Berkshire News Briefs - 6/20/18

Buffett, Bezos, Dimon appoint Dr. Atul Gawande as CEO of their newly formed health-care company

Dr. Atul Gawande will lead the joint health-care venture between Amazon, J.P. Morgan and Berkshire Hathaway, the three companies announced Wednesday.

Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett, J.P. Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos announced a partnership in January to tackle rising health-care costs.

They will form a new company for the venture, which will be headquartered in Boston, a hub for biotechnology and medical research. It will be "free from profit-making incentives and constraints. [...]

USG takes $7 billion offer from Knauf after spurned advances

Sheetrock maker USG Corp accepted a $7 billion cash offer from German construction products maker Gebr Knauf KG on Monday after three months of back-and-forth negotiations that began when longtime USG shareholder Warren Buffett teamed up with the German bidder to sell his stake.

The companies agreed to a $44 per share deal, a bump from the $42 initially offered by the private German family-owned company in late March. Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc had a 31 percent stake in USG and has said previously it would offload its stake. [...]

The Berkshire Hathaway investment dates back to 2001, when Buffett helped the company out of bankruptcy with a loan that was later converted to a stake in the company’s equity so large that a wholesale acquisition of the entire company remained one of the few ways for Berkshire to exit the investment without pushing down the share price. [...]

Buffett, Dimon urge end to quarterly profit forecasts

Investor Warren Buffett and JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon are encouraging public companies to stop predicting their quarterly earnings and focus on long-term goals.

The two executives said on CNBC Thursday that companies that focus on hitting their quarterly numbers may do things that hurt them in the future, such as delaying investments or changing when certain gains are recorded. [...]

Grainger Is Caught Between an Amazon and a Buffett

[...] Intriguingly, Grainger may now have other competition via Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc., which last year acquired Production Tool Supply. The deal wasn't publicized, but the company has since used it to launch Berkshire eSupply, a wholesale service business that aims to provide smaller distributors with access to e-commerce platforms, fulfillment services and a greater product offering than they’d otherwise be able to support. [...]

Warren Buffet visits metro to announce new GEICO service center, 500 new jobs in Lenexa

Warren Buffett is bringing what he calls his favorite company to [the Kansas City metro area]. GEICO Insurance will open a service center in Lenexa, bringing 500 jobs.

Kansas Gov. Jeff Colyer and billionaire CEO Warren Buffett joined representatives from the city of Lenexa, Johnson County and Geico on Tuesday morning to make the announcement. [...]

Lenexa city leaders said the city did not offer any financial incentives to lure GEICO but said the state did offer some incentives. [...]

Warren Buffett helps Israel sell $80 million in bonds at Omaha dinner

Warren Buffett hosted a dinner in Omaha this week for investors who bought $80 million worth of Israel Bonds, a source of revenue for a country where Berkshire Hathaway Inc. has a major investment.

The dinner at the Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center was the second time Buffett has helped the Israeli group, the Development Corporation for Israel, formed in 1951 to raise money to build Israel’s economy. Since then, the bonds have raised about $41 billion.

Giving it Away: The Other Buffett Family Business

[...] Now 64 with two grown children, Susie Buffett has a more-than-full-time day job. Her Sherwood Foundation, formerly known as the Susan A. Buffett Foundation, gave away $141 million in 2016, according to the most recent IRS filing, funding dozens of nonprofit initiatives in education, social justice, and poverty alleviation. That’s everything from a local ballet company to Big Brothers/Big Sisters to a black police-officers group to Omaha’s Bike Union—and those are just the Bs. Each of these groups is carefully evaluated before the first check is cut. “I don’t want to come off like I’m complaining,” Buffett says. “I am grateful beyond words for what we get to do. But it’s not so easy to try to do it well, and we are trying to do it well.” [...]

Two billionaires walk into an Omaha Dairy Queen. A blizzard of excitement ensues

Omaha did a double-take when folks there spotted Warren Buffett and Mark Cuban eating lunch Monday in Buffett's hometown at the Dairy Queen near 72nd and Q streets. [...] Cuban, the owner of the Dallas Mavericks, memorialized his trip to the land of Dilly Bars on his Instagram, where he shared a photo of the two men. [...]

The Omaha World-Herald got the scoop on at least one topic that came up over lunch — basketball. [...] Buffett's office would not disclose what else the two men talked about, the newspaper reported. [...]

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 - 6/5/17

Why Warren Buffett Took Out an Ad on the Same Page as One for a Strip Club

The billionaire took out a fine-print ad in the New York Daily News to say he’s seeking permission from the Federal Reserve to hold as much as 25 percent of the credit-card issuer’s shares. The notice appeared alongside listings for a Brooklyn co-op, a $2,500 Honda Accord and a liquor license application, plus a quarter-page ad for a strip joint.

Of course, Buffett was just obeying the law. Federal regulations require that shareholders seeking to boost their stakes in banks above certain thresholds publish announcements in “a newspaper of general circulation” in the community where the financial institution is based. (AmEx has its headquarters in lower Manhattan.) Still, in an era when so much information flows to investors through online feeds, the back pages of a metro can feel like a place to bury rather than reveal news. [...]

Berkshire Hathaway buys stake in Lanxess

Warren Buffett (Trades, Portfolio)’s Berkshire Hathaway disclosed a stake in Germany’s Lanxess AG on May 19, worth roughly $179.85 million on the date of filing, a small fraction of his $96.5 billion cash hoard. [...]

Lanxess’ chemicals are used in an array of everyday and industrial products, such as biodiesel, spare wheels, paint pigments, leather manufacturing, white sugar, red wines and tires. Through a partnership with Saudi Arabian oil company Saudi Aramco, it also produces synthetic rubber.

The company has a 6.2 billion euro market cap, with revenue exceeding $7.6 billion in 2016, though revenue had been in decline for four straight years. On April 21, Lanxess completed the acquisition of U.S. company Chemtura, which produced 1.5 billion euro in annual sales, to stabilize the company, increase profitability and expand its footprint in the growth market of North America. [...]

Warren Buffet’s GenRe reinsurer gets India approval

General Re, which is a part of business guru Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway family of companies, has been given the final approval, called R3 from the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India.

In a report, ieBusiness said that this is Berkshire’s second attempt to capture the Indian market. Berkshire’s initial venture was an online distribution that closed a couple of years after it launched in 2013.

Gen Re is different in that it will "deliver underwriting and risk management expertise locally rather than cross-border. It will facilitate an optimal business model," according to the report.

Gen Re’s area of interest is primarily on the life and health sector. It plans to expand in this segment but will also be looking to grow its presence in the property/ casualty reinsurance market in India which is a huge business opportunity. [...]

Meet Warren Buffett's 2 Trusted Stock Pickers

For much of the time Buffett has been at the helm of Berkshire Hathaway, he has managed the company's stock portfolio all by himself. However, that has changed in recent years with the hiring of two investment managers, Todd Combs and Ted Weschler, who were hired in 2010 and 2011, respectively.

Both men are hedge fund veterans with impressive track records. For example, Weschler's fund delivered 1,236% in gains in just 11 years before he closed it -- roughly 9 times the gain of Buffett's stock portfolio during the same time frame. [...]

Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway could face fines over Texas dealership law

The billionaire’s holding company – Berkshire Hathaway Inc. – could be liable for civil fines in the range of $350,000 a day if an ongoing investigation by the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles determines it to be in violation of Texas law prohibiting the owner of an automobile manufacturer from also owning automobile dealerships in the state.

Berkshire Hathaway owns Berkshire Hathaway Automotive, which is based in Irving and operates 35 new-car dealerships in Texas, and it also owns Forest River Inc., an Indiana-based manufacturer of recreational vehicles. Owning both businesses potentially puts Berkshire Hathaway in violation of the Texas occupations code preventing ownership of a motor vehicle manufacturer and ownership of dealerships under a single corporate umbrella, even if the vehicles aren’t of the same type. [...]

Warren Buffett's cigar butt lesson: seeing value that others miss

While working in New York City, 20-something-year-old Buffett adopted Benjamin Graham’s practice of spotting companies that were slightly undervalued, such as having more in the bank account than they were worth on the stock market.

Anything with a bit of value that a smart investor could grab. In cigar terms, a mostly used butt ignored by others but with a few risk-free puffs left.

Looking beyond the unsavory image of smoking a used stogie (“The stub might be ugly and soggy,” Buffett once wrote), investors can embrace the idea of cigar butts as a lesson in recognizing value that others miss. Buffett used that ability to build up his personal investments in the 1950s before returning to Omaha and forming the partnerships that led to Berkshire. [...]

Two '90s Fan Favorites are Back at DQ

‘90s trends are in. Fashion, jewelry, shoes, toys and even hairstyles popular during that decade are part of a nostalgic revival taking place in 2017.

The Dairy Queen® system has now added treats to that list. The treat category leader, a Berkshire Hathaway company, is bringing back two popular fan favorites treats with Treatzza Pizza® on May 22 and Misty Slush® on June 26.

"There is an obvious resurgence in everything '90s and both Treatzza Pizza and Misty Slush were fan favorites from that era," said Barry Westrum, Executive Vice President of Marketing for American Dairy Queen Corporation (ADQ). "Those two treats were loved by fans from day one. They asked us to bring them back and we delivered." [...]

Warren Buffett lunch bidding quickly hits $1 million

An auction for well-heeled fans of Warren Buffett to eat lunch with the billionaire in support of a San Francisco charity that helps the homeless and impoverished got off to a fast start, with bidding quickly hitting seven figures.

The top bid was $1 million as of 1 p.m. EDT (1700 GMT) on Monday, and had been made within two minutes of the auction's Sunday night launch.

Bids often surge near the end of the eBay auction, which concludes on Friday at 10:30 p.m. EDT (230 GMT Saturday).

Buffett, the chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc, has raised $23.6 million in 17 years of auctions for Glide. [...]

Berkshire News Briefs - 3/18/17

7 Enlightening Lessons From Berkshire Hathaway’s 2016 Annual Report

Just the lesson headings:

Lesson #1 - Book Value is an Imperfect Measure of Intrinsic Value
Lesson #2 – Dilution Destroys Shareholder Value
Lesson #3 – Buffett is Bullish on the American Economy
Lesson #4 – Bargain Hunting Combined with Long Holding Periods Create Substantial Value
Lesson #5 – Share Repurchases Build Value, Regardless of What the Skeptics Say
Lesson #6 – Cheap Leverage is an Incredible Advantage
Lesson #7 – Berkshire Has an Invisible Stake in Bank of America

BNSF agrees to clean up coal, petcoke emitted from rail cars

BNSF Railway Co. will clean up coal and petroleum coke in waterways, fund a study of rail-car covers and pay $1 million for environmental projects in Washington state, according to consent decree filed in U.S. District Court. [...]

Under the decree, BNSF will pay for the cleanup of Pacific Northwest waterways that were polluted by coal or petroleum coke that spilled from open-topped rail cars.

In addition, BNSF will pay $1 million for environmental projects in the Bellingham, Puget Sound, Columbia River and Spokane River areas. The Class I also will clean up areas of the Columbia River and its tributaries that have been littered with coal and petroleum coke from BNSF trains.

Moreover, the decree requires the railroad to fund a study about covers for rail cars carrying coal and petroleum coke. [...]

Additionally, BNSF denies any violations of the Clean Water Act, and the U.S. District Court judge did not find any specific violations. [...]

NV Energy seeks approval for rooftop solar alternative with Apple ties

Recall Berkshire Hathaway Energy subsidiary NV Energy's feud with Solar City over net metering in Nevada from last year...

NV Energy is seeking approval from state regulators for a renewable energy program that is aimed at providing an alternative to rooftop solar via energy sources based in the state, including one in conjunction with Apple. [...]

The Subscription Solar program allows NV Energy customers to subscribe each month to at least 100-kilowatt hour blocks of solar energy generated from within the state. The energy will be provided by the company’s Boulder Solar I facility, which has set aside 10 megawatts for the program, as well as the Techren II facility, which is a joint venture with Apple. The latter has set aside 5 megawatts for the program and will be online by 2019. [...]

The program will allow residential customers and, eventually, small to mid-size businesses to meet as much as 100 percent of their energy needs with renewable energy. NV Energy cited rooftop solar as a key factor in the creation of the program. [...]

KITCO Fiber Optics Joins Marmon Aerospace & Defense LLC

Marmon Aerospace & Defense LLC, a Marmon/Berkshire Hathaway company, today announced the acquisition of KITCO Fiber Optics of Virginia Beach, VA, a highly-respected leader in the specialty, military, and aerospace fiber optic industries. Terms were not disclosed.

While KITCO will continue to operate as an independent business, its products complement those of Marmon Aerospace & Defense. Together, the two businesses will offer defense industry customers unique, focused product and service capabilities for electrical, electronic, fiber optic, and communication solutions. Their collective resources will enable continued growth and innovation for both Marmon and KITCO in service to the U.S. defense industry. [...]

Dairy Queen Celebrates First Day of Spring With Free Cone Day on March 20

Drones have delivered products and pizzas. Now drones are delivering cones – for a good cause. To kick off Free Cone Day on March 20th, which is also the first day of Spring, DQ® enlisted the help of a drone to deliver cones to a few lucky fans. It was the first time the Berkshire Hathaway company has delivered cones by drone. For the rest of us, we can get our free cone at DQ all day on Monday, March 20th. Participating locations also will be collecting donations for Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals, which raises funds to help save and improve the lives of kids treated at 170 children’s hospitals across the U.S. and Canada. [...]

Buffett's pay rises; Berkshire urges rejection of shareholder proposals

Warren Buffett's compensation for running Berkshire Hathaway Inc. edged up 4.0 percent last year to $487,881 reflecting the higher cost of keeping the world's second-richest person safe. [...]

Berkshire said Buffett's salary in 2016 was $100,000, the same amount he has received for more than a quarter century, while the cost of providing him with home and personal security services rose to $387,881 last year from $370,244. [...]

Barack Obama Grabs Lunch with Billionaire Warren Buffett at Omaha Country Club

Former president Barack Obama made a quick stop in Omaha, Nebraska, Sunday afternoon to grab lunch with billionaire investor Warren Buffett, the Omaha World-Herald reported. The two were joined by Buffett’s daughter Susie Buffett for lunch in a private room at the Happy Hollow country club, where Warren Buffett is a member. [...]

While Susie Buffett remained quiet about the topics of conversation at the lunch meeting, some sources speculated the Obama visit was an effort to raise funds from the elder Buffett for his presidential library or other charities. [...]

Berkshire Subsidiary Briefs - 1/5/17

There was a lot of news last month, and I fell behind on posting, so there are three posts this time. This is part 2, with news about Berkshire Hathaway's subsidiary companies.

(Part 1 - General Business | Part 3 - Miscellaneous)

The Dairy Queen® System Announces Plans to Develop 50 DQ Grill & Chill® Locations in Korea Over the Next Five Years

International Dairy Queen, Inc. today announced the signing of a multi-unit development agreement to expand into the Republic of Korea with plans to open 50 DQ Grill & Chill locations within the next five years. [...]

(On a tangentially related note, did you know you could ask DQ staff to add coffee to a Blizzard? I can't believe I didn't know about this "secret menu" item before last week.)

Fruit of the Loom names Melissa Burgess-Taylor CEO

Fruit of the Loom, a Berkshire Hathaway Inc. unit, said it named Melissa Burgess-Taylor as the chief executive officer and chairman, following the death of Rick Medlin.

Medlin, who had held the top post at the apparel company since 2010, died on Sunday of natural causes, the company said. [...]

Burgess-Taylor, who has been with the company for more than 17 years, is currently senior vice president of brand management and sales for Fruit of the Loom and Vanity Fair Brands.

Lubrizol names Schnur as CEO

Global thermoplastic polyurethane leader Lubrizol Corp. has named company veteran Eric Schnur as chairman, president and CEO.

Schnur has been with Wickliffe, Ohio-based Lubrizol for more than 27 years. He’s held the roles of president and chief operating officer since June. Prior to that move, Schnur served as president of the firm’s Advanced Materials unit — including TPU — for eight years.

The move was effective Jan. 2. Schnur replaces James Hambrick, who’s retiring after a 38-year career with Lubrizol. [...]

Nebraska Furniture Mart COO Ron Blumkin’s successor named

Nebraska Furniture Mart President and Chief Operating Officer Ron Blumkin will leave his position as part of the company’s long-term succession planning, the company said Friday.

Tony Boldt, director of the Mart’s Kansas City store, will take the role of president and COO. Blumkin will serve as chairman, and Irv Blumkin will remain chief executive. [...]

Berkshire Hathaway Unit Acquires Snappy Company

Berkshire Hathaway company unit MiTek Industries, Inc. announced that its subsidiary, M&M Manufacturing, has acquired Snappy Company.

Snappy is a leading supplier of metal duct systems for the residential HVAC market, with manufacturing facilities in Detroit Lakes, MN; Medina, NY; and corporate offices in Marietta, GA.

Snappy will complement M&M Manufacturing, a leading producer of sheet metal products, primarily servicing the air distribution and ventilation markets. [...]

OCI Solar Power seeks to sell Alamo 6 solar farm to Warren Buffett-owned company

San Antonio-based solar developer OCI Solar Power is seeking state approval to sell its Alamo 6 solar farm to a subsidiary of Warren Buffett's multinational holding company Berkshire Hathaway. A sale price has not been disclosed but OCI Solar Power officials confirmed that the company signed a purchase agreement to sell the West Texas solar farm. Located in Pecos County, Alamo 6 remains under construction but once complete it will supply 110.2 megawatts of electricity to San Antonio's municipally-owned utility company CPS Energy. [...]

The sharing economy brings tycoon lifestyles within reach of some

Tycoon living begins with a private jet. Whereas yachts are dispensable (not everyone wants to float around for weeks with the same dinner companions) private jets are necessities for the aspiring billionaire. [...]

No longer do you need a net worth in the hundreds of millions of dollars to have one. With 700 jets, NetJets is now the fifth-largest airline by number of planes, after Southwest Airlines, and it has access to thousands of private airports. Its main innovation was to apply the principle of fractional ownership, or time-sharing, to the ultimate executive tool. Customers buy a share in a jet which entitles them to, say, 200 hours of travel a year. [...]

Berkshire News Briefs - 8/5/16

Berkshire Said to Draw Fed Scrutiny Over Wells Fargo Investment (Bloomberg)

Berkshire has asked the Fed for approval to maintain and even increase its 10 percent stake in Wells Fargo, saying in a June application that it may seek to “purchase additional shares.” If the Fed denies the request, Berkshire might have to dial back the holding of about $24 billion that Buffett described in a recent shareholder meeting as “our largest marketable security."

Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire probably wouldn’t have to sell anything if it can persuade regulators that its stake in AmEx doesn’t mean it exerts any control over the credit-card company. Berkshire has successfully made the argument in the past to banking agencies. [...]

Warren Buffett’s Short-Term Hit and Run Transactions (Insider Monkey)

The examples in the article are Express Scripts (ESRX), Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), Intel (INTC), CVS Health (CVS), and Exxon Mobil (XOM).

Warren Buffett is known for his highly successful value investing approach. [...] However, over the past few years, his fund, Berkshire Hathaway, has disclosed some short or medium-term stakes, positions it did not maintain for more than a year.

In many occasions, these stocks were picked by one of Buffett’s hedge fund managers, Todd Combs and Ted Weschler, and not by himself. [...] As readers will notice, it seems like Combs and Weschler’s strategy is all about profit taking, acquiring stocks at low prices and selling when they surge, instead of keeping them for long periods of time. [...]

Warren Buffett Made a Big Bet On an 'In-Your-Face' CEO (Bloomberg)

[Precision Castparts CEO Mark] Donegan, 60, a former Villanova University football player who devoted most of his career to Precision, shares many qualities with other Berkshire managers: He’s a low-profile CEO with a great track record, relentless about staying ahead of the competition. During the 13 years he led Precision as a publicly traded company, its stock climbed 20-fold, annual revenue quadrupled to $10 billion and he bought dozens of businesses, consolidating a position as a key supplier to Boeing Co., Airbus Group SE and General Electric Co. It helped him attain a cult status among investors. [...]

Behind the numbers, though, something more brutal is going on. For years, Donegan has traveled the globe, sometimes bullying staff during quarterly reviews at Precision plants. Bloomberg News spoke with 15 current and former employees—some at the most senior levels of the organization—as well as half a dozen people with knowledge of how the company is run. Those who know the CEO best describe a manager who’s highly effective but at times strains basic decency. [...]

Book Review: Inside The Investments Of Warren Buffett (Investing-dot-com)

I have no idea how many books have been written about Warren Buffett, but sometimes I have the feeling that he is giving George Washington a run for his money. The latest addition to the literature is Yefei Lu’s "Inside the Investments of Warren Buffett: Twenty Cases" (Columbia Business School Publishing, 2016).

Lu examines 20 investments Buffett made over the course of his career that, in Lu’s opinion, “had the largest material impact on his trajectory.” He puts himself in the shoes of imaginary investment analysts “studying the businesses at the same time … Buffett did.” Why would an ordinary analyst either recommend or, as would often have been the case, argue against investing in a company to which Buffett eventually opted to commit funds? [...]

The DQ® System Announces Plans to Develop 24 Locations in Five Caribbean Countries in the Next Five Years (Business Wire)

If you read these News Brief posts the whole way to the bottom every time, you know that I have a thing for these recurring, formulaic Dairy Queen press releases. They mean almost nothing to Berkshire Hathaway's bottom line in the grand scheme of things, but I love to see DQ expanding to all the corners of the globe anyway.

Plans call for the development of DQ Grill & Chill® locations in Trinidad and Tobago, DQ Grill & Chill and DQ Treat locations in Jamaica, and DQ Treat locations in St. Lucia, Grenada and St. Maarten. Currently, there are eight DQ Treat locations in Trinidad, the first of which opened in 2012. [...]

Royal Treats Ltd. signed the multi-unit, multi-country agreement with American Dairy Queen Corporation (ADQ) to develop the new locations. They currently operate eight DQ Treat locations throughout Trinidad and Tobago [...] With their new agreement, they will introduce DQ Grill & Chill locations to fans in Trinidad and Jamaica.

Berkshire News Briefs - 3/31/16

Buffett's Wells Fargo Stake Hits Level Requiring Fed Review (Bloomberg)

Warren Buffett’s holding in Wells Fargo & Co. reached 10 percent, a level that triggers a Federal Reserve review and could prevent him from buying more shares until he receives regulatory approval.

The billionaire investor’s stake reached that threshold because Wells Fargo has been buying back stock, according to a regulatory filing Monday. The document said the holding is about 506 million shares, the same as on Dec. 31 when it accounted for 9.9 percent. [...]

BNSF furloughs have hit 4,600 employees nationwide (Fort Worth Star-Telegram)

In another sign of the fallout of low energy prices, BNSF Railway says it has furloughed about about 4,600 of its employees nationwide over the past several months.

The furloughs amount to about 10 percent of the Fort Worth-based company’s workforce, matching the layoffs made by the railroad in 2007 and 2008, according to statements made by Matthew Rose, executive chairman of BNSF at an energy conference in Billings, Montana. [...]

Berkshire Hathaway Is 35% Undervalued (Fool)

If I sum up $107 per B-share in investments and $82 per B-share for the operating businesses, that gives me a grand total of $189 per B-share. That's 35% more than the current trading price of $140 per B-share.

Increasing Costs And Premiums At Berkshire Hathaway’s Geico (Valuewalk)

All told, both the severity and frequency of claims have been on the rise at Geico, said David Kass, a business professor at the University of Maryland and a Berkshire Hathaway shareholder.

“This resulted from lower prices for gasoline and an improving economy, which led to more miles being driven by policyholders,” Kass said. “These increases in costs to auto insurers reduces their profitability in the short run until appropriate premium increases can be implemented.” [...]

McLane Co. executive advises students on success in business (Richmond Dispatch)

“If you can accept being inconvenienced, then the rewards will be there, because it is noticed,” said W. Grady Rosier, president and chief executive officer of Temple, Texas-based distributor McLane Co., which he noted supplies groceries and other products to retailers and restaurants in every ZIP code in the nation. [...]

McLane grew from a one-man retail shop opened by Robert McLane in 1894 in Cameron, Texas, to become a $48 billion-a-year supply-chain behemoth, mostly by hitching its own trucking business to the rise of convenience stores such as 7-Eleven starting in the 1950s, then the explosion of big-box chain stores such as Walmart starting in the 1970s.

Rosier, 67, grew up in Florida and was the first in his family to attend college. He joined McLane in 1984 and became CEO in 1995, five years after it had been acquired by Walmart.

In 2000, the company was acquired by Berkshire Hathaway Inc., the holding company managed by billionaire investor Warren Buffett. [...]

International Dairy Queen, Inc. Opens First DQ Grill & Chill® Restaurant in Jordan (BusinessWire)

The Dairy Queen® system, part of Berkshire Hathaway, has opened a new DQ Grill & Chill® restaurant at Abdoun Circle in Amman, Jordan. The opening of this location in Jordan represents the latest country outside of the United States with a DQ brand presence.

SKM Franchise Co. Ltd. has entered into a long-term franchise agreement with American Dairy Queen, Corp. (ADQ) and plans to develop a minimum of 10 locations, including five DQ Grill & Chill® restaurants throughout Jordan over the next five years. [...]

Berkshire News Briefs - 3/22/16

Warren Buffett’s Compensation in 2015 (BRK Rumors)

Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger both made $100k in salary last year, but Buffett's personal security detail counts as compensation too, bringing him up to $470k. CFO Marc Hamburg made $1.36 million; Berkshire Hathaway Energy CEO Greg Abel made $41 million. Berkshire only pays its board of directors between $2700-$7000.

Warren Buffet’s salary for remained unchanged at $100,000, the same level it has been at for more than a quarter century.

However total compensation has crept up 1% from the previous year due to increased costs associated with keeping Buffett safe. [...]

Warren Buffett remains in control of 19% of all of Berkshire Hathaway’s outstanding stocks and wields 33% of its voting power. Forbes reported on March 15, 2016 that Buffett is worth $66 billion. [...]

Warren Buffett On Investing, Bubbles, Crashes, And Everything In Between (Fool Singapore)

"[T]he only way you get a bubble is when basically a very high percentage of the population buys into some originally sound premise and –- it’s quite interesting how that develops –- originally sound premise that becomes distorted as time passes and people forget the original sound premise and start focusing solely on the price action."

Lots of local stories, which put together, point to a big expansion coming this year for Dairy Queen:

Dairy Queen franchise seeks to add nearly 100 locations this year, with up to 10 new locations in NH

Dairy Queen plans to expand in Spartanburg [SC] County

Dairy Queen plans Vermont expansion for 2016

Dairy Queen targets Amherst, Worcester in major 60-store Massachusetts expansion

Unhappy Teamsters talk strike again at NetJets (Columbus Dispatch)

Two months after NetJets pilots got a generous five-year deal after months of picketing and creating bad publicity for the private jet firm, labor unrest is starting to brew on a new front.

Teamsters members who work in areas such as fueling, catering and dispatching for NetJets are threatening "another serious labor dispute" for the company. [...]

MidAmerican Energy announces grants (Messenger News)

Sixty-five Iowa cities and community organizations are receiving grants totaling $205,000 through MidAmerican Energy's Trees Please! energy efficiency program. [...]

The program provides grants to communities to fund tree planting projects in public areas such as parks and roadways. Since 1998, MidAmerican Energy has awarded more than $3.6 million in funding.

Mobile app purchase propels GEICO to 14 million policies in force (Business Wire)

With the touch of a screen on his smartphone, Christopher Stevens made GEICO history, propelling the company to the 14 million policies-in-force milestone. The Hixson, Tenn., native purchased the record-breaking policy after buying a new car the day before Valentine's Day. [...]

Meet the winners of Warren Buffett's March Madness contest (Yahoo Finance)

"It’s been a heck of a weekend," says Kevin Wills, who works at insurance company USLI in Wayne, Pa., and found out Friday that he was a co-winner of the Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-A) March Madness contest for employees.

Wills and Robert Keller, who works at Berkshire-owned Geico, will split $100,000. Both men had perfect brackets through the first 15 games of this year’s NCAA men’s basketball tournament, until Middle Tennessee State University, a 15-seed, toppled Michigan State, a 2-seed, on Friday night. In other words: Warren Buffett’s big contest didn’t even last two full days. [...]

Berkshire Subsidiary Briefs - 3/13/16

This week's post got really long, so I broke it in two. News about Berkshire Hathaway itself was in the prior post, news about subsidiaries is in this one.

Berkshire's Specialty-Insurance Unit Opens Europe Operation (Bloomberg)

Berkshire Hathaway Inc. will begin offering coverage in Europe through a specialty-insurance unit that Chairman Warren Buffett has been building over the past three years.

Tom Bolt was named president of U.K. and Southern Europe operations, starting June 1, and will be based in London, the Berkshire unit said in a statement Thursday. Gregor Koehler will be president of Northern Europe, effective immediately, and work from Dusseldorf, Germany. [...]

Gen Re to close six offices in restructuring (Business Insurance)

Berkshire Hathaway Inc.'s General Reinsurance Corp. unit will close six of its smaller offices as part of a reorganization of its direct global property/casualty operations, Stamford, Connecticut-based Gen Re announced Friday. [...]

In addition, Gen Re will reorganize its European treaty underwriting resources into five line-of-business teams to support the entire region, Gen Re said in the announcement. [...]

Buffett’s ‘gem’ in Stamford weathers competition (Stamford Advocate)

Years after disastrous claims results buffeted Stamford-based General Reinsurance following its $21.7 billion sale in 1998 to Berkshire Hathaway, the reinsurance carrier is following through on its CEO’s vow last year to maintain underwriting discipline — despite a depressing effect on premiums that insurance companies reinvest to make money.

Gen Re revenue dropped slightly below $6 billion in 2015, off 4 percent from the previous year and roughly flat from its revenue in 2013. Gen Re’s Stamford-based sibling carrier Berkshire Hathaway Reinsurance Group saw a more precipitous decline in revenues, dropping 29 percent to $7.2 billion; combined, the two entities rank among the top five reinsurance underwriters in the world. [...]

Geronimo Energy Expands Partnership with BHE Renewables (PR Newswire)

Geronimo Energy, LLC ("Geronimo") is pleased to announce the sale of its second portfolio of Minnesota Community Solar Garden developments ("the Portfolio") to BHE Renewables, LLC ("BHE Renewables"), one of the most recognized names in the renewable energy industry, and a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway Energy.

Included in the Portfolio is a total of 66 megawatts ("MW") of solar garden projects spread across 21 locations and 16 Minnesota counties, which will be constructed by the end of 2017.

This acquisition is in addition to a previously purchased portfolio of Geronimo-developed community solar gardens by BHE Renewables, bringing the total combined portfolio size to nearly 100 MW. [...]

Berkadia Commercial Mortgage, part of Warren Buffett's empire, buys Cleveland firm (Cleveland Plain Dealer)

Berkadia Commercial Mortgage LLC, part of the Berkshire Hathaway family of companies led by Warren Buffett, has entered Ohio by buying a Cleveland-based mortgage-banking firm.

Berkadia snapped up RiverCore Capital, a small firm that has arranged financing for major downtown properties including the Flats East Bank project and The 9 complex on East Ninth Street. Neither party would discuss terms of the deal, which closed March 4. [...]

Will Duracell Be the Next Big Company to Leave Connecticut? (Patch)

Duracell, previously owned by Procter & Gamble and based in Bethel, Conn., recently advertised a job opening for an IT Specialist in Chicago, IL. The Simply Hired posting stated that Berkshire Hathaway has "announced its intent to acquire Duracell by the end of 2015 and Duracell will relocate its corporate headquarters to Chicago."

The News Times reported on Wednesday that the battery maker and Berkshire Hathaway not made an official announcement designating Chicago as Duracell’s new headquarters, however, the online job posting says otherwise. [...]

Richline Group a Proud Member of Jewelry Industry Initiative to Combat Wildlife Trafficking (BusinessWire)

As announced by the U.S. Wildlife Trafficking Alliance, Richline Group—alongside jewelry industry leaders Signet Jewelers and Tiffany & Co.—is celebrating World Wildlife Day by announcing its commitments to support broad jewelry industry efforts in the fight against wildlife trafficking. [...]

Richline Group’s commitments include keeping the elimination of wildlife trafficking part of best practice discussion, and to assist companies that want to update their codes of conduct through the newly introduced IvoryFreeJewelry.com. [...]

The Dairy Queen System Proclaims the End of Winter Five Days Early With Free Cone Day on March 15 (BusinessWire)

In the Dairy Queen® system, a Berkshire Hathaway company, winter is over and spring has officially begun on Tuesday, March 15 with a Free Cone Day benefiting Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals®. [...]

Throughout the day, participating non-mall Dairy Queen and DQ Grill & Chill® locations across the U.S. will serve fans a FREE small vanilla soft-serve cone with the signature curl on top (limit one per customer while supplies last).

“Last year’s success of Free Cone Day surpassed all expectations and we have our fans to thank for that,” added Westrum. “Together we raised $140,000 in one day for Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals and we averaged serving more than 1,330 cones per store. We are looking to surpass those numbers this year. We can’t wait.” [...]

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 Subsidiary Briefs - 12/14/15

What It’s Like to Be Owned by Berkshire Hathaway (Harvard Business Review)

Berkshire Hathaway is known for its extreme decentralization. The company’s more than 80 operating subsidiaries have complete independence and minimal oversight from headquarters, which requires little else besides regular financial statements and the return of excess cash that is not needed to sustain and grow the business. The company does not ask for budgets, financial forecasts, or strategy documents. It has no central marketing, procurement, sales, HR, IT, or legal department. It does not even have a General Counsel. This is for a corporation greater in size than General Electric, General Motors, IBM, or Chevron.

How exactly does such a structure work, given that it defies almost every major tenet taught in business school regarding management and governance?

Could This Company Be Berkshire Hathaway's Largest "Bolt-On" Acquisition to Date? (Fool)

The Financial Times reported this morning that Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. is one of the companies exploring a bid for ITC. [...]

As of today, ITC Holdings has a market capitalization of $5.8 billion (enterprise value: $10.2 billion), which would make it the largest "bolt-on" acquisition in Berkshire Hathaway's history by a large margin.

However, the setup for this deal would be highly atypical for Berkshire, which generally announces agreed deals after conversations in which it is the sole potential acquirer.

Buffett's BNSF May 'Participate' In CP-Norfolk Battle (Investors Business Daily)

Shares of Norfolk Southern rose Friday on a report that BNSF Railway Chairman Matt Rose said his company may enter the bidding for the struggling railroad.

BNSF, which is controlled by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRKB), might step in to provide a competitive bid to Canadian Pacific Railway's $28 billion hostile offer for Norfolk Southern, Rose told Bloomberg in an interview.

How Berkshire Hathaway Travel Protection Is Targeting Millennials (Travel Agent Central)

From claims sent via smartphone to claim payments that can be made directly into the consumer’s bank or PayPal accounts, the company's technology-focused innovations are being used to attract a younger customer, says Sivley.

“In 2013, when we were looking at the market and what we wanted to do, it was all geared around the fact that we wanted to do something totally different and it was actually aimed at or targeted at the Millennials,” Sivley tells Travel Agent. [...]

NetJets' Profits Take Hit with Aircraft Cancellations (Aviation International News)

While its aircraft share sales have increased this year, NetJets' earnings suffered in the third quarter as the company continued to streamline its fleet with the cancellations of some older orders and the realignment with new models. In the quarter, NetJets reported a 37-percent drop in earnings from “increased nonfuel flight operation costs and increased general and administrative expenses, including fees to cancel certain aircraft purchases,” parent company Berkshire Hathaway reported.

Berkshire Hathaway often does not break out specifics on revenues and earnings for NetJets and its sister company FlightSafety International, and did not specify which aircraft cancellations eroded earnings in the third quarter. But French airframer Dassault in July reported the cancellation of a NetJets order for 20 Falcon 2000s that dated back to 2006. [...]

Warren Buffett And Berkshire Hathaway's Collection Of Privately Held Companies (Seeking Alpha)

Buffett has built up his wealth over the years through his conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway. The company started out as a textile business but over time transformed into a holding company for his many equity investments. Most of Berkshire's largest holdings are minority positions he's taken in large companies like Coca Cola and Wells Fargo.

But some may not know about the privately held companies that Buffett also owns. Buffett has been known to purchase some companies in entirety if he's a fan of its business model. Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway now fully own over 50 different companies including several well known names. [...]

How Warren Buffett Helps Start-Ups Without Spending a Dime (The Street)

Buffett, the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, "has never allocated capital to a start-up and wouldn't, because he's way too conservative," said Lawrence Cunningham, corporate law professor at George Washington University and author of Berkshire After Buffett. "On the other hand, the operating companies are allowed to do whatever they want pretty much."

Those companies include a variety of household names, from fast-food chain Dairy Queen to auto-insurer Geico and Burlington Northern railroad. And some of them, like furniture business CORT, are dipping their toes into the start-up realm. [...]

Berkshire News Briefs - 11/13/15

Berkshire Hathaway and the Billion-Dollar Acquisition No One Noticed (Fool)

Well, I wouldn't say no one noticed.

Through superior capital allocation and the resulting compounding of intrinsic value, Warren Buffett's conglomerate, Berkshire Hathaway, has become so large that its subsidiaries make billion-dollar acquisitions that go nearly unnoticed. [...]

On September 30, 2015, UTLX acquired approximately 25,000 tank cars from General Electric Company's leasing unit for a total purchase price of approximately $1.0 billion. This transaction and related transactions to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2015 are expected to further enhance the full-service capabilities of UTLX's repair, maintenance and inspection network and contribute to future revenue and earnings growth.

Here's the press release from Marmon, explaining that Union Tank Car (UTLX) and Procor will add the tank cars to their fleet which they lease out.

Kraft Heinz to close 7 North American plants, cut 2,600 jobs (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

Kraft Heinz Co. told about 2,600 employees at seven North American plants on Wednesday they wouldn’t have a future with the processed food company on a mission to streamline operations and meet goals set when investors created the bulked-up business earlier this year.

The cuts mark the second round of job trimming since the company was formed this summer in the merger of Pittsburgh’s H.J. Heinz Co. and Northfield, Ill.-based Kraft Foods Group. [...]

A plant in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley that employs 400 people making A1 sauce, Grey Poupon mustard and single-serve coffee is among those slated to close in the next 12 to 24 months.

It and five other plants being closed had been part of Kraft. Those are in Fullerton, Calif.; San Leandro, Calif.; Federalsburg, Md.; Campbell, N.Y.; and Madison, Wis. The other plant being shuttered, in St. Marys, Ontario, Canada, was a Heinz plant. [...] In addition, Kraft Heinz will move its Oscar Mayer and U.S. meats business from Madison, Wis., to Chicago, taking about 250 jobs along.

Warren Buffett's Ice Cream Chain Dairy Queen Looks to Fix Its Winter Problem (Newsmax)

With a new menu of snacks and sandwiches, the 75-year-old fixture of American summers is looking beyond its signature soft-serve and diving deeper into fast-food fare, where even giants like McDonald’s Corp. have been struggling lately.

It’s a major bet — but one that DQ’s chief executive officer, John Gainor, says is already starting to pay off. After introducing a line of hot desserts and artisan-style sandwiches, part of the company’s biggest menu overhaul in its history, same-store sales grew in September and October. [...]

The bigger test will come when winter sets in next month. The hope is new warm fudge-stuffed cookies and chicken-bacon sandwiches will get customers to think of Dairy Queen when the weather turns cold. [...]

Jordan’s Furniture to open in New Haven (Yale Daily News)

Zip lines, a 45-foot fountain and the world’s largest indoor adventure rope course will all come to New Haven in time for Christmas, bundled inside a 200,000-square-foot furniture store.

Jordan’s Furniture — a family-run business that offers shoppers entertainment options including theaters in six locations across New England — opens on 40 Sargent Dr., the former New Haven Register building, on Dec. 11, President and CEO Eliot Tatelman announced Wednesday [...]

Though Jordan’s is owned by American conglomerate holding company Berkshire Hathaway, Tatelman said his family runs the day-to-day affairs of the company. He added that Warren Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, will make an appearance at the private opening ceremony on Dec. 10.

Tianjin explosions cost Berkshire Hathaway $130 million in reinsurance losses (Canadian Underwriter)

Berkshire Hathaway Inc. reported Friday its estimated losses from the Tianjin, China explosions last August were $130 million, though the Q3 underwriting gain for the Berkshire Hathaway Primary Group increased 31% year over year. [...]

On Aug. 12, explosions in Tianjin originated from a warehouse storing 700 tons of sodium cyanide, which can form a flammable gas on contact with water, the Associated Press reported at the time. As of Sept. 11, AP reported 173 were dead and eight persons were still unaccounted for. Guy Carpenter & Company LLC said at the time that the blast damaged shipping containers and vehicles, while windows several kilometres away were blown out. [...]

Former NetJets executive joining private equity firm (Washington Post)

Four months after Jordan Hansell resigned in the midst of NetJets’ contract dispute with its pilots’ union, he took a job as president of Rockbridge Holdings.

While at NetJets, Hansell had appeared alongside Buffett in interviews to discuss the cost-cutting turnaround he led from 2011 until June. But near the end of tenure, Hansell became the focus of the union’s ire over concessions the company sought in prolonged talks.

“Ultimately, it became a little bit about me as a leader, and I thought it was probably best if I got out of the way to see if they could come to a conclusion in those arrangements,” Hansell said about why he left NetJets. [...]

Howard Buffett Is Getting His Hands Dirty (Bloomberg)

To date, the Howard G. Buffett Foundation has given away $775 million to combat global hunger—efforts include teaching sustainable farming techniques and improving access to clean water—especially in the world’s conflict zones. The Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda top his list of countries where he intends to spend a total of more than $700 million during the next decade. They’re about as far away as you can get from Omaha, Nebraska, the site of Buffett’s quiet, humble upbringing. [...]

Berkshire News Briefs - 9/19/15

BNSF Pressures Congress to Extend 2015 Rail Safety Deadline (Bloomberg)

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. [...]

NetJets Pilots Ask for Better Pay for Flying Millionaires (Vanity Fair)

[...] 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. [...]

Smaller panels have benefited Berkshire Hathaway (Intelligent Insurer)

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 Pushes Retirees to Health Exchanges to Cut Costs (Bloomberg)

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. [...]

International Dairy Queen Opens First Location in Poland (BusinessWire)

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. [...]

Shaw Industries to invest $45 million, create 50 jobs at S.C. plant (Dalton Daily Citizen)

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 [...]

Clayton builds disc golf course for all (Daily Times)

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. [...]

When I Die, My Entire Fortune Will Be Donated To Charity, Except The $40 Billion I Will Have Buried With Me (The Onion)

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. [...]

Berkshire News Briefs - 8/28/15

This week, 90% of the news I saw about Berkshire Hathaway fit into three categories:

1. Slower news outlets and blogs covering last week's announced purchase of Precision Castparts.
2. The stock market dip earlier this week caused Warren Buffett to lose a lot of money.
3. Comparisons between Berkshire Hathaway and Google... errr... Alphabet.

But there were a few interesting other news bits:

Geico to pay $6M to settle Calif. insurance bias charges (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)

Geico, the auto insurance unit of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc, agreed to pay $6 million to settle charges it discriminated based on gender, education level and occupation when quoting rates online, the California Department of Insurance said on Monday.

The settlement lasts three years and resolves claims first raised by the Consumer Federation of California against Geico, which insures more than 22 million vehicles.

Geico was accused of targeting women, people with low incomes and people not working in professional or executive jobs with deceptive and inflated rate quotations, while offering better terms to drivers it considered more desirable. [...]

DQ Bakes is Dairy Queen's largest-ever menu expansion (Minneapolis Star Tribune)

Look for a raft of Dairy Queen TV ads next month for the Turkey BLT, Triple Chocolate Brownie a la Mode and more items from the new DQ Bakes menu.

Dairy Queen says it’s the restaurant chain’s largest-ever menu boost, aimed at bolstering its appeal as a food destination, while fortifying its stronghold in sweet treats.

Dairy Queen’s franchisees nationwide are installing oven systems — a big investment — to make DQ Bakes. And the Edina-based chain is for the first time doing year-round advertising to burnish a brand that turned 75 this year. [...]

While Berkshire is publicly traded, it doesn’t include Dairy Queen’s results in its financial reports. Gainor said that Dairy Queen’s stores together do $4.1 billion in annual sales. The company’s massively popular Blizzard makes up about 36 percent of that tally.

The chain’s same-store sales growth, a key restaurant financial gauge, has been in the high single digits in the past year or so, and in the mid-single digits on average since the 2009 recession, Gainor said. [...]

Shaw to make more carpet from recycled PET (Plastics News)

Shaw Industries Group Inc. plans to spend tens of millions of dollars at a South Carolina carpet fiber plant to increase the use of fiber from recycled plastics.

The world’s largest carpet maker, based in Dalton, Ga., is planning new polyester extrusion operations that will include the use of recycled PET beverage containers. The company also will add nylon fiber capacity. [...]

The $45 million project will create more than 50 new jobs at the facility, which already employs 290, the company said. Across South Carolina, Shaw has seven plants and more than 1,500 workers. [...]

S&P: Reinsurance M&A Will Be Driven by Berkshire Hathaway Model (Insurance Journal)

“We have seen an increased interest by investors to emulate the Berkshire Hathaway Inc. business model,” S&P said in its report. “Through their investment holding companies, they are acquiring [insurer/reinsurers] with strong operating cash flows that will be upstreamed to the parent company. This buy now and pay later [insurance/reinsurance] model generates cash flows, or “float” that these [Berkshire Hathaway] copycats invest.” [...]

The Berkshire Hathaway “business model is hard to duplicate and it is becoming a crowded trade in an already saturated reinsurance market,” the ratings agency said. “We expect more similar deals to come to the market during the next 12 months, which will likely continue to put pressure on reinsurance pricing given these holding companies’ lower cost of capital relative to stand-alone, publicly traded reinsurers.”

Burger King peace offer to McDonald's: 'Let's make a McWhopper' (Business Insider)

In the name of global peace, Burger King proposed making the hybrid hamburger to its rival McDonald's on Wednesday, at least for one day, the United Nations-promoted International Day of Peace on Sept. 21.

Burger King, perpetually locked in tough competition with the larger but less profitable McDonald's, delivered the olive branch via a full-page advertisement in The New York Times, saying it is time to "call a ceasefire on these so-called burger wars." [...]

Behind the scene in the campaign is some of the financial power of Burger King's part-owner, Berkshire Hathaway head Warren Buffett.

Peace One Day is strongly backed by the charitable foundation of the tycoon's son Howard Buffett, who is a director of Berkshire Hathaway and possible successor to his father as chairman.