacturing operations in Portland, Oregon, voted 54-38 in favor of joining a union. Among the reasons they cited: a lucrative employee stock incentive program that went away after Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. bought Precision early last year.

Unionizing is something to watch closely at Precision Castparts, where Chief Executive Officer Mark Donegan is known for a relentless focus on costs. [...]

Precision Castparts -- now one of Berkshire’s largest companies -- has said the welders’ vote might ultimately have a broad effect on its highly integrated manufacturing operations in Portland, where the company is based. A push to unionize thousands of workers in that region failed in 2013. [...]

Berkshire News Briefs - 4/10/17

CC BY-SA 3.0, Link

Berkshire insurance unit sues Goodyear over asbestos claims

Berkshire said Goodyear claimed to have in 2008 exhausted a policy from another insurer for the asbestos claims, but waited until November 2015 to seek reimbursement from Berkshire for "several millions of dollars" under an "excess" policy.

It also said Goodyear had never asked for help in defending against the claims prior to November 2015.

About 62,000 claims are pending against Goodyear in states including Florida, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania and Texas over alleged exposure to asbestos-containing products as floor tiles, furnace hoses, gaskets and heat shields, Berkshire said.

Berkshire Hathaway affiliate buys Prism Plastics

Precision automotive molder Prism Plastics Inc. has been sold to a subsidiary of Marmon Engineered Components Co., according to an announcement from Altus Capital Partners, the investment firm that had owned Chesterfield, Mich.-headquartered Prism along with its founders since June 2014.

Marmon is an affiliate of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., the publicly traded conglomerate headed by Warren Buffett.

Under Altus ownership Prism has undertaken several growth initiatives, including the June 2016 acquisition of Tech Molded Plastics Inc. of Meadville, Pa. That move doubled Prism’s size and added in-house toolmaking capabilities. [...]

Berkshire subsidiary on renewable energy push across the West

PacifiCorp, a division of Berkshire Hathaway Energy, issued a three-year, $3.5 billion plan for its renewable energy system from Wyoming to California.

The six-state plan will add 900 megawatts of capacity by upgrading generators with larger blades and new technology, build a 140-mile-long power line in Wyoming and add 1,100 megawatts of new wind projects. [...]

The plan includes adding another 1,000 megawatts of solar generators in the states by 2036. [...]

Berkshire Hathaway's Media Group Cuts 289 Newspaper Jobs Nationwide

BH Media Group, the newspaper division of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc., announced yesterday that it was cutting 289 jobs at its newspapers across the country yesterday. The cuts included the elimination of 108 jobs that currently are vacant.

The reasons for the job losses are depressingly familiar in the newspaper industry: loss of circulation and advertising revenue, lagging revenue from the digital side of the business.

Terry Kroeger, president and CEO of BH Media, sent a memo to employees yesterday. "While more readers than ever turn to our digital products, our digital revenue is not growing fast enough yet to offset print revenue losses from both advertising and circulation," he wrote. "Therefore, we need to cut our expenses." [...]

The Buffett Series – Thinking About Competitive Advantage

A key requirement for a company to earn high returns on capital over a long period of time is to have a competitive advantage, commonly referred to as a 'moat'. Mr Buffett addresses the issue of competition in his 1993 letter where he talks about the Nebraska Furniture Mart, a businesses he acquired from Rose Blumkin [aka Mrs B.] in 1983. Under the motto "sell cheap and tell the truth," she worked in the business until age 103.

Nebraska Furniture Mart is a pretty simple business, it sells furniture, flooring and home appliances. It's easy to understand and it's unlikely to be subject to a lot of change. In ten years time it will still be selling furniture. [...]

Berkshire Hathaway: An In-Depth Look At Normalized Return On Equity

How much would you pay for a $298 billion perpetual bond with an 8.5% coupon and $66 billion of additional cash? While this seems like an odd question, I would argue it is the one you're trying to answer when choosing to invest, or not invest, in Berkshire Hathaway. No, Berkshire common stock is not a bond; however, as I will try to demonstrate, while Berkshire's stated GAAP earnings are volatile, its underlying return on shareholders' equity is highly consistent, not entirely dissimilar to a bond coupon. This analysis will disaggregate Berkshire's constituent assets and liabilities in its various business segments and the earnings attributable to those segments. Doing so will allow us to uncover what I will term a "steady-state" return on equity. With that return in hand, we can then determine the "yield" and subsequent value to assign our "bond."

Steelworker wins $100,000 in Buffett's March Madness bracket

[Dwayne] Johnson, who works in a steel factory in Huntington, West Virginia, was sitting on his couch Saturday afternoon when Buffett called to tell him that, with 31 out of 32 correct predictions in his March Madness bracket, he'd be winning $100,000 of the billionaire's money. (If Johnson had correctly called South Carolina's victory over Marquette, he would've received a cool $1 million.) [...]

Johnson says the $105,000 in winnings - which include an additional $5,000 from his employer, Precision Castparts - will help him pay off credit card debt and buy a new car. He also plans to save six months' worth of expenses in case he loses his job, something he says he has worried about in recent months after widespread layoffs at the steel mill where he has worked for nearly 10 years. He makes $21.13 an hour as a welder at the company, which Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway purchased two years ago for nearly $32 billion. [...]

Cherry Coke, China and Warren Buffett: 'He's selling well'

People in China are coming face to face with Warren Buffett's love for Cherry Coke.
A cartoon rendering of the billionaire investor is appearing on special edition Cherry Coke cans all over the world's most populous nation.
Buffett is helping Coke launch the flavored soda in China, a sugary drink the 86-year-old claims is his secret to staying young. [...]

Berkshire News Briefs - 1/6/16

Report Finds Warren Buffett’s Modular Housing Company Ripped Off Minorities (Time)

Recently, the Seattle Times published a special report in conjunction with BuzzFeed News on the business practices of Clayton Homes, a massive modular housing company owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, the holding company that serves as a massive investment vehicle. The report does not paint a rosy picture of Clayton, which is the country’s largest homebuilder. [...]

The report found that Vanderbilt Mortgage, the lending arm of Clayton, lends with extremely high interest rates for minorities as opposed to their white counterparts. [...]

Berkshire Hathaway's Clayton Homes defends its loan practices involving minorities (Omaha World-Herald)

In response, Clayton said in a press release that the story’s allegations about loan rates are based on “raw data” that ignore factors including credit score, down payment, loan size, collateral and type of land.

Clayton said Vanderbilt’s average rate was the same for white and nonwhite borrowers with credit scores less than 600 who borrowed less than $50,000 to place a mobile home placed on private land. For borrowers with credit scores greater than 720, the average rate for nonwhite borrowers was 0.07 percentage points less than for white borrowers, Clayton said. [...]

Berkshire Hathaway Buys Newspaper in Fredericksburg, Virginia (Bloomberg)

Berkshire Hathaway Inc. purchased a Virginia newspaper and printing facility as the company run by billionaire Warren Buffett adds to its roster of publications.

The purchase includes The Free Lance-Star and Print Innovators, both located in Fredericksburg, Berkshire’s BH Media Group said Thursday in an e-mailed statement. Terms of the deal with Sandton Capital Partners, which acquired the assets in bankruptcy in June 2014, weren’t disclosed.

The Free Lance-Star has a daily circulation of 31,700, according to the statement. Print Innovators prints the newspaper and other publications in the region.

Berkshire Hathaway Fails Warren Buffett's Test -- Again (Fool)

Berkshire's underperformance this year is inopportune, as the Financial Times noted yesterday:

"The underperformance comes in Mr Buffett's Golden Anniversary year at the helm, when he told investors for the first time that they should judge his record based on Berkshire's share price, rather than just the book value of the company, which had been his preferred yardstick for decades."

BNSF Railway furloughs workers in Minnesota and North Dakota (Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal)

BNSF Railway Co. recently laid off railyard employees in Minnesota and North Dakota due to lower-than-expected demand for freight shipping, the Grand Forks Herald reported.

The job cuts — reportedly around 100 — were at the rail company's North Dakota rail yards in Grand Forks, Mandan and Minot, as well as the Minnesota yard in Dilworth.

EU clears Berkshire's acquisition of Precision Castparts (Reuters)

The European Commission said on Wednesday it had approved Berkshire Hathaway's planned $32.3 billion acquisition of Precision Castparts Corp, a maker of aerospace and other parts.

The Commission said in a statement it had concluded that the proposed acquisition would not raise competition concerns given the absence of horizontal overlaps and the limited vertical relationships between the activities of the two companies.

MidAmerican Energy adds 'green' trucks (Eastern Iowa Gazette)

The Des Moines-based utility’s new Green Fleet service trucks are equipped with a conventional engine and a large battery pack that operates the boom and other vehicle features. The dual system eliminates the need to have the engine idling at the job site, thereby saving fuel, reducing engine emissions and the need for engine maintenance, and minimizing job site noise. [...]

“By eliminating those four hours of idling every day, we will save four to eight gallons of gas per vehicle per day, which will add up to a significant reduction in emissions and significant fuel cost savings over the course of the year.”

How Venmo Plans to Make Money (Fortune)

MasterCard doesn’t offer a consumer P2P payment service, but it is selling the technology to businesses. It’s charging customers like Berkshire Hathaway and FreeShipping.com an undisclosed fee to add peer-to-peer payments to their own businesses. Berkshire Hathaway Travel Protection’s Dean Sivley says those fees cost the company less money than printing out and mailing checks or wiring money. The insurer developed a mobile app based on MasterCard’s tech to enable its policyholders to submit a claim and receive a decision and payment in minutes.

The Dairy Queen® System’s Epic Resolution (Business Wire)

The start of the New Year often comes with grand resolutions. But this year, Dairy Queen® restaurants [...] are kicking off the New Year with an epic resolution: beginning January 1, 2016, participating DQ® and DQ Grill & Chill® restaurants across the country vow to serve all Blizzard® Treats upside down or the next one is free. [...]

Berkshire News Briefs - 4/21/15

British regulator challenges US over Berkshire scrutiny (Financial Times)

British regulators have challenged their US peers over their apparent reluctance to subject Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway to tougher scrutiny as part of a worldwide push to make the financial system safer.

The Bank of England has written to the US Treasury asking why Berkshire’s reinsurance operation — among the world’s most powerful — was left off a provisional list of “too big to fail” institutions drawn up by the Financial Stability Board.

Kraft looked around before accepting Heinz offer (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

Kraft Foods Group chairman and CEO John Cahill spent St. Patrick’s Day in Munich talking with two of the founding partners of 3G Capital about what a combined Kraft/​Heinz company might look like and how it could succeed.

That detail, among others, is disclosed in a recent regulatory filing describing negotiations that culminated March 25 with an announcement that two of the more historic names in the American food pantry would merge to form the new Kraft Heinz Co. as early as the second half of 2015.

The tale is of a determined suitor, Pittsburgh-based H.J. Heinz Co., pressing its case, even as the Northfield, Ill.-based company that had caught its eye moved quickly to assess its options while at the same time angling for a better offer.

Berkshire Hathaway buys group of small Oklahoma newspapers (WRAL)

Warren Buffett's company is adding a group of small Oklahoma newspapers near Tulsa to its growing group of more than two dozen small and medium-sized newspapers.

Berkshire Hathaway Media Group said Monday that it had acquired six weekly newspapers and the daily Tulsa Business and Legal News from Community Publishers Inc.

Berkshire Hathaway Still Looks Undervalued (Fool)

Every year, I value Berkshire Hathaway using the "two-column" approach (if you're not familiar with this approach, don't worry, I'll explain it). About a year ago, I found it to be at least 20% undervalued at $116 per B-share. Fast-forward to 2015, and the B-shares have advanced 22% to $142. So I figured it was time to sharpen up my pencil and reestimate the value.

My conclusion: The stock is just as undervalued, even at today's higher prices.

Bigger Than Buffett: 6 Advisors Who Matter More to Berkshire Hathaway's Future (Fool)

If you're picking from this list, it almost doesn't matter who the next CEO is. [...] One of the great and often overlooked byproducts of the way Berkshire operates is that it attracts and retains "world-leading" business leaders like the people discussed here. That's partly by design, as Buffett looks for great managers who will stay around when he acquires a company. But it's also a product of the culture itself, which draws executives who want to be part of something great while being given the autonomy to do great things.

Why Warren Buffett Is Destined for a Small Role in American History Books (Fool)

How will historians write about Warren Buffett 100 years from now? Will they treat him like the magnificent Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt? Or will the 84-year-old multibillionaire play a more muted role in history books, akin to the venerated Gilded Age stock operator Henry Clews? [...]

But unlike the great business moguls of America's past, Buffett didn't invent a product or process that will live on in perpetuity. Vanderbilt gave us steamship lines, the New York Central Railroad, and New York City's Grand Central Station. Carnegie industrialized steel, paving the way for skyscrapers and the Golden Gate Bridge. Ford popularized mass production and democratized the automobile. Even J. P. Morgan, while playing a similar role to Buffett's, put America's financial sector on the map by supplanting the Rothschilds and Baring brothers at the summit of global finance.

Up to 44,000 expected for Berkshire Hathaway shareholders weekend (Omaha World-Herald)

Between 42,000 and 44,000 shareholders are expected to celebrate Warren Buffett’s 50 years of managing Berkshire Hathaway Inc. when the company holds its annual meeting in Omaha on May 2. That’s 3,000 to 5,000 more than last year’s record of 39,000 attendees, Buffett’s office said Wednesday.

The estimate is based on an increase in the number of shareholder requests for meeting credentials this year. [...] Not all credentials are used at the meeting, but the requests are a gauge of expected attendance.

Berkshire Hathaway Travel Protection Honored For Best Travel Mobile App and Site in The 19th Annual Webby Awards (MarketWatch / BusinessWire)

Berkshire Hathaway Travel Protection, part of Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance, announced today that it has been honored for Best Mobile Travel App in the 19th Annual Webby Awards. Hailed as the “Internet’s highest honor” by The New York Times, The Webby Awards, presented by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences (IADAS), is the leading international award honoring excellence on the Internet. [...]

Berkshire Hathaway Travel Protection, made history last year with the introduction of AirCare™, the first-ever low-cost, fixed-benefit flight-protection coverage. The innovative product covers travelers from everyday mishaps such as missed connections, flight delays and lost/delayed baggage. The engine behind AirCare™ is a user-friendly mobile app that allows for ease of purchase and for simple and fast claims processing. Berkshire Hathaway Travel Protection is the only travel insurance provider to offer such an app.

National Indemnity moving to new space (Omaha World-Herald)

National Indemnity Co., Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s Omaha-based property insurance operation, is moving out of its home office at 3024 Harney St., its location since the building opened in 1950. The company also is leaving other space it occupies nearby.

Over the past year, affiliates of National Indemnity have moved to the Omaha World-Herald Building at 1314 Douglas St., occupying four floors with a total of 108,000 square feet of office space.

By the end of 2016, National Indemnity may move the rest of its operations to the 16-story World-Herald Building, occupying as many as nine floors in all. Those arrangements aren’t final, but the result would be an inter-company lease: The World-Herald Building also is owned by Berkshire.

If it seems like there are an unusual number of Motley Fool stories in here this week, it's because they're ramping up their annual coverage for the annual meeting. Check out and bookmark the Fool's Berkshire Hathaway 2015 coverage page.

Berkshire News Briefs - 4/3/15

Buffett: Tesla doesn't threaten me (CNBC)

Warren Buffett and Larry Van Tuyl appeared on CNBC this week, with lots to say about the auto business. Buffett went on to talk about a number of other topics (Kraft, the Euro, Iran, interest rates, etc.), far more than I could squeeze into this excerpt.

Warren Buffett's new auto dealership business isn't under any threat from Elon Musk or his Tesla distribution model, the billionaire said Tuesday. [...] Buffett said he did not anticipate much of a threat from the electric car company's direct-to-consumer model because of Tesla's relatively small market. [...] Buffett also dismissed the notion of an near-term takeover of self-driving cars, saying "I think it's a long way off and I don't think everybody will adopt it." The billionaire said that he would bet there is less than a 10 percent penetration rate for self-driving cars by 2030. He did admit, however, that "if it's a safer way of driving, it's good for society and it's bad for our insurance business." Buffett also revealed Tuesday that he has big plans for his newly acquired unit, and that it is already on the prowl for new deals. "I'd be very surprised if five years from now we aren't a whole lot bigger," he said.

Full transcript of the interview here.

Berkshire Hathaway Automotive targets growth, possibly abroad (Automotive News)

Another perspective on the news from a different source.

Its chairman, Larry Van Tuyl, and Berkshire Hathaway Inc. CEO Warren Buffett spoke today on CNBC’s “Power Lunch.” Van Tuyl said the company is interested in buying dealerships “in the U.S. primarily,” leaving open the option for some foreign investments. Van Tuyl went on to list what he is looking for in future acquisitions: “We look for throughput and volume, high-volume dealerships that are reasonably priced and owned by somebody who wants to put it in good hands.” The company wants to buy the real estate, too, where available, he added.

The mobile-home trap: How a Warren Buffett empire preys on the poor (Seattle Times)

But until informed recently by a reporter, they didn’t realize that the homebuilder (Golden West), the dealer (Oakwood Homes) and the lender (21st Mortgage) were all part of a single company: Clayton Homes, the nation’s biggest homebuilder, which is controlled by its second-richest man — Warren Buffett. Buffett’s mobile-home empire promises low-income Americans the dream of homeownership. But Clayton relies on predatory sales practices, exorbitant fees, and interest rates that can exceed 15 percent, trapping many buyers in loans they can’t afford and in homes that are almost impossible to sell or refinance, an investigation by The Seattle Times and Center for Public Integrity has found.

Berkshire Hathaway's media business buys two Virginia newspapers (Chicago Tribune)

Berkshire Hathaway Inc. has purchased two Virginia newspapers as the company run by billionaire Warren Buffett adds to its stable of publications. Berkshire's BH Media Group acquired a daily, the Martinsville Bulletin, and the tri-weekly Franklin News-Post from closely held Haskell Newspapers, according to a statement issued Tuesday. The papers have a combined circulation of 17,350. Terms weren't disclosed.

BNSF Slows Oil Trains Up to 30% to Boost Safety After Accidents (Bloomberg)

BNSF Railway Co. is cutting the speed of oil-carrying trains in some urban areas to as slow as 35 miles per hour, a 30 percent reduction, to improve safety following crude-by-rail accidents this month. BNSF, owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc., implemented the slower train speeds and measures to inspect tracks and rail cars more closely on March 25, Mike Trevino, a spokesman, said on Monday. The reduction trims the speed from the 40 mph (64 kilometers per hour) in high-risk areas that railroads, including BNSF, last year voluntarily installed in 46 urban areas. In some cases, the cut is from 50 mph for cities with populations of at least 100,000, the Fort Worth, Texas-based rail company said.

POSCO shares drop following media reports on Warren Buffet's stake sale (Korea Herald)

POSCO shares fell sharply on Wednesday following media reports that Berkshire Hathaway Inc., led by U.S. billionaire investor Warren Buffet, has sold its entire stake in the steelmaking giant, raising speculation that the sell-off might have been prompted by concerns over the South Korean steelmaker's cloudy business outlook. [...] The drop comes after Maeil Business Newspaper and other local media reports showed that Berkshire Hathaway unloaded 4.5 percent, or nearly 4 million shares, of POSCO during the second quarter of last year, citing an analysis by a global financial information provider.

Kraft Deal Boosts Buffett (Barrons)

The merger deal announced last week between Kraft Foods Group and H.J. Heinz is a good deal for Kraft shareholders, who will get a nice premium, but it’s a far better one for 3G Capital and Berkshire Hathaway, which took Heinz private nearly two years ago in a leveraged buyout. [...] By our calculation, 3G and Berkshire have more than tripled their original $8.5 billion equity investment in Heinz in less than two years, which amounts to a private-equity type score on a deal that originally looked like it was fully priced. Heinz was taken private at about 20 times forward earnings. We estimate that Berkshire and 3G are each sitting on more than $10 billion in profits from their investments in Heinz.

Regulator accuses Iowa governor of appeasing MidAmerican (Lincoln Journal Star / AP)

An outgoing member of the Iowa Utilities Board bluntly told Gov. Terry Branstad in a letter that his decision to remove her is improper and is being done to placate a powerful energy subsidiary of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway. Sheila Tipton told the governor in the March 18 letter that his move to replace her and demote board chair Elizabeth Jacobs is an inappropriate attempt to influence future decisions to favor utilities and "appease MidAmerican Energy." The company had complained about a ruling requiring the company to use some proceeds from a $280 million wind energy investment to reduce customers' rates.

Warren Buffett sees no weakness in economy, but too many 'are left behind' (Omaha World Herald)

Investor Warren Buffett says the economy continues to grow steadily, but too many people continue to miss out on the American dream. Buffett told CNN Thursday that he doesn't see any real sign of weakness in the economy. Buffett looks at reports from the more than 80 businesses his Berkshire Hathaway conglomerate owns for insight. But Buffett reiterated his concerns about income inequality in this country while the super-rich continue to thrive. He said that America should be able to do more to help people who are struggling do better.

Berkshire News Briefs - 2/10/15

Warren Buffett: Know when to hold ’em (CNBC / Financial Times)

"No one who steps into his shoes will have Mr Buffett's authority or credibility," says Larry Cunningham, the law professor and author, who has published an annotated anthology of the letters. "To the extent that he can provide texts, rules, principles, it will all be very helpful. It will fortify the successor." Such fortification may be necessary in an age where hedge fund activists are gaining traction with their demands that companies spin off divisions, halt investment, add debt to the balance sheet and return cash to share-holders — actions which are anathema to Mr Buffett. Close followers of the company say talk of breaking up Berkshire will remain just that: talk. [...]

Warren Buffett’s first interview of the year (Fox Business Video)

This video is 40 minutes. Here's a shorter version, with some text highights and excerpts:

Here's What We Learned in Warren Buffett's Sit-Down With FBN's Liz Claman (Fox News)

Fox Business Network's Liz Claman sat down this afternoon for an exclusive live interview with Warren Buffett, as he marks 50 years since he started Berkshire Hathaway. Here's a summary of what we learned from the "Oracle of Omaha"

Buffett: Buying in Western Europe, eyeing Russia (CNBC)

Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway's chief executive, said Wednesday his company will be buying a small business in Western Europe. "I'd love to buy big ones," he said. "I'd love to buy big ones." Buffett did not disclose the type of business Berkshire Hathaway is buying nor its exact location. He also added that while his company will be setting up shop in Western Europe in the near future, he is still monitoring the situation in Russia.

Warren Buffett faces pressure for more disclosure (Financial Times)

Free registration required, but FT is a worthwhile site to have an account on anyway.

Warren Buffett is under fire from investment analysts who cover his $370bn company, Berkshire Hathaway, over the quality of its financial disclosures. While Berkshire has grown to be the third-largest company on the US stock market, its quarterly filings reveal far less detail than companies of a similar size, according to the analysts, who all urged Mr Buffett to consider expanding disclosures, particularly about Berkshire’s large insurance businesses. Mr Buffett rejected the criticism, telling the Financial Times that Berkshire communicates “all the relevant factors for a long-term investment in the shares”.

Warren Buffett's media chief: Print newspapers have strong future if industry adapts (Irish Independent)

Journalists should prioritise their customers' desires rather than a particular platform, Terry Kroeger, president and chief executive of BH Media - a subsidiary of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway group - told a symposium on the future of local newspapers in Croke Park yesterday. Berkshire Hathaway has continued to expand its investment in newspapers despite continuing negativity about print journalism's future in the digital age. "The mistake that the consultants and prognosticators make is that they argue whether it's digital first or newspaper first. It's neither. The truth is the model that's most likely to work is customer first," Mr Kroeger said.

A company’s perspective on why wind energy matters (The Hill)

Good perspective on alternative energy written by a MidAmerican executive.

The largest economic development project in Iowa history isn’t by the real estate industry or even the ethanol industry. It’s by the wind industry. A Berkshire Hathaway company, MidAmerican Energy, is about halfway done with building up to $1.9 billion worth of wind farms in Iowa. We will be able to able to utilize wind resources in a manner that can represent the equivalent of about half the needs of our retail customers by 2016.

The S&P 500 Is Morphing Into the S&P 505 (Daily Finance)

I corrected this excerpt: it's Discovery Communications (DISCA/DISCK), not Discover Financial (DFS).

In the past, S&P has included only the class of shares that the general public could invest in. But last year, S&P decided to include both classes of shares for Google and [Discovery Communications]. [...] But it's not automatic that both classes of a company's stock will now be included in the index. In fact, 13 companies in the S&P 500 have multiple classes of stock, but only the five already named will have both included in the S&P 500. The biggest name that has two classes of stock but only one listed is Berkshire Hathaway, the giant conglomerate run by Warren Buffett. Silverblatt said Berkshire and the others do not meet liquidity and other criteria needed to include both classes of stock.

Warren Buffett adds to his lead in $1 million hedge-fund bet (Fortune)

Under the terms of the wager, Buffett is betting (with his own money, not Berkshire’s) on the stock market performance of an S&P 500 index fund while Protégé Partners, a New York money manager, is banking on five funds of hedge funds (the names of which have never been publicly disclosed) that Protégé carefully picked at the outset. Through the seven years, Vanguard’s 500 index fund, as represented by its Admiral shares, is up 63.5%. That’s the portfolio carrying Buffett’s colors. Protégé’s five hedge funds of funds are, on the average—the marker the bet uses—up an estimated 19.6%.

Warren Buffett’s Broker to Retire From Citigroup (WSJ MoneyBeat)

When Warren Buffett got a cell phone, the first call he made was to his stockbroker at Citigroup Inc. That broker, John Freund, still remembers the conversation. According to him, it was around the mid ’90s the famously low-tech Mr. Buffett called to say he wanted to try out his new phone. [...] That close relationship is the fruit of a decades-long partnership, where Mr. Freund has executed many of Mr. Buffett’s stock trades and been a confidant. Now, after more than 44 years at Citigroup or its predecessors, the Chicago-based managing director will retire in March.

Want to drive like a billionaire? Here's how (CNBC)

Described as a "once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," auction site Proxibid is offering the opportunity to own Warren Buffett's personal 2006 Cadillac DTS. Not only does the car boast only 20,310 miles, but it has a large autograph from the famed investor in "authentic sharpie." [...] The car is being auctioned by Girls Incorporated of Omaha, a charity that helps girls ages 5 though 18-years-old to be "strong, smart and bold." The proceeds of the auction will go to the organization.

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 - 9/20/14

Vilsack meets with Buffett on rail service issues (Des Moines Register)

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said Tuesday he met with Warren Buffett last week to press the billionaire investor to make sure his railroad, BNSF Railway, was ready for the expected record corn and soybean harvest this fall. The 45-minute meeting Friday comes as BNSF and Canadian Pacific Railway work to reduce a backlog of grain car deliveries that started last winter and spring. The delays were largely the result of a robust 2013 harvest, higher coal and oil volumes, and the extraordinarily long, cold winter that reduced the size and speed of trains that operated. [...] The White House, lawmakers and the Surface Transportation Board, which oversees the railroads, have said BNSF has taken meaningful strides to reduce its car backlog, while CP has been criticized for moving with less urgency and not being as transparent.

Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance plans to offer life sciences coverage (Boston Globe)

Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance, a Boston-based unit of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., said Thursday that it is expanding its underwriting capabilities to address the risks of the life sciences industry. In a press release, Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance, or BHSI, said that it is “targeting a range of life sciences product liability risks, including medical devices, nutraceuticals, generic pharmaceuticals, compounding pharmacies, and clinical trials.

Berkshire newspaper group buys remaining interest in N.J. publisher (Omaha World Herald)

BH Media Group, a division of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. of Omaha, has announced that it will acquire the remaining 50 percent interest of New Jersey publisher Catamaran Media Co. LLC. Catamaran publishes 12 weekly newspapers in Atlantic and Cape May Counties with a total weekly distribution of more than 93,000. With the purchase of the Press of Atlantic City in August 2013, BH Media Group acquired an initial half-interest in the chain.

Doubling Down on Pot: Buffett Sells Upper Deck, Room to Grow (Bloomberg)

Cubic Designs Inc., a unit of Berkshire’s MiTek business that makes platforms for maximizing usable floor space in warehouses, sent about 1,000 fliers to weed dispensaries in recent weeks, offering to help growers expand the number of plants they cultivate. [...] Cubic Designs spotted the opportunity after a few pot growers approached the firm about its platforms, or mezzanine systems, according to Shannon Salchert, the company’s marketing coordinator. Warehouse space has gotten tight in places like Denver, where growers are looking for facilities to cultivate their product. That demand has allowed landlords to raise prices. “We sold a few mezzanines into that market and decided internally, ‘Why don’t we do some marketing?’” Salchert said today in a phone interview.

Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Chairman Buffett Sees Small Business Saving Detroit (Insider Monkey)

Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Chairman Warren Buffett believes Detroit is on the road to recovery, and that small businesses will be the driving force paving the way. [...] Berkshire Hathaway Inc. has some direct involvement and vested interest in the bankruptcy proceedings, as Buffett’s bond insurance firm Berkshire Hathaway Assurance Corp. insured more than $380 million of Detroit’s secured sewer debt.

Buffett’s Salty Steak Draws Warning From Wells Fargo CEO (Bloomberg)

Wells Fargo & Co. Chief Executive Officer John Stumpf, telling the story of his first meal with Warren Buffett in Omaha, Nebraska, said the billionaire investor’s eating habits came as a shock. Stumpf, responding to a question about Buffett at the National Press Club in Washington today, said the world’s third-richest person dined on a T-bone steak cooked medium rare, a side of chicken parmigiana, mashed potatoes and a Cherry Coke. Buffett, 84, runs Berkshire Hathaway Inc., the largest shareholder in San Francisco-based Wells Fargo.

Warren Buffett: 'I'm Having More Fun At 84 Than I've Ever Had' (Business Insider)

In an interview on Bloomberg TV, Warren Buffett made clear he doesn't really want to leave his post at Berkshire Hathaway. Bloomberg's Erik Schatzker asked Buffett about his future at Berkshire Hathaway, and Buffett — who turned 84 on Aug. 30 — said, "I'm having more fun at my job at 84 than I've ever had."

Berkshire News Briefs - 11/8/13

Berkshire Hathaway Releases Scathing Response To Scripps’ Allegations (ValueWalk)

Berkshire Hathaway Inc. doesn’t usually respond to criticism, preferring to explain its decisions in the company’s famous annual shareholders letter, but it seems that Mark Greenblatt at Scripps News has hit a nerve. “Over a century ago, Mark Twain observed ‘Never pick a fight with people who buy ink by the barrel.’ We are about to ignore Twain’s sage advice,” the company wrote in a press release.

Here is the Berkshire Hathaway press release.

MiTek Acquires Cubic Designs, Inc. (Business Wire)

MiTek Industries, a Berkshire Hathaway company, and the world’s leading supplier of advanced engineered structural connector systems, equipment, software and services for the building components industry, announced today that it has acquired Cubic Designs, Inc. Cubic is the recognized leader in the design, prefabrication and installation of custom work platforms and structural mezzanine systems used in distribution, processing, manufacturing, aerospace, and other types of operating facilities.

BH Media CEO: No new newspaper deals in the works (Lynchburg News & Advance / AP)

The head of Warren Buffett’s newspaper subsidiary said Wednesday that the company is not working on any new newspaper deals despite its reported interest in possibly acquiring parts of Tribune Co. BH Media Group President and CEO Terry Kroeger said during the annual conference of Associated Press Media Editors in Indianapolis that he wishes the company had some new newspaper acquisitions in the works, but it does not.

Inside look at NetJets' $13M investment at PBIA (South Florida Business Journal Slideshow)

Berkshire Hathaway's private airline, NetJets, unveiled its $13 million facility at Palm Beach International Airport on Wednesday. NetJets partnered with Signature Flight Support Corp. to develop the 10,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art facility, which is located on the northwest corner of the West Palm Beach airport. PBIA is one of the airline's most popular domestic destinations, with more than 10,000 NetJets flights in and out of the airport annually.

Revisiting Berkshire Hathaway’s Acquisition of BNSF (Rational Walk)

Four years have passed since Berkshire Hathaway announced that it would acquire Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) in a cash and stock transaction. The acquisition was explicitly meant to be an “all-in wager on the economic future of the United States” according to Berkshire Hathaway Chairman Warren Buffett. In November 2009, the United States was starting to emerge from the most severe economic downturn since the Great Depression and purchasing a major railroad was a controversial move based on what appeared to be a relatively full valuation. Enough time has now passed to revisit the rationale behind the acquisition and to judge how the railroad has performed in the midst of a slow economic recovery.

1 More Reason Berkshire Hathaway's GEICO Is Destined To Be King (Fool Video)

The personal auto insurance market is one of the toughest spaces to compete in the broader insurance market. And with Berkshire Hathaway's GEICO division stealing the No. 2 spot from competitor Allstate in the past few weeks, it's become clear that the Gecko is doing something right. Though Allstate and Progressive have been promoting the new use-based insurance model, the new technology is still not standing up to GEICO's tried-and-true method.

Berkshire Hathaway GUARD Expands BOP Product to California (Insurance Journal)

Berkshire Hathaway GUARD Insurance Companies (formerly known as GUARD Insurance Group) has begun offering its business owners policy (BOP) and umbrella coverage in California. The company already has a presence in the state offering workers’ compensation with a premium total of about $100 million and is looking to provide a complement to this coverage, while continuing its focus on small- to medium-sized accounts. [...] Berkshire Hathaway GUARD first began writing other lines in Pennsylvania five years ago and has since launched a full complement of products under the name of BizGUARD Plus in 11 states. [...] In October of 2012, GUARD Insurance Group was acquired by National Indemnity Co., which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway. This fall, GUARD unveiled a new logo and identity as Berkshire Hathaway GUARD Insurance Companies.

Buffett's Purchase Of Prudential Realty Is A Good Sign For Real Estate (Seeking Alpha)

On October 30, 2012, Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) (BRK.B) made the investment community sit up and take notice with a move into a significant area of our economy. This time, he did it with a bold move into the real estate market with the purchase of local Prudential agencies by Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices. We are already noticing the new real estate for sale signs here in Naples, Florida. [...] Going national by using an established brand like Prudential shows that he is serious in his intention to make large gains in this area. [...] The "Berkshire" name will give the Prudential real estate agents increased credibility.

More Real Estate News

Prudential Real Estate agencies switched their names to Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices in Houston, Kansas City, Portland, and Allentown PA (which brought in Mario Andretti for a kick-off party). Many more brokerages have also joined Berkshire Hathaway in California, Michigan, Florida, Tennessee, and Colorado, with plans to switch names to the new brand in 2014. Like I said last week, there are so many of these little stories, I stopped linking to all of them and am now just summarizing.

Berkshire News Briefs - 7/21/13

The Press of Atlantic City to be purchased by Warren Buffett's BH Media Group (Press of Atlantic City)

The Press of Atlantic City will be sold to Warren Buffett’s BH Media Group by ABARTA, a private holding company based in Pittsburgh, Pa., interim Publisher James W. Hopson announced Thursday. [...] The Press of Atlantic City is a 67,000 daily and 77,000 Sunday circulation newspaper that serves Atlantic, Cape May, Cumberland and Ocean counties. The newspaper’s Web site, pressofAtlanticCity.com , reaches 700,000 unique visitors each month. The Bitzer/Taylor family, owners of ABARTA, has owned The Press since 1951.

The Not-So-Dirty Secret Behind Warren Buffett's Recent Buy (Fool)

Back in late May, MidAmerican Energy, a subsidiary of Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway, made a $5.59 billion offer to buy NV Energy. On the surface, this seems like the prototypical Warren Buffett kind of acquisition. If you dig deeper, though, there is one lesser known area that could make this purchase an even bigger win. [...] The biggest upside for the NV Energy lies not in its current customers or its generation capacity, but in the other market that it could serve: California.

Buffett’s Tulsa World Is Latest Berkshire Newspaper to Cut Staff (Bloomberg)

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc., acquirer of more than 25 daily newspapers in the last two years, is eliminating about 50 jobs at the Tulsa World in Oklahoma after making cuts at other publications. A dozen positions in the administrative, information technology and production departments were cut immediately, according to a report posted today on the newspaper’s website. The World announced other changes including the creation of distribution centers where carriers will pick up newspapers, eliminating transportation costs for the company.

Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices brand announces first 9 affiliates (Inman News)

Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices, the new HomeServices of America franchise brand, has announced the first nine Prudential Real Estate affiliates that will transition to the brand this fall. The nine firms joining Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices this fall represent about 20 percent of the roughly 50,000 agents currently affiliated with the Prudential brand. Under the terms of a 2011 sale of the Prudential Real Estate brand to Brookfield Asset Management, the brand is slated to fade away when the last rights expire to it in the late 2020s.

Berkshire Hathaway to End India Insurance-Distribution Deal (WSJ)

Two years after Berkshire Hathaway Inc. launched an online insurance-distribution business in India, it is stopping sales of the only products it had been dealing with in the country. [...] Berkshire had launched its India insurance venture, Berkshireinsurance.com, in March 2011, with a big splash by timing it with Chairman Warren Buffett's first visit to India. Berkshire didn't underwrite insurance, but sold mostly vehicle- and travel-insurance policies of Bajaj Allianz, via the website.

What's Behind Berkshire Hathaway Inc's Big DaVita Buy? (Minyanville)

Berkshire has been building a position in DaVita since the fourth quarter of 2011. The stage was set for Berkshire's latest big purchase, however, on July 1, when the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) unexpectedly announced a proposed rule to cut payments to large dialysis companies by as much as 12% starting in 2014. If approved, the move could close the doors of some smaller dialysis facilities. After the announcement, many DaVita shareholders headed for the exit. By July 2, its share price had dropped by 6% from the day earlier, and by about 13% from the yearly high reached in May. That day, Berkshire portfolio manager Ted Weschler, known for finding value in distressed companies, moved to buy another 639,400 shares of DaVita, boosting its stake to 14.8%, for a total transaction value of $73.37 million.

Warren Buffett sees 'betrayal' as hospital drains big endowment (CNBC)

Donald and Mildred Othmer made a lot of money investing with Warren Buffett. When they died, they wanted their Buffett profits to be given back to the community. They probably never imagined what would happen next. In what it calls a "cautionary tale for wealthy investors who hope their gifts will make a long-term impact," The Wall Street Journal reports on the destruction of a $135 million hospital endowment created less than 20 years ago by the Othmers. Buffett tells the Journal that if the donors were alive, "I would think...they would feel betrayed."

Special Section: Berkshire's Exposure to Detroit Bankruptcy

Buffett Insurer Wrap Firms Up Detroit Debt (Bond Buyer)

In the sea of junk-rated Detroit debt trading for 30 to 40 cents on the dollar, a small piece of the city’s defaulted pension certificates continue to see retail bids of nearly 90 cents on the dollar. The higher valued debt features an insurance pledge from Berkshire Hathaway Assurance Corp., the government bond insurer controlled by financier Warren Buffett. [...] Though Buffett has repeatedly expressed caution about insuring tax-exempt bonds, BHAC has about $400 million in exposure to Detroit’s tainted debt, most of which is sewer bonds. All the BHAC insurance is a wrap on top of an original guarantee from Financial Guaranty Insurance Co. BHAC’s secondary insurance gives additional comfort to investors and means BHAC would only have to pay if the issuer defaults and then the original insurer can’t meet the obligation — a scenario not too far off for Detroit creditors.

Detroit's bust could ripple back to Berkshire (Omaha World-Herald)

Detroit has filed for bankruptcy to reduce its debts, and Berkshire Hathaway Inc. of Omaha insures about $700 million worth of Detroit's sewer and water bonds. It's unclear whether the bankruptcy case would let Detroit default on the bonds or pay only part of what it owes, which could prompt the bond holders to file insurance claims against Berkshire. [...] The bonds insured by Berkshire are being repaid from sewer and water fees, not city taxes pledged to Detroit's “general obligation” bonds. Detroit is seeking to pay only a portion of its general obligation bond debt, along with other debts the city owes. Revenue bonds, such as the sewer and water bonds insured by Berkshire, generally are repaid as long as the revenue continues, and sewer and water fees generally are regarded as a steady source of money. That difference might be enough to prevent a claim against Berkshire.

Special bonds have better chance of being paid (Crain's Detroit Business)

While Detroit's bondholders will be hat-in-hand fighting for owed debt, holders of the city's special revenue bonds have a better prospect of payment through the Chapter 9 process. Detroit's special revenue bonds, including the $5.9 billion bond debt of the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department, are protected under Section 922 D of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. Payments on a special revenue bond are guaranteed solely from revenue generated from an entity -- such as the water department -- rather than from taxes, as is the case with other bonds. [...] But legal arguments will be raised and those payments will be attacked by other bondholders, said Timothy Wittebort, a partner at Howard & Howard Attorneys PLC in Royal Oak. Wittebort said Detroit's pensioners will argue that the Michigan Constitution protects their pensions and go after the revenue-generating assets.

Berkshire News Briefs - 5/30/13

Berkshire Hathaway’s MidAmerican expands Western footprint with $5.6 billion buy of NV Energy (Washington Post)

Berkshire Hathaway’s MidAmerican Energy utility said Wednesday that it will buy Nevada electric and natural gas company NV Energy Inc. for $5.6 billion as it expands its footprint in the energy sector. MidAmerican has been aggressively investing in renewable energy projects in recent years, and the companies expect that MidAmerican’s experience will help NV Energy develop renewable projects in Nevada, which has vast solar, wind and geothermal resources.

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway buys The Roanoke (Va.) Times for undisclosed price (Washington Post)

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway is adding The Roanoke (Va.) Times to its growing group of small and medium-sized newspapers. Berkshire said Thursday it will acquire The Times from Landmark Media Enterprises on Friday. It will be Berkshire’s 30th daily newspaper. Financial terms were not disclosed. Berkshire says The Roanoke Times has daily circulation of 76,000 and Sunday circulation of 90,000.

Newest director doesn't own Berkshire Hathaway shares (Omaha World Herald)

Meryl Witmer, an investment fund manager for Eagle Capital Partners in New York City, is the newest member of Berkshire's board of directors and, so far, the only one of its 13 members who doesn't own Berkshire shares. Shareholders elected Witmer on May 4 to the board of the Omaha-based conglomerate headed by Chairman and CEO Warren Buffett. She disclosed her non-ownership status in a filing this week with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The other 12 directors own Berkshire shares ranging from Buffett's $59 billion and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates' $10.2 billion to the $350,000 worth of stock owned by Susan Decker, former president of Yahoo, who joined the board in 2007.

H.J. Heinz Company Announces Receipt of Chinese Regulatory Approval Required for the Acquisition of Heinz by Berkshire Hathaway and 3G Capital (MarketWatch)

H.J. Heinz Company today announced that it has received regulatory approval from the Chinese Ministry of Commerce for the acquisition of Heinz by an investment consortium comprised of Berkshire Hathaway and an investment fund affiliated with 3G Capital. The transaction remains subject to certain customary closing conditions, including receipt of certain remaining regulatory approvals, and is now expected to close in early- to mid-June. Heinz has received antitrust clearance in the United States, Brazil, India, South Korea, Japan, Israel, Mexico, South Africa and Ukraine, and other regulatory approvals in Russia, New Zealand and Ireland. The Company is waiting for antitrust clearance in the European Union and Russia.

Will 3G Capital make massive changes at Heinz? (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

Knowledge that the new owners -- a partnership between 3G Capital and Berkshire Hathaway -- will put every expense and every product under a microscope has the 1,200 Heinz employees in the Pittsburgh region polishing their resumes, networking with professional contacts and keeping their options open. "If this was only Berkshire Hathaway, I would say Heinz is going to be Heinz," said University of Pittsburgh business school professor Jay Sukits. "The wild card here, to me, is 3G." Berkshire Hathaway chairman Warren Buffett is known for buying and holding well-run companies such as Heinz. But 3G Capital could have a shorter-term view. The New York private equity firm has earned a reputation for aggressively and quickly cutting costs at companies it acquires [...]

Buffett's Berkshire Thinks This Bankruptcy Deal Stinks (Fool)

Residential Capital is moving rapidly toward exiting bankruptcy -- and Warren Buffett is not pleased. [...] This stake in ResCap's debt makes Buffett a major player in ResCap's bankruptcy proceedings. It gives Buffett a voice in agreeing to (or refusing) settlement negotiations to resolve creditor claims against ResCap, and it could result in an equity stake in the company if it exits bankruptcy -- and that's where things get complicated. [...] Buffett and Berkshire are right to push for full transparency in these bankruptcy proceedings, so that all interested players know what they're being asked to give up -- not just what Ally is offering to give them.

What Brooks Has Learned Working With Buffett (Fool Video)

Berkshire Hathaway subsidiary Brooks Sports is drawing quite a bit of attention from Buffett devotees these days. The running shoe maker has sprinted to 34% volume growth in both 2011 and 2012, with U.S. sales growth hitting the tape at 43% by the end of last year. Our roving reporter Rex Moore caught up with Brooks CEO Jim Weber at the recent Berkshire shareholder meeting in Omaha. In this segment of a multipart series, Jim says working under the Berkshire umbrella has taught him a lot about the power of the brand.

Berkshire Hathaway unit buys another Louisville realty firm (Louisville Business First)

HomeServices of Kentucky Inc., which owns Louisville-based Semonin Realtors, has agreed to purchase Louisville real estate firm Wakefield Reutlinger Realtors. The purchase is expected to become effective June 1. HomeServices of Kentucky is a wholly owned subsidiary of HomeServices of America Inc., a Berkshire Hathaway affiliate.

Berkshire’s Weschler Holds Almost $150 Million of DaVita (Bloomberg)

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc., the largest shareholder in DaVita (DVA) HealthCare Partners Inc., said deputy stock picker Ted Weschler has a personal holding in the dialysis provider valued at almost $150 million. Weschler has 1.19 million shares, or about 1.1 percent, of the Denver-based company, according to a regulatory filing yesterday. The holding was amassed before he joined Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire, according to the document. [...] Berkshire has a stake of 14 percent. The filing yesterday outlines an agreement by Weschler, 52, and Berkshire about the separation of their holdings.

Berkshire Hathaway Acquires 5% Stake In Starz (ValueWalk)

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. recently submitted a 13G filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which showed that the conglomerate acquired 5.03 percent stake or 5,622,340 shares of Starz. Formerly known as Liberty Media Corp, Starz is a global media and entertainment company. Its offers premium subscription video programming services through its flagship pay TV networks, Starz and Encore to various channels video distributors such as cable operators, satellite television providers, and telecommunications companies. Starz and Encore have 21.6 and 35.1 subscribers respectively as of March 31, 2013. [...] The regulatory filing of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. revealed that its investment manager, Ted Weschler owns 285,834 shares of Starz.

Berkshire Sues NeighborCity.com in IP Dispute (Technorati)

Berkshire Hathaway has filed a lawsuit against NeighborCity.com, a real estate listing portal, despite the fact that the Warren Buffet’s company is a licensee of the latter. Berkshire is accusing the San Francisco-based company of copyright infringement when it allegedly reproduced, displayed, and distributed protected content such as photographs without any authorization from Berkshire’s listing services. The disagreement between the two companies shows how intellectual property (IP) rights can be used as a competitive tool in ecommerce and Internet-based lead generation and transactions.

Warren Buffett Lunch Auction To Kick Off June 2 (HuffPost)

Warren Buffett has already helped raise nearly $15 million over the years for a San Francisco homeless charity, and the group hopes someone will again be willing to pay more than $2 million for a private lunch with the Omaha, Neb., investor. [...] Bidding for the lunch on eBay will begin at $25,000 on the evening of June 2 and continue through June 7.