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. [...]
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. [...]
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.
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. [...]
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. [...]
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. [...]
Rick Guerin, an early partner of Buffett and Munger's, realized Blue Chip shares were quite attractive (at this time, the market cap was approximately $40 million). It is worth noting Blue Chip Stamps was already in decline by the late 1960s. From 1970 to 1980, revenues would decline by more than 85%. [...] Despite the significant drop-off in revenues mentioned above, float only declined by around 30% (cumulatively) from 1970 to 1980. Pabrai estimates the “permanent float” at Blue Chip was somewhere around $60 million.
But the float was of limited value in the wrong hands. Buffett, Guerin and Munger thought it was being mismanaged. One way to effect change was to effectively take control of the company: between 1967 and 1970, they invested $24 million in Blue Chip – good for 60% ownership [...]
Now they had roughly $60 million to work with. In 1972, they took $25 million and bought 99% of See’s Candies. In 1973, they took another $25 million and bought 80% of Wesco Financial. Finally, in 1977, they took another $35.5 million and bought the Buffalo Evening News (with roughly 70% of the purchase price funded with the retained earnings from See’s Candies). [...]
From California to the Midwest, billionaire investor Warren Buffett is steadily building an energy powerhouse.
Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Energy subsidiary has gobbled up utilities and natural gas pipelines and tapped into clean energy production, including from Southern California’s abundant geothermal resources. [...]
Berkshire Hathaway appears to be doing all it can to counter a purported death spiral of economic harm that power companies face because of growing energy efficiency regulations, consumers generating their own power with rooftop solar panels and the advent of electricity storage options in homeowners’ garages. [...]
Berkshire Hathaway Inc., the firm run by billionaire investor Warren Buffett, is in talks to buy a stake in Latin America’s biggest reinsurer, IRB Brasil Resseguros SA, after an initial public offering of stock, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter.
No deal is likely to be completed before July 27, IRB’s IPO pricing date, the people said, asking not to be named because the discussions are private. The acquisition could be made through Berkshire’s General Re unit, they said. JPMorgan Chase & Co. is advising Rio de Janeiro-based IRB, according to the people. [...]
Home Capital Group, the Toronto-based alternative mortgage lender that was on the verge of collapse earlier this year, says it has repaid a $2-billion line of credit from Berkshire Hathaway.
The company was given the financial lifeline last month by Berkshire Hathaway, which is headed by Warren Buffett, as it was trying to regain investor confidence following a run on deposits from customers.
When it provided the line of credit, Berkshire Hathaway also bought a $400 million stake in Home Capital. [...]
Berkshire Hathaway’s Clayton Homes division, known for its factory-built houses, is expanding into the site-built, $250,000-and-under housing market.
Since October 2015 Clayton has acquired homebuilders in Atlanta; Nashville, Tennessee; Kansas City; Denver; and, earlier this month, Birmingham, Alabama, and is building homes on-site at a rate of 2,500 to 3,000 a year.
Clayton isn’t choosing cities and then looking for homebuilders to buy [...] the idea is to identify builders with the right management and culture, and then check out their growth potential. The acquired builders keep their managements and names.
Walsh said Berkshire’s financial strength and Clayton’s buying power — imagine the lumber needed for 45,000 factory-built homes each year — are advantages that can give the acquired companies an edge over the competition. [...]
While Elliott Management Corp. tries to cobble together enough money to beat Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s $9 billion bid to buy one of America’s largest transmission operators, it has another problem to deal with: the state of Texas.
The New York hedge fund run by billionaire Paul Singer is trying to convince Texas stakeholders that its deal to buy their biggest power distributor, Oncor Electric Delivery Co., will be superior to Berkshire’s. [...]
Duracell has filed a notice with labor officials that it will close a South Carolina battery plant sooner than projected.
The shutdown of the Lancaster factory was announced one year ago, a few months after the company after being acquired by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway conglomerate. [...]
The Lancaster factory manufactures AA batteries. Duracell is consolidating North American production of those to LaGrange, Ga. [...]
In 2006, Warren Buffett famously pledged to give away most of his Berkshire Hathaway stock, saying that the bulk of those holdings would go to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the rest to the four foundations controlled by his three children.
Since then, Buffett has given away 40 percent of the Berkshire Hathaway shares that he held in 2006, gifts worth about $27 billion. Buffett’s annual gifts to the five foundations, announced this week, were worth a record-breaking $3.17 billion. [...]
[...] while many people are under the impression that all of Buffett’s fortune is earmarked for the Gates Foundation, the gifts to his children’s foundations have turned out to be enormous in their own right—and are bankrolling a wide array of grantmaking both in the United States and abroad. This year, according to Forbes, Buffett sent around $2.4 billion worth of stock to the Gates Foundation. The other $800 million or so went to the family foundations—the Susan Thompson Buffett, Sherwood, Novo, and Howard Buffett foundations. [...]
Also, a story about a different Buffett's charity work:
[...] Nevertheless, the Howard G. Buffett Foundation has given or pledged $55.1 million in the city and surrounding Macon County over the past two decades to help stanch the area's hemorrhaging population. Dozens of grants, including those paying for a new lakefront amphitheater and a law enforcement training facility, aim to help make the area a better place to live.
"The bottom line is, what can you do to make a community more attractive to younger people, and how do you make it attractive so the people that are here stay here?" Buffett said. "A lot of our contributions, if you cut down to the bottom of it, that's what they do." [...]
[...] Berkshire has warrants to buy 700 million common shares of Bank of America at $7.14 each, or about $5 billion. And Bank of America just did what Berkshire was waiting for: after passing the second of two annual stress tests by the Federal Reserve, it got the go-ahead to hike its annual dividend to 48 cents a share, or 12 cents a quarter, a 60 percent increase.
That is enough for Berkshire to consider exercising those warrants rather than waiting until just before their expiration in 2021. At Bank of America's current share price, the stake would hand Berkshire a tidy $11.7 billion profit, at least on paper. [...]
Berkshire Hathaway has tentatively agreed with regulators and customer advocates to wall off Dallas-based utility Oncor from risks and debts of its parent company, a step that could help the conglomerate win approval for the $9 billion deal to acquire the largest utility in Texas and Oncor's bankrupt parent.
The move is aimed at protecting ratepayers from incurring costs not related to the distribution of electricity and ensuring that Oncor has the resources to maintain its transmission lines and the reliability of the system. Such concerns led the state Public Utility Commission to reject two earlier bids to buy Oncor and its parent, Energy Future Holdings, out of bankruptcy.
Late Thursday, Berkshire Hathaway Energy, a subsidiary of billionaire investor Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, said it would pay $9 billion to acquire Energy Future Holdings and Oncor, which provides electricity to 10 million Texans. Oncor owns and operates the grid for most of North Texas. Energy Future Holdings has been in bankruptcy for three years as it has worked to restructure its $40 billion debt.
Berkshire said it values Oncor at $11.25 billion. Another group may bid for Oncor, Bloomberg News reported Friday, citing unnamed sources. [...]
Clayton Properties Group buys Oakwood Homes in a deal that closed Monday, July 3.
Oakwood is Clayton's 4th acquisition of a site-build home building operator, and the largest by far, of the deals, as well as the first one outside the Southeast region. [...]
Oakwood owns 3,000 to 4,000 lots, but has control of 18,000, which allows for continued accelerated growth with the capital access the Clayton deal will provide.
In Oakwood, and with Pat Hamill and his team continuing to run and grow the company, Clayton sees a strong cultural fit as well as a company that can help it on its strategic mission to expand its buyer universe with a price-range sweet spot between its $150,000 top price for its manufactured homes, and prevailing entry-level single-family price points, which tend to exceed $225,000. [...]
Clayton Properties Group will announce today the purchase of home building operator, Birmingham, Ala.-based Harris Doyle Homes.
The Clayton acquisition is the fifth site-build company added to the nation's largest manufactured home builder, whose market share is 50% of the category, which accounts for seven in 10 homes priced below $150,000.
Clayton's Harris Doyle announcement follows last week's closing of a deal to purchase Oakwood Homes, the Colorado-Utah home builder known as one of the most technologically progressed large enterprises. [...]
Sprint Corp. Chairman Masayoshi Son has engaged Warren Buffett and cable mogul John Malone in discussions about participating in a deal with the wireless company, people familiar with the situation say.
The Japanese billionaire met separately with the Berkshire Hathaway Inc. boss and Mr. Malone, whose Liberty Broadband Corp. is one of Charter Communications Inc.'s biggest investors, this week at an annual gathering of CEOs in Sun Valley, Idaho, the people said.
The contours of the deal the parties are discussing are unclear. The talks are at an early stage and may not result in an agreement, the people said, but one possibility would see Berkshire put more than $10 billion into a transaction. [...]
Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway is now the largest single shareholder of Bank of America — but that’s not the only piece of Wall Street he owns.
Buffett, 86, is also the biggest shareholder of Wells Fargo, with a little under 10 percent of the San Francisco bank, and US Bancorp, a Minneapolis bank that’s among the largest in the country.
In addition to those holdings, he’s also the seventh biggest owner of Goldman Sachs and Bank of New York Mellon — and the eighth largest shareholder of M&T Bank, a Buffalo bank with $16.5 billion in assets. [...]
The Berkshire Hathaway Annual Shareholders Meeting is this Saturday in Omaha. Once again this year, Yahoo Finance will live stream the meeting. It all starts Saturday, May 6, 2017 at 10am EST (9am for the people in Omaha).
[...] in the last two weeks, subsidiaries of Berkshire Hathaway have bought more than a quarter billion dollars in shares of Liberty Media (LSXMA, LSXMK) that track Sirius XM Holdings (SIRI).
On April 19, Berkshire disclosed that it was a 10% holder of Liberty SiriusXM : 10.7 million series A shares and 23.4 million series C shares.
Since then, Berkshire has only hauled in more shares. From April 20 through 24, its subsidiaries have bought 2,470,117 more series A shares for $98.7 million and 3,875,011 more series C shares for $155 million. [...]
Buffett, who owned about 81 million shares of IBM at the end of 2016, sold off about a third of that stake in the first and second quarters of 2017, he told CNBC.
"I don't value IBM the same way that I did 6 years ago when I started buying... I've revalued it somewhat downward," Buffett told CNBC. "When it got above $180 we actually sold a reasonable amount of stock."
Buffett said IBM hadn't performed the way he had expected -- or the way IBM's management had expected -- when he first started buying the shares six years ago. [...]
Duracell, a unit of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc, on Thursday filed a lawsuit accusing a Missouri wholesaler of illegally selling gray market versions of its copper-top alkaline batteries.
According to a complaint filed in federal court in Chicago, JRS Ventures Inc is importing and selling batteries made in China that were intended for sale only to Duracell's original equipment manufacturers, to be packaged with products such as appliances and remote controls.
Duracell, which long used the tagline "no regular battery looks like it or lasts like it," said JRS's batteries do look like its own but come in packaging that does not mention Duracell's 10-year guarantee or how to obtain customer service. [...]
[...] And yet, See’s isn’t super well-known outside of the West Coast. Its dual headquarters are in Los Angeles and San Francisco, and the lion’s share of its 250 stores are in California.
Back in 2012, See’s mapped out a plan to change that. CEO Brad Kinstler, a former insurance CEO tapped by Buffett to run See’s in 2005 (and still there today), formed an ambitious expansion plan. The aim was to open new See’s stores in Florida, Georgia, Maryland, and Washington, DC.
That didn’t happen; there still aren’t See’s stores in any of those places. The expansion of See’s to the East Coast fizzled. The reason? The broader demise of brick-and-mortar retail.
“Our hope was to develop more markets to the East,” Kinstler now tells Yahoo Finance. “But the brick-and-mortar and the indoor mall environment has changed the view we have on the potential to add new trade areas. Foot traffic in these more traditional settings is an impediment to new trade area success.” [...]
See’s did open its first ever New York store in January of this year, in Manhattan’s West Village. But it is a licensee shop, not owned or operated by See’s. [...]
Clayton, a Berkshire Hathaway home building company, is constructing a $14 million training lodge at its corporate headquarters in Maryville.
The three-story, log cabin-style lodge will replace the old lodge currently on the company's campus. [...]
Clayton is working with a Dayton nonprofit called Blazing Hope Ranch to re-purpose some of its old structures. The organization aids survivors of human trafficking and will use some of the old buildings on the lodge site to house survivors. [...]
Looks like the Omaha World Herald hasn't learned how to properly turn articles like this into a 20 page slideshow to maximize ad revenue and social media sharing. Here's the first 5 on the list. #14 will make you squeal!
1. Keep it dry: Automatic sump pumps from Wayne Water Systems
2. Lift it: Truck-mounted telescoping cranes from Stahl
3. Warm it: Heating & AC ductwork from Snappy Co.
4. Brighten it: LED lighting from TTI Inc.
5. Wire it: 90-degree conduit pull elbow from Halex
In the first detailed explanation of Berkshire’s investment thesis for Apple, Weschler says that the smartphone business had been transformed by the app economy and cloud computing. "As network speed has gotten faster and faster, and with it the information that people can absorb on the network, things like photo applications, and apps, they create a stickier ecosystem". Statistics showed that there was a high likelihood iPhone or iPad buyers would also purchase their next device from Apple, he added: "Once you are fully invested in the App ecosystem and you have got your thousands of photographs up in the cloud and you are used to the keystrokes and functionality and where everything is, you become a sticky consumer." [...]
Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway closed the third quarter with $84.8 billion in cash, a gain of some $13 billion during the course of 2016.
Buffett over the years has not been shy about using the cash spit off from his vast array of holdings to buy companies, such as his most recent acquiree, Precision Castparts. Even excluding the $20 billion he has said he likes to keep as a cushion, Buffett has plenty of firepower to deploy. [...]
Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. has bought the assets of the Kansas City area’s largest home builder, Summit Custom Homes, the companies announced.
The deal involved Berkshire’s Tennessee-based Clayton Properties. It has been buying other home builders, beginning its own operations with the purchase of an Atlanta business last fall. Clayton has sold 500 homes in its first year.
Clayton Properties bought the operating assets of Summit Custom Homes, which is based in Lee’s Summit. The announcement, which did not disclose terms of the sale, said it included about 1,200 lots in the Kansas City area. [...]
Shaw Industries Group Inc., the world's biggest carpet maker, is taking a harder approach to floorcovering with the purchase of the leading producer of the increasingly popular wood-plastic composite flooring.
The Dalton, Ga.-based Shaw announced Tuesday it has reached a definitive agreement to purchase USFloors, also based in Dalton, for an undisclosed amount. Started in 2001 by Piet Dossche — the brother-in-law of Beaulieu of America co-founder Carl Bouckart — USFloors helped develop the waterproof, wood-like vinyl flooring, as well as cork, bamboo and hardwood products. [...]
Richline Group Inc., a jewelry manufacturer and marketer owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc., agreed to buy designs, a brand name and inventory from Silpada Designs as part of a push into sterling-silver products.
Silpada was started by stay-at-home moms and grew into “the world’s largest home party seller of sterling silver jewelry,” Richline said Friday in a statement. Terms weren’t disclosed. [...]
Miller’s nonprofit is one of dozens of employers -- from a bike-courier service in Manhattan to a linen-supply company in Sacramento -- that have sued Applied for deceptive practices. The businesses allege the insurer peddled products regulators hadn’t approved. They complain about being surprised by large bills based on formulas that stacked the deck in the insurer’s favor. California, Vermont and Wisconsin have banned some Applied plans. [...]
As courts weigh these quarrels, this much is clear: It’s a lot of hot water for one of Buffett’s companies. The billionaire, who didn’t respond to requests for comment, tells Berkshire managers that “there’s plenty of money to be made in the center of the court.” In other words, no need to get close to the line, legally or ethically, to make some extra bucks. [...]
Warren Buffett watchers know that the reinsurance business has been an important ingredient in his winning formula. Companies like his Berkshire Hathaway sell coverage to other insurance companies for natural disasters and other big events. In return, the reinsurance sellers collect lots of premiums, which they can invest while waiting to pay claims. Buffett has credited this “float” with helping to build one of the world’s great fortunes.
But the business isn’t what it used be. Buffett sold stakes in the world’s two largest reinsurers—Swiss Re and Munich Re—last year, saying their prospects look worse in the next decade than they did in the last. And he put a new leadership team in at Berkshire’s own Gen Re unit to try to reverse more than a decade of shrinking float. [...]
When asked by Rubenstein if he receives calls from people every day, hoping to pitch him the “perfect” deal, Buffett said his phone rings less than expected because Berkshire has a clear-cut criteria.
“When somebody calls, I can usually tell within two or three minutes whether a deal is likely to happen or not,” Buffett told Rubenstein. “There’s just half-a-dozen filters,” he said, gesturing toward his head. “And it either makes through the filters or not.” [...]
Omaha native Stanford Lipsey, who led newspapers owned by Warren Buffett to Pulitzer Prizes in Omaha and Buffalo, New York, died Tuesday morning at his home in Rancho Mirage, California. [...]
In 1969 he sold the Sun to Berkshire Hathaway Inc., headed by Buffett, beginning a nearly 50-year relationship between the two men.
When Berkshire’s Blue Chip Stamps division bought the Buffalo Evening News in 1977, Buffett sent Lipsey to Buffalo, eventually making him publisher. [...]
Recently, utility MidAmerican Energy, owned by Berkshire Hathaway, blew away renewable energy investors with a surprising announcement: It plans to invest $3.6 billion in wind energy by 2020. This is one of the largest wind energy investments ever made and is a calculated decision on the part of Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway, and MidAmerican Energy. [...]
A subsidiary of billionaire investor Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway has acquired Gallatin-based Goodall Homes, continuing its expansion into detached single-family and other traditional homes.
The nation's largest manufactured house maker, Clayton Homes of Maryville, Tenn., didn't disclose the price it paid for Middle Tennessee's second-largest homebuilder.
Goodall Homes will become part of Clayton Properties, the site-building group through which Clayton Homes is expanding its portfolio of housing options to homebuyers. Last fall, Clayton Homes bought Atlanta area-based homebuilder Chafin Communities as part of that push. [...]
Berkshire Hathaway Inc on Friday said it recently learned that one of its foreign units made sales through a third-party distributor to customers in Iran, despite US sanctions against that country.
In its quarterly report filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire said it alerted federal authorities including the Department of the Treasury on Friday about the transactions in question. [...]
Gemvara announced Wednesday it has been acquired by Richline Group, a Berkshire Hathaway ($BRK.A) subsidiary that specializes in jewelry marketing, manufacturing and distribution. The acquisition will take Gemvara back to its early roots, providing e-commerce and in-store digital tech for Richline's brands and its customers, which include companies both inside and outside the Berkshire Hathaway umbrella. [...]
"There was a period of time where the dealers didn't trust us because there was talk of us going into the big boxes. For the independent dealer, that would have been a broken promise by Warren Buffett," Searles said, adding that the promise was never broken. "Warren is very particular about promises he makes...All we have done is listen more closely to our customers. We have the best products in the world." [...]
Six energy companies Friday officially launched Grid Assurance, an independent company providing transmission sparing solutions for critical electric transmission equipment. [...]
Grid Assurance was founded by affiliates of American Electric Power, Berkshire Hathaway Energy, Duke Energy, Edison International, Eversource Energy and Great Plains Energy to enhance grid resiliency and give electric transmission owners faster access to long-lead time critical equipment necessary to recover from catastrophic events that could impact the nation's electric grid. [...]
Last week marked a year since Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance received its licence to sell general insurance products in Australia. [...]
According to Donaldson, so far, BHSI has had an overwhelmingly positive response from customers, brokers and (now) new team members their entry to the Australia market. [...]
A part of Warren Buffett’s empire is behind the planned transformation of a nearly 500-acre tract that includes high-profile Boys Town farmland near 144th Street and West Dodge Road.
Applied Underwriters Inc., acquired a decade ago by Omaha-based Berkshire Hathaway, is finalizing a contract to buy the undeveloped land from Boys Town and the DeMarco family, Omaha developer Jay Noddle told The World-Herald.
On a piece of the vast farm area, Applied Underwriters intends to build a new hub for its local workforce of between 650 and 700. The rest is to become more offices, shops, housing, restaurants, hotel rooms, public space and more. [...]
The shoe, known as the Berkshire Hathaway Transcend 3, has a limited run with only 4,080 pairs being sold (evenly distributed among the genders). It will be sold at the 2016 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder’s Meeting, as well as on Brooks’ website and some national retailers. The Transcend 3 retails for $170, slightly above the prices most premium running shoes command.
The Transcend 3 is part of a broader push by Brooks, which aspires to become a $1 billion brand, to sell shoes designed for big events. [...]
Ajit Jain, long considered a top candidate to replace billionaire Warren Buffett as chief executive officer of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., is expanding his oversight of the company’s insurance operations.
Gen Re, one of the major reinsurance businesses at Berkshire, said Tuesday that CEO Tad Montross, 60, will step down by the end of this year. His replacement hasn’t been named, but will report to Jain, said Sabine Denne, a spokeswoman for the reinsurer.
Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s energy unit has been courting three dozen power transmission operators in the western U.S. to join its utilities and the California grid in trading power across their borders electronically and instantaneously. This means traders wouldn’t need to pick up the phone or send e-mails each hour to schedule the purchase and sale of renewables while hoping the sun and wind hold out until the next hour.
This so-called Energy Imbalance Market is the equivalent of creating a “Match.com for electrons,” Jonathan Weisgall, vice president of government relations at Berkshire Hathaway Energy, said [...]
Maryville-based Clayton Homes has acquired manufactured-home builder River Birch Homes of Hackleburg, Ala.
In a release, Clayton Homes said the purchase includes all operating assets of River Birch Homes, and is effective immediately.
River Birch, which makes single- and multi-section homes and markets them in nine states throughout the Southeast, has nearly 240 employees in the Hackleburg area, in northwest Alabama.
The company was started in 1997 by owners Delmo Payne and Gerald Terrell.
Texas-based Acme Brick Co. will officially shut its Minnesota operations for good later this year, a move that will affect 19 employees.
The company will keep its Edina sales office open to serve customer orders through Sept. 30. Its Great Lakes Plant in Springfield, Minn., which stopped producing bricks in 2014, will not restart production as expected. Instead it will sell its remaining inventory at the Edina facility and through select distributors.
Acme acquired the Great Lakes Plant in January 2008. It was Minnesota’s last operating brick plant and was formerly part of Ochs Brick Co. [...]
Insurance officials still are investigating the cause of a fire that caused an estimated $1.4 million in damage in Nebraska Furniture Mart’s flooring warehouse Sunday.
The flooring center remained closed Monday, but the retailer is operating normally otherwise.
The fire involved boxes of laminate flooring and as a result was quite smoky, retired Furniture Mart executive Bob Batt said. [...]
Lubrizol Corp. is expanding its health care product offerings and investing $15 million in the effort, the Wickliffe-based company announced at the Medical Design and Manufacturing West trade show and conference in Anaheim.
Expanding Lubrizol LifeSciences offerings has in part been made possible with the recent acquisition of Vesta Inc. and Particle Sciences, whose capabilities are turning the company’s health-care business into the “polymer-based drug delivery company” of the future, company reps said [...]
Calhoun-based Mohawk Industries, the world's largest flooring maker, and Dalton-based Shaw Industries, the world's largest carpet maker, are two the best industrial manufacturers in the country to work for, according to the latest Forbes' "America's Best Employers of 2016" list. [...]
Shaw ranked 282 overall [out of 30,000], and number 18 in the engineering/manufacturing category. [...]
Shaw is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway, Inc., with more than $4.8 billion in sales and more than 22,000 employees.
Chinese business aircraft manager Business Aviation Asia will take a 25% stake in the China unit of fractional ownership firm NetJets. [...]
NetJets China is a joint venture between the US-based fractional ownership giant and a consortium of Chinese investors, led by private equity firm Hony Capital and Fung Investments. It operates two aircraft on a charter basis in the mainland. [...]
Initial bids for Westar Energy are due this week, according to Bloomberg, and the company has reportedly been courted by a wide range of potential investors, from Canadian investment companies to rival utility Ameren.
Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway has also been named as a potential suitor, with the Hillsboro Free Press reporting it is not the first time the billionaire investor has considered acquiring the utility. [...]
Brooks Running is rolling out some unique-looking running shoes in conjunction with some of the most popular marathons.
Top running brands are getting ready for the upcoming Boston Marathon, prepping sneakers for the celebrated race. One such brand is Brooks, with a reimagined iteration of its Adrenaline GTS 16, hitting stores in April. The Brooks “Nantucket” Adrenaline GTS 16 is scheduled to hit stores Friday and retail for $130.
Yefei Lu, a portfolio manager for Shareholder Value Management of Frankfurt, Germany, analyzes 20 of Berkshire’s investments, from the Sanborn Map Co. in 1958 to IBM in 2011, in a forthcoming book, “Inside the Investments of Warren Buffett” [...]
In a final chapter titled “What We Can Learn From Buffett,” Lu says Buffett, chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., seeks “an abundance of relevant objective data for the companies in question.”
U.S. lawmakers called for federal investigations into Clayton Homes, the mobile-home business at Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc., after the Seattle Times and BuzzFeed News wrote that the company targeted minority borrowers and charged them higher interest rates on average than whites. [...]
Clayton has always been an interesting case in the manufactured homes business because it has managed to survive and thrive while competitors have gone into bankruptcy. The three largest manufactured housing companies at the turn of the 21st century all went bankrupt in the decade that followed. [...]
Clayton Homes isn't exactly a needle-moving company for the Omaha-based conglomerate. Last year, Clayton generated $558 million in pre-tax profits, a mere fraction of Berkshire's pre-tax earnings of $28.1 billion for the full year. Clayton is a headline risk, and not much more.
Warren Buffett’s Nebraska-based Berkshire Hathaway Inc. has upped its stake in Houston-based Phillips 66, even as oil prices keep hitting new lows.
The Associated Press reports that Berkshire recently bought an additional 759,295 shares of Phillips 66. That brings Berkshire’s stake to 62.3 million shares, or about 12 percent of the oil refiner's stock, according to the AP. [...]
Berkshire is large and diversified, but three components of the business really move the needle. The performance of its insurance units, the BNSF railroad, and the stock portfolio and put options overshadows virtually everything else.
With that in mind, here are a few particular issues underlying the three major drivers of Berkshire's bottom line. [...]
SolarCity Corp. plans to eliminate more than 550 jobs in Nevada, most of its employees in the state, after regulators approved new utility fees on solar rooftops. [...]
NV Energy, a unit of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. that owns Nevada's two biggest utilities, had sought the changes to recoup money that it says solar customers aren't paying for grid operations. The company's monthly fee for solar customers has jumped 40 percent to $17.90.
Illinois county officials have approved Berkshire Hathaway’s 215MW Walnut Ridge wind farm, overruling the local zoning board of appeals that had rejected the proposal. The Bureau County Board this week voted to grant conditional use permits for 118 turbines. Nine applications were denied because they were too close to two landing strips.
Walnut Ridge is owned by BHE Renewables, a wholly owned subsidiary of Iowa-based Berkshire Hathaway Energy. The project includes two substations. BHE plans to start construction this year and achieve commercial operation in 2017. [...]
$128 billion: This is the current market value of Berkshire Hathaway's holdings, assuming it didn't buy or sell a share of stock during the fourth quarter of 2015.
If Berkshire's stock portfolio were a stand-alone company, it would have the 37th largest market capitalization, sitting behind computer giant IBM and just before pharmaceutical company Allergan. [...]
Following up on an older story from last summer...
A securities trader agreed to give up more than $11 million for his role in an international hacking scheme that authorities say netted the group millions of dollars by trading on confidential financial information. [...]
Hackers, the authorities said, targeted Marketwired LP, UBM PLC’s PR Newswire and Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s Business Wire.
NetJets® Inc., a Berkshire Hathaway company and the worldwide leader in private aviation, announced its newest brand partnership with tennis great Maria Sharapova. NetJets is the official private aviation partner for Ms. Sharapova.
In her role as a brand ambassador, Ms. Sharapova will work with NetJets’ marketing, with a particular focus on social media. She will also provide exclusive experiences for NetJets owners throughout the partnership. [...]
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. [...]
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 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'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 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.
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.
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.”
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 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. [...]
BNSF Railway Co., the railroad owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc., is ratcheting up pressure on Congress to postpone a deadline for installing a safety system by the end of the year, saying it would probably have to halt freight and passenger traffic if the requirement isn’t delayed.
Congress mandated in 2008 that U.S. railroads install what’s known as positive train control, which can automatically stop a train to avoid a collision, by the end of 2015. But the major railroads have said they’re still years away from fully implementing it. Safety regulations trump BNSF’s obligation as a common carrier to haul freight for customers, BNSF said in a letter sent to Senate commerce committee chairman Wednesday. [...]
[...] At six other airports—Columbus, Dallas, Scottsdale, Seattle-Tacoma, Van Nuys, and Palm Beach International—700 of their colleagues did the same. The pilots, who all work for the fractional jet-ownership company, picketed as part of a more than two-year-long labor dispute. The roughly 3,000 pilots who fly for the company have been working without a contract since 2013. Their union, the NetJets Association of Shared Aircraft Pilots, and NetJets blew past their self-imposed September 3 deadline for a tentative agreement.
The bristle, of course, has been over pay and benefits. The pilots’ union said salaries are not high enough and the company’s proposed changes to benefits would put them on the hook for more health-care costs. NetJets said in a statement that on economic issues, the two sides are still a long way apart. [...]
The trend of buyers rationalising their reinsurance programmes—using fewer, bigger players with a broader reach—has benefited Berkshire Hathaway, Manfred Seitz, managing director of international reinsurance at Berkshire Hathaway, told Monte Carlo Today.
“As larger insurers have become ever more sophisticated in their programmes, it has meant opportunities for us because we are often a starting point for companies that want to structure these large, complex programmes,” he said. [...]
Kraft Heinz Co., which counts Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. as its largest shareholder, is pushing some of its retirees to health exchanges as the company cuts expenses. [...]
3G Capital, which combined H.J. Heinz and Kraft Foods Group Inc. with Buffett’s backing, has been cutting jobs and office expenses to boost profits. As of Jan. 1, Kraft Heinz will offer medical and prescription coverage through the individual marketplace for retirees age 65 and older. Coverage options including dental and vision plans will be available through the private Towers Watson OneExchange. [...]
The Dairy Queen® system, part of Berkshire Hathaway, has opened a new DQ® Treat store at Wola Park Mall in Warszawa, Poland. The opening of this location in Poland represents the 28th country outside of the U.S. and Canada with a DQ brand presence.
Sparrow 4 Sp. Z.O.O. has entered into a long-term franchise agreement with International Dairy Queen and plans to develop 26 DQ Grill & Chill® restaurants and DQ Treat stores throughout Poland over the next five years. [...]
Dalton-based Shaw Industries has announced it is investing at least $45 million in its Lexington County, S.C., carpet fiber plant for additional capacity for both nylon and polyester production. The investment will create more than 50 new jobs. [...]
The plant’s new polyester extrusion operations will include the use of recycled plastic beverage bottles, expanding Shaw’s use of the material. On average, Shaw recycles three billion plastic drink bottles annually at its Clear Path Recycling facility in Fayetteville, N.C., a joint-venture with DAK Americas. Fiber made from that recycled plastic is used in Shaw’s ClearTouch residential carpet products. This keeps a significant volume of waste out of the landfill and saves 1.9 trillion BTUs of energy each year, enough energy to power more than 51,000 U.S. homes a year [...]
An 18-hole disc golf course at Clayton Homes headquarters in Alcoa will be open to the public through a unique private-public partnership. [...]
The disc golf course was the idea of Clayton Homes President and CEO Kevin Clayton, who plays the game, said David Jordan, vice president of corporate services for Clayton.
“We’ve got a large campus here — over 240 acres — and we thought it would be a good opportunity to do something nice so our employees could enjoy it,” Jordan said, noting Clayton’s wellness program. [...]
I’ve been incredibly fortunate throughout my life. Not only have I had a long and successful career and been blessed with a beautiful family, but I’ve also had the opportunity to give back, which has been a reward beyond measure. And as I get older and begin to put my affairs in order, I want to reaffirm my commitment to advancing the causes I care so much about. Which is why, when I die, I plan to donate my fortune to charity, minus the $40 billion I will have buried with me. [...]
At one time, Berkshire made linings for men’s suits. Now, its various 100%-owned subsidiaries make cowboy boots, floor enamel and Ginsu knives; sell ear-piercing tools, diamond rings and encyclopedias; rent topiaries, candelabras and refrigerated trailers; provide insulated bags for pizza-delivery men, uniforms for police officers and shoulder pads for football players… and much, much, much more.
If Berkshire’s wholly-owned companies were independent, nine of them would be among the Fortune 500.
Warren Buffett was forced to defend his association with 3G Capital from the beginning of the ritual Q&A session at the Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting last Saturday, as a shareholder said that "he cannot make a moral case" for the Brazilian investment firm's aggressive cost-cutting programs at acquired companies. Given that Berkshire Hathaway's partnership with 3G Capital is more likely to expand than shrink over the next decade, Berkshire shareholders ought to understand its nature. In fact, 3G's methods are not inconsistent with Mr. Buffett's approach to business, which is, well, all business.
Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. is extending its operating improvement plans as the railroad seeks to recover from “significant service-related challenges” that the carrier and its customers have struggled with over the past year.
Berkshire Hathaway Inc., the railroad’s parent, said BNSF has seen its network operate more smoothly lately as it has boosted capacity by expanding lines, adding locomotives and bringing in new hires. “We plan to continue our capital expansion and operational improvement initiatives in 2015 in order to meet customer demand and improve and maintain service levels,” the Berkshire said in its first-quarter 10-Q filing late Friday.
BNSF Railway Co., owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc., will be among the first companies to operate a commercial drone over hundreds of miles in a U.S. research program to test the safety of pilot-less flights.
A camera-equipped drone will fly as far as 400 miles (640 kilometers) along tracks in rural areas to inspect rails, BNSF said. The Federal Aviation Administration also chose CNN and Precision Hawk USA Inc. to make flights beyond the visual line of sight of an operator in unpopulated areas, a practice that is currently banned.
The use of drones “increases the frequency of inspection. We have some very remote areas,” Gary Grissum, BNSF’s assistant vice president of telecommunications, said in an interview. “We’re looking to be able to detect very small defaults in the rail.”
A tiny central North Dakota town has been evacuated after the derailment of an oil train.
The incident displaced residents of Heimdal, sheriff's officials told local media. The accident involved a BNSF Railway train with 109 cars, five of which were burning. Six to seven cars derailed and the cause of the event is unknown, according to officials.
Investor Warren Buffett again defended Berkshire Hathaway's manufactured home unit Monday and praised some of his company's biggest investments.
Buffett discussed Clayton Homes' lending practices, interest rates, Berkshire's investments and other topics during an interview on CNBC Monday. Over the weekend, he answered questions in front of more than 40,000 people at Berkshire Hathaway's annual meeting.[...]
A subsidiary of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. will announce Thursday that it plans to build the Grande Prairie Wind Farm, which would be Nebraska’s largest wind-powered electric generating plant and increase the state’s wind energy capacity by nearly 50 percent.
BHE Renewables, a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway Energy, purchased Grande Prairie from Geronimo Energy of Edina, Minnesota, which had acquired it from a Chicago developer in 2013. The other companies arranged leases, got permits and completed other development steps.
Construction is to start this summer on the 400-megawatt project, located about 12 miles northeast of O’Neill, and be completed in 2016, adding to the state’s existing 810-megawatt wind energy capacity.
Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Energy disclosed that it recently acquired a site for solar generation development in MISO’s central region. The “site” consists of 74 individual “locations” not to exceed 1 MW each, according to the company’s quarterly property acquisition report. [...]
The company did not disclose exactly where the site is located. The company is not ready to make an announcement on the project, spokesman David Caris said. MISO is a new locale for the company’s solar portfolio. [...]
Berkshire Hathaway’s planned solar expansion in MISO’s coal-dependent central region — which includes Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin and parts of Illinois — appears designed to take advantage of increased demand for renewables as a result of federal environmental regulations.
Berkshire Hathaway utility PacifiCorp will procure renewable generation from a 7MW solar installation in Oregon by the end of 2015. [...]
PacifiCorp expects that the plant will supply power to about 1,000 residents in the town of Bly, Oregon. The company serves 1.8mn customers across Utah, Oregon, Wyoming, Washington, Idaho and parts of northern California.
The 7MW plant will be built on a former 40-acre lumber mill site, with 20,000 solar panels, and will become PacifiCorp's largest operational solar facility in Oregon.
Forest River will break ground this week on a new manufacturing facility in Michigan.
The Elkhart-based company announced plans in January to build three 100,000-square-foot facilities in White Pigeon and create 396 jobs in the next three years. [...]
Forest River is investing more than $7 million in the project and is receiving substantial incentives from state and local governments.
Nebraska Furniture Mart executives told hundreds of local dignitaries, employees and others attending a ribbon-cutting Thursday that the store is finally ready to take on the throngs of shoppers it was built for. [...]
Blumkin said the Omaha-based retailer, a unit of billionaire Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, had several locations to choose from, but decided on the spot along the Sam Rayburn Tollway and Plano Parkway partly because of the cooperation from local entities. It has its own exit from the tollway, for example.
John Noel, president of Berkshire Hathaway Travel Protection (BHTP) and founder of Travel Guard International, MyAssist and Insure America, today is moving to an executive advisory role after being diagnosed with early stages of Lewy Body Disease.
He will be succeeded as president by Dean Sivley, who had served as president of Travel Guard–Americas and was chief e-business officer of Travel Guard’s global operations after Noel left that company in 2009, three years after selling it to AIG. Sivley most recently served as CEO of the car service GroundLink.
Dairy Queen, according to a letter written by one of its executives that was released by an advocacy group, is pulling soft drinks from its kids menu. The letter, which is dated May 11, says the company along with its franchisees had voted to make the switch. The ice cream chain said the change would take place as soon as September 1 because that’s how long it would take the company to change its restaurant menu boards. After that, only water and milk will be the only beverages on the kid’s menu at Dairy Queen restaurants.
Billionaire investor Warren Buffett has once again agreed to have lunch with the winner of an upcoming auction to benefit a San Francisco charity.
The 16th annual auction to benefit Glide, which provides food and services to the poor and homeless, will be held on eBay from May 31 to June 5, the charity said.
Past auctions have raised about $17.8m, including a record $3,456,789 from an anonymous bidder in 2012. Last year's winner, Andy Chua of Singapore, bid $2,166,766.
Billionaire investor Warren Buffett is famous for his frugality, living in the same Omaha home he purchased in 1958 for $31,500, yet his neighbors across the street have a slightly higher, and slightly tongue-in-cheek, asking price in mind for their five-bedroom house.
Homeowner Phil Huston says that though the property has been recently valued at $866,000, he and his wife are asking for 10 Class A shares of the company their famed neighbor has helmed for half a century, Berkshire Hathaway. While at first glance, this may not seem like a lot, Warren Buffett has famously never split Berkshire Hathaway’s stock, as Yahoo Homes points out. This means that each individual share of the conglomerate currently sells for $215,800 as of closing Friday, making the asking price of Huston’s home $2.158 million.
Warren Buffett is smiling about Coke again, and singing about it.
The billionaire investor made a special guest appearance at Coca-Cola’s annual shareholder meeting on Wednesday. Buffett was introduced with a video of him singing, ukulele in hand, “I’d like to Teach the World to Sing” from Coke’s classic hilltop commercials.
Paint maker Axalta Coating Systems Ltd said Berkshire Hathaway Inc would buy an 8.7 percent stake in the company from controlling shareholder Carlyle Group for $560 million. [...] Warren Buffett's Berkshire is buying 20 million shares at $28 per share, a slight discount to the stock's Monday closing. [...] Axalta, the Dupont unit which Carlyle bought for $4.9 billion in February 2013, makes liquid and powder coatings for the automotive and transportation industries.
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One of the biggest news stories of the week was the Seattle Times investigation into Clayton Homes. It was included in last week's News Briefs post, but the story ran over into this week too.
Jorge Paulo Lemann, Brazil’s richest man with a net worth estimated at $26 billion, built his business empire on beverages, using a series of mergers to create AB InBev. The company brews about 20 percent of the world’s beer, including global brands Stella Artois, Corona and Budweiser. [...] Lemann, 75, was born in Brazil to Swiss parents. He is a former Davis Cup tennis player and a graduate of Harvard University. In acquisitions, he and partners Marcel Telles and Alberto Sicupira deploy “cost killer” managers who eliminate non-productive spending so that savings can be reinvested in marketing and innovation, a 3G spokeswoman said.
Within seconds of climbing the short stairs into the gleaming Bombardier 6000, it’s clear why so many billionaires, Hollywood A-listers and sporting megastars choose to do their globe-trotting this way. [...] In fact, NetJets liked it so much that it was one of several new models on a list of 670 assorted jets that the company ordered in 2010 at a cost of $17.6bn, the largest single purchase ever made in private aviation. With the global economy in the throes of recession, it was a staggeringly bold move that stunned the industry, particularly as NetJets had only recently been saved from bankruptcy by its famous benefactor, Warren Buffett.
With the deeper pockets of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. now backing it, the former Van Tuyl Group intends to add dealerships going forward. "In the next couple of years, we're likely to make a number of acquisitions," Berkshire Hathaway Chairman Warren Buffett told the NADA/J.D. Power Automotive Forum here last week. Buffett then made a pitch of sorts to the room full of dealers and other auto industry representatives: "We always do what we say. If we shake hands, we've got a deal. We've always got the money. We don't renegotiate ever in the last minute like some people do. Manufacturers are likely to approve us. So we will make more deals."
The Dairy Queen® system, global retail treat category leader and international (quick-service restaurant) QSR fan favorite, part of Berkshire Hathaway , announced that SKM Franchise Co. Ltd., a subsidiary of El Rancho Group in Garland, Texas, has signed a multi-unit agreement to develop DQ Grill & Chill® and DQ® Treat locations throughout the country of Jordan. These will be the very first locations in Jordan for the Dairy Queen system. SKM Franchise Co. LTD plans to open a minimum of 10 DQ locations within the first five years of the long-term agreement. The company’s first of five DQ Grill & Chill restaurants will open later in 2015.
Warren Buffett and his team may be gradually making changes to how they operate Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-A). The changes have been subtle in recent years, but the way in which Berkshire Hathaway makes acquisitions and takes stakes being taken is becoming rather unique, compared to other conglomerates. It might be easier to argue that Berkshire Hathaway is becoming more like a public private equity shop, rather than being a conglomerate. The good news here is that Berkshire Hathaway is unlikely to lose its conglomerate status. Still, the influence and dealings with private equity are becoming easier to see.
A: A firmly held philosophy and not subject to emotional flow. Good investors are data driven and enjoy the game. These are people doing what they love doing. It really is a game, a game they love. They are driven more by being right than making money, the money is a consequence of being right. Toughness is important. There is a lot of temptation to cave in or follow others but it is important to stick to your own convictions. I have seen so many smart people do dumb things because of what everyone else is doing. Finally good investors are forward looking and don’t dwell on either past successes or failures but rather look toward the future. Just look at history to see how bad things have been. We had World War 2 and a Civil War. This Country works!
There's a 22 minute video of the Q&A session, but sadly it doesn't include the ukulele number.
Warren Buffett treated Texans to investment advice — and a ukulele rendition of “Deep in the Heart of Texas” — in support of a Dallas-area charity Wednesday at Berkshire Hathaway’s new Nebraska Furniture Mart-Texas store. Gala guests expected a speech from the Berkshire chairman and chief executive officer but applauded when Buffett said he would take their questions instead.
The latest version of the Warren Buffett commemorative sneakers are about to be unveiled, and Brooks, the running shoe company that is owned by Berkshire Hathaway, has just given us a sneak peek. The shoe will be introduced on May 2, in conjunction with the conglomerate's annual investor meeting held in Omaha, Nebraska.
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.
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.
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 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 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 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.
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.
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.
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.
