Berkshire News Briefs - 2/23/18

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

Here's a summary from Dataroma.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Phillips 66 agrees to repurchase shares from Berkshire Hathaway subsidiary

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

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

Buffett's BNSF railroad eyes blockchain for shipping freight

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Buffett's Business Wire suffers cyberattack

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

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

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

Warren Buffett is retiring from Kraft Heinz board

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

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

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

Berkshire News Briefs - 5/17/17

Berkshire’s Earnings Hit Speed Bump on Insurance Businesses

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. hit a speed bump in the first quarter as insurance units posted an underwriting loss, overshadowing gains at the company’s railroad and energy business. [...]

First-quarter operating profit slipped 4.8 percent to $3.56 billion, the company said Friday in a statement. [...]

Berkshire’s war chest totaled $96.5 billion at the end of the first quarter, a record. [...]

Book value, a measure of assets minus liabilities that’s closely tracked by investors, rose 3.5 percent in the first quarter to $178,073 per share. [...]

Berkshire Hathaway press release on 1Q17 Earnings

Berkshire Cuts 21st Century Fox Stake, Adjusts Airline Bets

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. spent the first quarter fine-tuning its investments in airlines and technology companies, and retreating from 21st Century Fox Inc.

In a filing Monday detailing its stock portfolio at the end of the quarter, Berkshire no longer listed Fox. Holdings in American Airlines Group Inc. and Southwest Airlines Co. increased, while a stake in Delta Air Lines Inc. was reduced. Buffett previously disclosed that he boosted a bet on Apple Inc. in the first quarter as he pulled back from International Business Machines Corp. [...]

The new 13F filing is here. Berkshire Hathaway's updated stock holdings in an easy to read format from Dataroma is here.

5 Key Takeaways From Today's Berkshire Hathaway Meeting

So, what would prompt Berkshire to start putting its cash to work? Essentially, Buffett said that Berkshire wants to acquire businesses that will have a competitive advantage over the next five to 10 years, whose management teams are strong, and that are offered at a fair price. [...]

Buffett also said that if there's a persistent shortage of attractive investment opportunities, Berkshire may eventually choose to increase its buyback criteria of 120% of book value or less, but he is still optimistic about finding ways to deploy Berkshire's capital. [...]

Here's the best wit and wisdom from Warren Buffett at this year's Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting

Buffett and long-time business partner Charlie Munger spoke for hours at the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting Saturday in Omaha.

The pair frequently elicited laughter from the crowd of 40,000 by answering questions from shareholders and journalists with their usual folksy sense of humor and wisdom. [...]

A Comparison of Berkshire Hathaway Class A and Class B Shares

[...] From these tables, institutions and mutual fund holders own only 27% of the A shares, but 64% of the B shares. That can be explained by insiders and 5% owners holding 41% of the A shares and less than 1% of the B shares. According to Berkshire’s Notice of Annual Meeting of Shareholders May 6, 2017, Warren Buffett beneficially owned 38.3% of the A shares as of March 8, 2017. The insiders primarily accumulated their shares in the 1960’s and 1970’s when Berkshire traded at less than $100 per share.

It should be noted, however, that these tables imply that individuals (other than insiders) hold about 31% of the A shares and 35% of the B shares. [...]

Clayton Homes unveils new tiny home series

Clayton, a Berkshire Hathaway company and a builder of manufactured, modular and site-built homes, introduced its new tiny homes collection Saturday at the Berkshire Hathaway’s Annual Shareholders Meeting in Omaha, Nebraska. [...]

The homes are just 464 square feet and offer 270 degrees of window views. They have vaulted ceilings to give the homes a larger feel, and the master bedroom fits a queen-size bed and a full-height closet. [...]

Even in Texas, sometimes the billionaires lose

A bill that would carve out a loophole for Buffett’s chain of auto-dealerships in Texas — put on the fast track last month right after the billionaire’s meetings with Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick — ran into a wall of opposition from prominent Tea Party activists. They burned up the phone lines at the Capitol and publicly criticized what they saw as special treatment for the wealthy and connected.

Not long after those activists spoke out against the carve-out legislation in an open letter to the billionaire, Patrick pulled the “Buffett Bill” off the Texas Senate agenda, effectively killing it for now [...]

John Oliver eviscerates one of Warren Buffett's favorite companies

One of Warren Buffett's favorite stocks has just been attacked by HBO comedian John Oliver.

DaVita operates dialysis centers, and Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway owns a nearly 20% stake in the company. It was the subject of a scathing 24-minute long segment on Sunday's "Last Week Tonight."

Oliver accuses DaVita of pushing patients to continue receiving long and expensive dialysis treatments instead of having kidney transplants, which could eliminate the need for dialysis.

Berkshire News Briefs - 5/5/17

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).

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Berkshire Buys $250M In Sirius Tracking Stock

[...] 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. [...]

Liberty Media's CEO thanked Ted Weschler by name in a tweet about the purchase.

Warren Buffett has sold IBM shares, and 'revalued' tech icon downward, cites 'big strong competitors'

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. [...]

Berkshire's Duracell sues over gray market battery imports

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. [...]

Why Warren Buffett's candy company canceled its East Coast expansion

[...] 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 builds $14M training lodge, donates old structures for safehouses

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. [...]

20 surprising products Berkshire offers, including sump pumps, truck brakes, explosion-proof enclosures

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

[...]

Berkshire News Briefs - 12/24/15

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone! See you in 2016, unless Warren Buffett goes and buys another Fortune 500 company next week...

Warren Buffett has a year to forget (CNN Money)

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway is on track for its worst year since 2008. Shares of Berkshire's A and B shares are each down about 13% so far in 2015. [...] The last time the Oracle of Omaha's company did so poorly was in 2008, when both classes of Berkshire's stock fell 32%. [...]

This year, Buffett is lagging the market. The S&P 500 is down ... but only by 2%. The last time that Berkshire had a down year and underperformed the S&P 500 was all the way back in 1999. That year, the S&P 500 gained 19.5% while Berkshire's A shares fell 20% and the B shares were down 22%. [...]

A Fresh Peek at Berkshire Hathaway's Hot Portfolio and Valuations (Market Realist) A seven part series... just keep scrolling down the page for other installments. Lots of good analysis of the various business units.

Berkshire Hathaway, with a market capitalization of more than $335 billion, is a holding company whose subsidiaries engage in diverse business activities across sectors. The following are the major businesses where its subsidiaries operate: insurance and reinsurance, freight rail transportation, utilities and energy, finance, manufacturing, service and retail [...]

Buffett's NetJets Wins Agreement From Pilots Union on Contract (Newsmax Finance)

NetJets, the luxury aviation business at Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc., just won over its pilots union, ending a dispute that’s stretched on for years.

Members of the NetJets Association of Shared Aircraft Pilots, which represents more than 2,700 pilots who fly for the business, voted to ratify a new contract with the company, the union said Sunday in a statement. Of the pilots who voted, more than 75 percent endorsed the agreement, the union said.

The deal included a double-digit increase in average wages, a signing bonus and a continuation of company-funded health care, among other benefits. Negotiations had been a sore spot over the past few years for Buffett, Berkshire’s billionaire chairman and chief executive officer. [...]

How Buffett Turned Around A $23.5 Billion Insurance Bet (Fool)

Berkshire Hathaway's insurance companies are worthy of envy. Large, profitable, and responsible for generating billions of dollars for Buffett to invest, the insurance group at Berkshire Hathaway underlies much of its recent and historical success. [...]

In fact, in the last 10 years, three of four of its insurance units have been profitable in every single year. One, Berkshire Hathaway Reinsurance, lost money in just one of the last 10 years.

This result is simply phenomenal. When investment income earned from Berkshire's float is included, the insurance companies have been profitable in 17 out of the last 18 years. [...]

Why Wall Street is Wrong and Warren Buffett Is Right About Beaten-Down IBM (The Street)

For confirmation, look no further than Warren Buffett, who seems to understand IBM's hidden potential. Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway boosted its stake in IBM by roughly 2% in the third quarter to 81 million shares from 79.6 million, for a value of about $11.7 billion. That makes IBM Berkshire Hathaway's fourth biggest holding. [...]

But here's what most investors are missing and what Warren Buffett understands: IBM is in the midst of a profound corporate reinvention that will soon bear fruit. The company is shedding its declining hardware businesses to emphasize the higher-margin areas of cloud computing, analytics and big data. [...]

Buffett endorses Clinton, likens Republican debate to vaudeville (Chicago Tribune)

He also singled out Republican front-runner Donald Trump for bragging "every five minutes" about how smart he is.

"Incidentally, I went to Wharton, too," Buffett said, referring to the University of Pennsylvania's business school, which Trump attended. "And I left after two years to go to the University of Nebraska." [...]

Berkshire News Briefs - 11/24/15

The quarterly 13F came out last week, detailing the changes in Berkshire Hathaway's portfolio last quarter. Dataroma has a convenient chart to visually show what changed.

Berkshire Hathaway Reduces Goldman Sachs, Wal-Mart Stakes (ABC)

Buffett told CNBC on Monday that the main reason he reduced Berkshire's stakes in Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. was to generate cash for his $32 billion acquisition of Precision Castparts Corp. that's expected to close next year. [...]

Warren Buffett is having an unusually bad year (CNBC)

Warren Buffett has seen shares of his Berkshire Hathaway fall more than 11 percent this year. Even worse, Berkshire shares have underperformed the S&P 500 by more than 10 percent.

What makes this highly unusual is that Berkshire famously tends to underperform when the S&P skyrockets and outperform when the stocks as a whole do less well, which makes sense given Buffett's long-term time frame. [...]

Buffett Doubles Down on Big Blue (Fool)

To me, and presumably Buffett, as well, there's a readily identifiable disconnect with IBM's very gradually declining core business and the huge discount the market has placed on the company's future outlook. For context, IBM stock currently trades at a remarkably low 9.5x its LTM earnings, and yields 3.9%. Wall Street analysts expect IBM's revenue to continue to fall into next year, but believe that Big Blue will actually return to EPS growth in 2016. That reversal alone could be enough to inject some much-needed optimism into IBM shares, even as its broader business realignment requires more time to fully materialize.

Is Warren Buffett Still a Bargain Hunter? (CNN Money)

Consider Axalta Coating Systems, which makes automobile finishes and other coatings. [...] Axalta sells for a whopping 130 times its past 12 months of earnings and sports a price/earnings ratio of 22 based on future estimated profits. [...]

On paper, this would hardly seem like a stock that a vaunted bargain hunter would gravitate to. Yet Axalta isn’t the only example.

Berkshire Hathaway [Travel Insurance] expanding again (Insurance Business)

Insurance giant Berkshire Hathaway Travel Protection (BHTP) teamed up with VacationGuard, a specialist provider of vacation rental insurance, this week to create customized travel insurance products for timeshares, travel clubs, resorts and vacationers.

Targeted at both property owners and vacation renters, the products protect against trip cancellation, delays, injuries and accidental damage to rental units.

Fire at Leetsdale chemical plant leads to 70 homes being evacuated (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

Residents were evacuated from more than 70 Leetsdale homes Tuesday after a fire at a chemical manufacturing plant filled the sky with black smoke and noxious fumes.

Four workers at the Lubrizol Corp. Oilfield Chemistry site in the Leetsdale Industrial Park were adding chemicals used in gas well fracturing to a production tank about 10 a.m. when the fire exploded to life, a company spokesman said. The workers — and about 36 other employees — escaped the buildings, though five of the workers were injured.

Buffett’s Grandson Seeks Own Investment Route: Social Change (NY Times)

At 32, Howard Warren Buffett, the grandson of the Berkshire Hathaway founder Warren E. Buffett, has already enjoyed a diverse career. He teaches at Columbia University, runs a farm in Nebraska, previously oversaw his family’s foundation and worked on economic redevelopment efforts in Afghanistan for the Defense Department. [...]

Now, that is changing. Mr. Buffett has co-founded a permanently capitalized operating company with big ambitions [...] The plan is for the new company, called i(x) Investments, to invest in early-stage and undervalued companies that are working on issues such as clean energy, sustainable agriculture and water scarcity. [...]

Berkshire gets flak from ClimateTruth, others for solar panel policy (Omaha World-Herald)

A climate activist group said Tuesday that Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s utility division favors policies that would hinder the spread of rooftop solar energy panels.

Outside Omaha’s Kiewit Plaza, where Berkshire has its offices, representatives of ClimateTruth.org and other groups gave a security guard what they said was an electronic copy of an online petition with about 100,000 signatures. The petition, addressed to Berkshire Chairman Warren Buffett, said, “End your profit-driven challenges to net metering programs in Nevada and all over the country.”

Prominent film company focuses documentary lens on Buffett (Omaha World-Herald)

Kunhardt Films of Pleasantville, New York, is gathering information, photos and videos about the chairman and chief executive of Omaha-based Berkshire Hathaway Inc.

When the project airs, possibly within two years, Buffett would join a long list of prominent Americans profiled by the film company headed by Emmy winner Peter Kunhardt.

Berkshire News Briefs - 10/29/15

NetJets reaches deal with pilots, ending Berkshire Hathaway distraction (Columbus Business Journal)

NetJets Inc. has agreed in principle to a contract covering its 2,800 union pilots, ending more than two years of contentious negotiations that saw a management shakeup and required billionaire Warren Buffett to defend parent Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s attitude toward organized labor. [...]

The union said the proposed agreement meets goals of “protecting, repairing and improving” the previous contract. It comes days after NetJets reached a tentative contract with 278 flight attendants.

Warren Buffett’s Millionaires Club (WSJ)

In 50 years at the helm of Berkshire, Mr. Buffett has transformed a struggling textile mill into a massive holding company with $200 billion in revenue and created a legion of unlikely millionaires—and even a few billionaires. [...]

Early Berkshire stockholders have used shares to finance children’s educations, buy homes and put up collateral for loans. Hundreds of millions of dollars of stock already have gone to shareholders’ alma maters, cultural institutions and medical research.

Warren Buffett's really bad week (Fortune)

Warren Buffett likely had a worse week in the market than you did.

[...] Walmart’s stock fell 10%, [...] so that was a $360 million hit to the conglomerate’s investment portfolio. That same day, Wells Fargo [...] shares dropped a modest $0.36. But to Buffett’s Berkshire [...] that small drop meant another $170 million shaved off the Oracle of Omaha’s portfolio. Then came IBM, [...] IBM’s shares fell 6%, or $8.58. The resulted in a $680 million hit to Buffett’s Berkshire [...]

Three stocks, one week, $1.2 billion down the drain.

Trust and Consequences: A Survey of Berkshire Hathaway Operating Managers (Stanford)

For much of its history, Berkshire Hathaway has been regarded primarily as the investment vehicle of Warren Buffett rather than a bona fide corporation. However, as Berkshire Hathaway has expanded beyond its core insurance operations, more attention is being paid to the structure by which these entities are managed. Notable features of the company’s system are its decentralization, the autonomy afforded to its managers, its long-term investment horizon, and its emphasis on ethical behavior.

We explore this system in greater detail, based on the results of a survey of the chief executive officers of the company’s operating subsidiaries.

Precision Castparts Q2 Earnings & Revenues Lag, Down Y/Y (Nasdaq)

Precision Castparts Corp. reported second-quarter fiscal 2016 earnings from continuing operations of $2.49 per share [...] Also, the bottom line declined 23.1% on a year-over-year basis.

The decline in bottom line was mainly led by poor top-line performance during the quarter. Moreover, higher interest expense as well as selling & administrative costs dragged earnings. This apart, pricing pressure in the oil & gas market, persistent "fastener destocking" and operational issues in the Airframe Products segment added to the year-over-year fall in earnings. [...]

On Aug 10, 2015, Precision Castparts disclosed the signing of a merger deal with Berkshire Hathaway Inc. for about $37.2 billion. The deal is expected to conclude in the first quarter of calendar year 2016 [...]

BYD's Third-Quarter Profits Surge (Nasdaq)

BYD Co.said it is expecting a strong 2015 performance after the Chinese company on Thursday reported a surge in third-quarter net profit, lifted by higher electric-car sales and government subsidies.

The battery and car maker, which is 9.1%-owned by Berkshire Hathaway Energy, a unit of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc., said its net profit for the July-Sept period totaled 1.49 billion yuan (US$234.5 million), sharply higher from CNY28.2 million a year earlier. Its operating revenue during the period was up 23.5% to CNY16.9 billion. [...]

BYD expects its full-year net profit to rise by around 435% to 481% from a year ago, on anticipation of strong sales of its plug-in hybrid cars in the fourth quarter [...]

Buffett's Berkshire takes on Charles Taylor insurance books (Telegraph)

Charles Taylor has offloaded its last tranche of property and casualty insurance policies to a subsidiary of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, three years after increasing competition prompted it to call time on its general insurance run-off business. [...]

Tenecom, a subsidiary of Mr Buffett’s business empire, will liquidate the businesses before paying Charles Taylor a dividend.

Insurance consolidation firms such as Tenecom buy up legacy businesses from other firms in the hope of generating more money than it takes to pay for claims made on the policies before they expire.

7 Secrets From Warren Buffett’s Employees (Fool)

"I would describe it as very strange and almost bizarre the way he manages, because he doesn't manage," Matthew Rose, executive chairman of Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway said in a D Magazine article. "He takes companies that he likes, he spends a lot of time in terms of developing the goals of how management will be compensated and how the scorecard will look, and then he allows management to run the company."

Berkshire News Briefs - 1/30/15

Berkshire's NetJets Defeats $500 Million IRS Tax Claim (Business Insider)

NetJets Inc, the private jet-sharing company owned by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc , has defeated a U.S. Internal Revenue Service lawsuit attempting to recoup more than $500 million of unpaid taxes, penalties and interest. [...] The dispute arose from a series of IRS and federal court decisions over nearly two decades, on when and how Columbus-based NetJets should pay federal excise taxes.

Nearly 400 jobs coming to St. Joseph County as RV maker Forest River Manufacturing expands (MLive)

Astute readers may recall a similar story about Forest River also opening a new plant in California two weeks ago. The RV business seems to be booming.

Forest River Manufacturing LLC will spend $7 million to build its first recreational vehicle production site in Michigan over the next three years. The expansion into Michigan, from the company's headquarters in Elkhart, Ind., is expected to mean 396 new jobs over the next five years. [...] According to the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, which announced the project as one of two expansions just approved for Michigan Strategic Fund grants, Forest River is launching new products and plans to build the three facilities in the Village of White Pigeon to house each line.

BNSF expanding Bakken rail capacity (The Bakken Magazine)

BNSF’s North Region has experienced the most rapid growth in recent years and is a destination point for materials that support the production of crude oil in the Bakken. BNSF plans to invest approximately $700 million in the North Region to expand rail capacity and continue the implementation of Positive Train Control technology.

Port labor dispute is big concern for railroads Union Pacific, BNSF (Omaha World Herald)

With rail network congestion improving in some of the nation’s grain belt, Union Pacific Railroad and BNSF Railway are facing another prospective headache: a shutdown of the port complex of Los Angeles and Long Beach, the country’s largest. [...] BNSF spokeswoman Amy Casas said Friday that "unresolved labor issues" at the port complex of Los Angeles and Long Beach have the potential to cut into business at its intermodal terminals in both Los Angeles and San Bernardino. Cranes at the two make 1.5 billion container lifts a year.

MidAmerican earns top J.D. Power ranking (Quad City Business Journal)

Business customers rated MidAmerican Energy Co. the highest for overall satisfaction for the second year in a row, according to the J.D. Power Electric Utility Business Customer Satisfaction Study. The 2015 study measures satisfaction among business customers of 101 U.S. electric utilities. [...] MidAmerican took top honors again among 13 companies in the Midwest Region-Large Segment. Its overall satisfaction index score of 718 was up 21 points from last year, and 13 points ahead of the runner-up.

Berkshire Hathaway moves into Canadian insurance market (Toronto Star)

Commercial insurance company Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance is expanding into Canada and bringing with it big coverage rates set to shake up the industry. The company’s Canadian foray comes just 21 days after it entered the U.S. market. In the past two months, it picked up licenses to operate in Hong Kong and Singapore, signalling an ambitious expansion effort by the insurer, owned by business magnate Warren Buffet and known for its predilection for taking risks and growing quickly. [...] Pete Karageorgos, the director of the Insurance Bureau of Canada, said the expansion is "positive and growth is always good," but he warned that the Canadian insurance market has more regulatory oversight and different coverage levels than that of the U.S.

Buffett-Backed Heinz Sells $2 Billion of Bonds to Pay Down Loans (Bloomberg)

H.J. Heinz Co., the ketchup-maker owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. and 3G Capital Inc., sold $2 billion in bonds to repay a portion of its term loans, the company said in a statement. The 10-year second-lien notes were sold at par to yield 4.875 percent, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. [...] "Heinz is a household name with a tremendous history, stable products, they have been cutting costs, and in the end there is a Buffett premium priced in that helped the deal,” said Matthew Duch, a money manager at Calvert Investments in Bethesda, Maryland, which oversees more than $13 billion in assets. “The pricing was fair, and people are going in looking to park cash here."

Warren Buffett Bets on These Top Stocks for 2015 (Fool)

At the end of the third quarter, Berkshire Hathaway -- Warren Buffett's company -- disclosed it had a $17 billion stake in Coca-Cola, a $13.4 billion position in IBM, and roughly $5 billion in Wal-Mart. All signs indicate Buffett will continue to hold them into 2015 and well beyond.

Warren Buffett Stocks: 3 Dividend Aristocrats From Berkshire Hathaway's Portfolio (Fool)

To be considered a Dividend Aristocrat, a company must boast a history of at least 25 consecutive years of uninterrupted dividend growth. Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble, and Wal-Mart are not only part of that select group, they are also included in Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway portfolio.

Berkshire News Briefs - 11/6/14

Berkshire Hathaway is expected to release its 3rd quarter earnings after the market closes on Friday, November 7.

3 Things to Watch When Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Reports Earnings (Fool)

The elephant in the room with Berkshire Hathaway is the question surrounding what will be done with the mountain of cash it's currently sitting on. At the end of June, Berkshire had $55.5 billion in cold, hard cash sitting on its balance sheet. Astoundingly, that's nearly $20 billion more than it had in June of last year [...] In other words, in one year's time, Berkshire brought in cash roughly equivalent to the market value of Chipotle Mexican Grill. So the question becomes, what will Buffett do with all of that cash?

How Buffett's Brooks Running plans to become a $1 billion brand (Fortune)

Brooks Running Co., a subsidiary of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, hit the $500 million mark in annual sales last April. The company hit that milestone as a result of CEO Jim Weber’s efforts over a decade to specialize on running, rather than trying to be a mini-Nike and be all things to all people. The result is a 13% share of the performance running shoe market (Nike is in the low 40’s). Weber, CEO since 2001, says the company can become a billion-dollar brand at some point thanks to an overhaul to its apparel selection hitting stores in a year, a continued focus on marketing to runners specifically and sponsoring the right running events.

Crash into flight simulator company stops training (HutchNews)

(FlightSafety has been owned by Berkshire Hathaway since 1996.)

A twin-engine Beechcraft King Air crashed into the FlightSafety Cessna Pilot Learning Center on Thursday, killing the pilot and three people inside flight simulators. The cause of the crash, which also seriously damaged the building, is still being investigated. [...] FlightSafey will "definitely have to scramble" but has a large network to help and is good at managing situations, said Rolland Vincent, an aviation consultant. "This is very disruptive," Vincent said. "These flight simulators are very busy and are booked well in advance."

More:

FlightSafety operates five centers in Wichita (The Wichita Eagle)

The building struck by a Beechcraft King Air B200 at Wichita Mid-Continent Airport shortly after takeoff Thursday is one of FlightSafety International’s five centers in Wichita. Wichita has the highest concentration of FlightSafety centers in the world, the company has said. Pilots and maintenance technicians come to Wichita from around the world to train in Cessna, Learjet, Beechcraft and Hawker products.

Three bets going sour on Buffett (MarketWatch)

(Referencing losses with Tesco, IBM, and Coca-Cola.)

Judging by the share price alone, Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway is having a terrific 2014. After all, Berkshire Hathaway is up 17.7% year to date, trouncing the 7.95% rise in S&P 500. [...] Recently, several of Buffett's high-profile bets have fallen out of bed. Each stumble has its own particular explanation. But taken together, they share an overarching theme. The moats that protect these businesses aren't as wide as they once were. Even worse, competitors aren't even bothering to try to cross them. They're just inventing a completely different way of doing business.

MidAmerican Signs Longterm Wind-Power Services Deal With Siemens (Bloomberg Businessweek)

MidAmerican Energy Co., the utility owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc., has signed an agreement through June 2024 with Siemens AG to support a dozen wind farms in Iowa. Siemens will provide service and maintenance for 958 turbines that will have a combined capacity of more than 2.2 gigawatts, according to a statement today. Financial terms of the agreement weren’t disclosed.

Buffett Railroad’s Shale Focus Blunts Ports’ Comeback Bid (Bloomberg Businessweek)

Seattle and Tacoma are being stymied in their push to regain market share from Canada as railcars destined for the harbors sit idle on tracks across the U.S. Pacific Northwest. Even as the ports, on Washington’s Puget Sound, agreed to consolidate some operations after a century of competition, 40-fold growth in shipments of crude from the Bakken oil fields is straining the region’s main railroad company, BNSF Railway Co., causing delays that have helped shift traffic to less congested harbors in Canada. In September, as many as 150 grain cars piled up in nearby rail yards, said Dale Frazier, manager of Seattle Bulk Shipping Inc.

Forest River, Thor Foundation to Aid Employees (RV Business)

Forest River Inc., a Berkshire Hathaway company, and publicly held Thor Industries Inc. yesterday (Nov. 4) announced the establishment of an unprecedented community foundation set up to benefit the 15,000-plus employees of the two RV-building corporate giants and their families during times of need. The Forest River/Thor Community Foundation will be jointly funded by the two companies and will provide grants of up to $20,000 per qualifying employee or family to help cover emergency financial needs incurred in a variety of unforeseen family crises such as acute illnesses, natural disasters, fires or other hardships. Both firms are based in Elkhart, Ind.

Berkshire News Briefs - 10/24/14

Earnings announcement for BRK/B: Nov 07, 2014 (Nasdaq)

Warren Buffett Puts Wind in Berkshire’s Sails (WSJ)

Through a majority-owned subsidiary, Berkshire Hathaway Energy, Mr. Buffett plans to double the $15 billion already committed to renewable-energy projects through early this year, and he is on the hunt for more utility acquisitions. [...] The energy unit is key to Berkshire’s future—it generates more than 7% of the conglomerate’s earnings, and is likely to climb—while also providing Mr. Buffett a way to invest Berkshire’s ever-growing cash pile. [...] Another reason many Buffett watchers are paying attention: Berkshire Hathaway Energy is run by Greg Abel, a 52-year-old Canadian who is among the younger executives seen by analysts as possibly succeeding the 84-year-old billionaire as CEO.

Warren Buffett's Berkshire equity portfolio goes awry; loses $5 bn since June 30 (Economic Times)

Sharp drops in many of the stocks owned by Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway in recent weeks hit the sprawling conglomerate's equity portfolio hard. The loss on seven of those holdings alone totals more than $5 billion provided Berkshire's stakes have remained the same since June 30, the last date for which they were disclosed. In particular, Berkshire has been stung by large holdings in IBM and long-time Buffett favorite Coca-Cola, both of which tumbled after disappointing third-quarter results. His penchant for energy stocks hasn't helped either, given the damage done to the prices of energy assets by the slumping global oil price.

Warren Buffett sells more Tesco shares (The Guardian)

Berkshire Hathaway has further reduced its stake in Tesco in the wake of the admission by the investment group’s boss, Warren Buffett, that buying into the troubled supermarket group was a “huge mistake”. In a statement to the stock exchange, Tesco revealed that Berkshire Hathaway had reduced its holding on 13 October to less than 3% – one of the thresholds at which a company must inform the market.

Berkshire Hathaway: 20%+ Undervalued? DCF Calculation (Seeking Alpha)

The intrinsic value of BRK.B is calculated to be $166.94. This represents 22% upside from today's price. Zacks has recently upgraded Berkshire to 1 (Strong Buy) as analyst estimates have moved upwards. Berkshire is well diversified and is strongly equipped to handle adverse macroeconomic conditions. The company has returned an impressive 19.7% average growth in book value for the last 49 years.

Where in the World Is Warren Buffett? Everywhere (Bloomberg)

There's the Warren Buffett of the flavor industry. There's the Warren Buffett of “super-fancy hotels.” There are Buffetts of barges and of bass fishing, of Tampa, Thailand and Turkey. There's even a Warren Buffett of C-block, where a stock-picking, Buffett-quoting convicted murderer has been dubbed the Oracle of San Quentin. [...] while people around the world are anointed "The Warren Buffett of..." this and that, willy-nilly, the 84-year-old investor actually wants his personal brand to take a back seat to the Berkshire Hathaway's.

Berkshire News Briefs - 8/20/14

The biggest story of the week was Berkshire Hathaway's 2nd Quarter 13F filing, detailing the changes to the company's stock holdings for the period ending June 30. Here's a easy-to-read chart of the portfolio as it stands now.

This story has a run-down of all the changes in the largest holdings:

Tracking Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Portfolio - Q2 2014 Update (Seeking Alpha)

The only two entirely new positions this quarter were Now Inc. (DNOW), the National Oilwell Varco spin-off, and Charter Communications:

Warren Buffett buying into cable (RBR-TVBR)

Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. is again putting money on cable TV consolidation bets made by Liberty Media Corp. Chairman John Malone. The Oracle of Omaha’s investment company has taken a new, $366 million position in Charter Communications Inc., the Stamford, Connecticut-based cable TV company in which Malone’s Liberty Media is the largest shareholder.

A look at three portfolio moves in particular:

What’s Buffett Doing With His Money? (Wall St. Cheat Sheet)

First, Berkshire added about $340 million worth of IBM. This is not a huge transaction for Buffett, but he is adding this to an already substantial stake now valued at over $13 billion. [...] Second, Buffett has been buying Wal-Mart. While he only bought a small position in the second-quarter, I suspect that he has been buying more recently as the stock has been weak. [...] Finally, Buffett has been adding shares of Suncor — a Canadian oil company — while selling shares in ConocoPhillips and its recent spinoff Phillips 66. This is an interesting move and it probably reflects Suncor’s higher growth and the fact that Canada has a lower — 15 percent — corporate tax rate than we have in the U.S.

Berkshire Hathaway stock tops $200,000 (Yahoo/AP)

Berkshire Hathaway Class A stock, which first topped $1,000 in 1983, on Thursday surpassed $200,000. [...] The stock has had its ups and downs. The Class A shares first hit six figures in October 2006 and peaked at $151,650 in December 2007, when the Great Recession began. They fell as low as $70,050 in March 2009. On Thursday, they reached an all-time high of $202,454.99. Berkshire Hathaway has come a long way since Buffett's investment partnership started buying shares for $7 and $8 apiece in 1962. At that point, Berkshire was a New England textile company.

How Buffett Is Changing The Future Of Berkshire's Float - From Insurance To Uncle Sam (Seeking Alpha)

Insurance float is a concept that Warren Buffett has clearly explained as a source of enduring value for Berkshire Hathaway Inc. However, there are other sources of float that are becoming more important to Berkshire over time, but are not well understood by investors. Deferred tax liabilities (DTLs) are one area worthy of focus, and while I know that tax is boring, you will realize Buffett is truly a genius when it comes to float, so bear with me as I try my best to explain how it works, as it is complex. The first idea that might spring to mind for many people on deferred taxes is unrealised capital gains - to be clear, the focus of this article extends deeper than just this. Read on...

Berkshire Unit Said to Hires Two AIG Executives in Asia (Bloomberg)

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. hired two Asia-based executives from American International Group Inc. as part of a push to expand its presence in the region, a person familiar with the matter said. Marc Breuil, AIG’s head of country operations in Hong Kong and Taiwan, and Marcus Portbury, the regional head of casualty insurance, are joining Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire’s specialty insurance business, said the person, who requested anonymity because there was no public announcement. Breuil will lead the company’s efforts across Asia and Portbury will be head of casualty in the region, according to the person.

Berkshire to pay U.S. civil fine for violating reporting rules (Yahoo / Reuters)

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc has agreed to pay an $896,000 civil penalty to the U.S. government for having failed to timely report that it had boosted its voting stake in building products company USG Corp . [...] The government said Berkshire failed to made the necessary filing before swapping some USG convertible notes into common stock last Dec. 9. Berkshire made a corrective filing on Jan. 3, 2014, the complaint said.

Buffett Reveals Dow Chemical Position! (From 2009! It Was Old News!) (WSJ)

On a day when big hedge-fund managers were disclosing their latest positions, Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. alerted regulators Thursday to a big investment in Dow Chemical Co. It’s a position the company has held since 2009. The holding was hardly a secret: It was trumpeted by Dow at the time as one of the reasons it was able to complete a big acquisition, and Berkshire and Dow have discussed it in securities filings and public statements since. But Mr. Buffett’s firm, a sprawling conglomerate that famously employs just 25 people in its home office, admitted Thursday that a required “13G” form “was not timely filed” back when it should have been in 2009.

Vacant plant in Harrisburg has a new owner (KMTR 16)

The Monaco Coach plant has sat empty for months, but that will soon come to an end. According to Harrisburg [Oregon] City Administrator Brian Latta, RV maker Forest River Inc. has purchased the plant. Paul Eskritt with Forest River said the plant will start work in September with about 30 employees, most of whom they hope to hire locally. They plan to expand employment this winter with a second production line.

BNSF, CP improve rail service as harvest test nears (Journal of Commerce)

BNSF Railway and Canadian Pacific Railway say they are steadily reducing a backlog of grain shipments, but agricultural shippers warn the true test of whether they can handle the upcoming harvest will come quickly, in a week or two. Meanwhile, pressure from Washington, D.C., is mounting on the two railroads to make greater progress in reducing a backlog of shipments caused by the harsh 2013-2014 winter and a surge of freight. Following the U.S. Surface Transportation Board directing in late July that BNSF and CP post weekly updates on backlogged grain shipments, the U.S. regulatory agency said it will hold a public hearing on the issue in early September in Fargo, North Dakota.

Warren Buffett tips Heinz Australia into red (Australia Financial Review)

Warren Buffett, the second richest person in the United States, has inadvertently triggered a tumble into the red by the Australian operations of baked beans, baby food and soup maker Heinz. A heavy restructuring of the balance sheet at Heinz’s Australian operations and a recalibration of tax losses caused the Australian business known as Heinz Wattie’s to tumble to a loss of $12.3 million in its latest financial year.

Huge Geico Insurance Banner Falls on Fremont Home (NBC Bay Area)

One Bay Area couple can now say for certain their house is covered by insurance. A 4,000-square-foot Geico insurance banner being towed by a plane came loose and fell directly on their house Friday in Fremont.

Berkshire News Briefs - 8/12/14

3 Berkshire companies among national group's 'hot 100' retailers (Omaha World-Herald)

Yet three Berkshire Hathaway Inc. companies made the list of “hot 100” U.S. retailers, measured by increases in sales from 2012 to 2013, according to the National Retail Federation. And they didn’t add any stores or acquire competitors. The three:

• Helzberg’s Diamond Shops of North Kansas City, Missouri, No. 20 with a 15.7 percent increase in sales to $766 million at its 234 stores.
• Jordan’s Furniture, a five-store group from Taunton, Massachusetts, No. 24 with a 15.4 percent increase to $499 million.
• Nebraska Furniture Mart of Omaha, also with a 15.4 percent sales increase to $1.039 billion at its three stores.

Good 2Q for BNSF (Railway Age)

BNSF Railway, wholly owned by Omaha-based Berkshire Hathaway, Inc., has reported second-quarter net income of $916 million, up 4% from $884 million in the comparable quarter of 2013. [...] The Class I railroad noted coal volume rose 6% during the second quarter, while consumer product volume advanced 4% "primarily due to higher international intermodal traffic."

Buffett’s BNSF Losing Freight to Rival as Service Slows (Bloomberg)

BNSF Railway Co., the only U.S. railroad ordered by the regulator to provide weekly service updates, is losing market share to Union Pacific Corp., its main competitor, as train speeds slow and on-time deliveries drop. The shift in market share had shown up in carload statistics, Union Pacific Chief Executive Officer Jack Koraleski said today. During the second quarter, the Union Pacific’s loads rose 8.2 percent while those of BNSF, owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc., gained 4.9 percent. [...] Railroad service operations across the U.S. have suffered after harsh winter weather earlier this year coupled with a surge in cargo to create a freight knot that’s still being untangled. BNSF, based in Fort Worth, Texas, was affected most among U.S. rails because its network bore the brunt of a bumper grain crop and the exponential growth of crude oil from the Bakken oil fields in North Dakota.

Related:
Cold Train cites BNSF congestion, suspends service (Railway Age)
Big harvest adds to railroad woes (Farm & Ranch Guide)

Lubrizol Corp. buys medical extruder Vesta Inc. (Plastics News)

Lubrizol Corp. has ventured into the medical device market by acquiring Vesta Inc., a maker of catheters and tubing based on silicone and thermoplastics. [...] The 42-year-old firm has a long history of medical design engineering experience with clinical device applications in cardiology, urology, wound care and bariatrics, officials said. Vesta was acquired by RoundTable in 2007 and grew by acquiring thermoplastic medical tubing maker ExtruMed LLC in 2009 and silicone products maker SiMatrix in 2011. It has about 450 employees.

Buffett Stocks: Investing Essentials (Fool)

Generally speaking, there are about 50 companies held in the Berkshire Hathaway portfolio ranging from one position worth less than half a million at the time of writing, to the Wells Fargo holding which is worth a staggering $25.4 billion. Buffett has what he affectionately calls his "Big Four" -- which as you would suspect include Wells Fargo, American Express, Coca-Cola, and recently purchased IBM. At last count, they had a value of nearly $70 billion, which represented roughly 60% of the portfolio. And in total, the 15 biggest positions represented nearly 90% of what Berkshire Hathaway held. All of this is to say, the stocks Buffett really clings to are relatively small in number.

Warren Buffett's Secret Key to Building an Money-Making Empire (Fool)

At Berkshire it's not as simple as, "Well, who should become the chief executive?" You've got to think about that role, the role of the investment officer, the role of the Chairman of the Board of Directors, the role of the controlling shareholder; so it's a much more complicated question. It's not just a personality. It's institution and culture. [...] I did a shareholder survey -- that The Motley Fool helped me do, actually -- and elicited suggestions from shareholders about who they would like to see in an executive role with Berkshire after Warren, and I got a dozen names that were identified scores of times. That's testimony to the deep bench, so that's relatively easy. There's at least a dozen people who could step in and become Chief Executive Officer.

Berkshire News Briefs - 11/22/13

Berkshire Hathaway real estate brand wants to compete online with Trulio, Zillow (Des Moines Register)

For-sale signs bearing the name of Warren Buffett’s flagship company Berkshire Hathaway will start appearing Thursday in Des Moines area front yards. [...] But the biggest change for the resulting firm, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices First Realty, might be what appears online. BerkshireHathawayHS.com will host a national home listing database as well as market research for consumers. Ron Peltier, chairman and CEO of the parent company HomeServices of America, said he wants the company’s new website to compete with home listing aggregators Zillow.com and Trulia.com.

In other real estate news, the former Prudential real estate brokerages joining Berkshire Hathaway in the news this week include a large Florida-wide agency, Des Moines, IA, Irvine, CA, and Denver, CO.

Warren Buffett's Biggest Losers (Fool)

The latest update from Berkshire Hathaway about its stock holdings at the end of the third quarter was released last Thursday, and there were three companies that lost Berkshire Hathaway and Warren Buffett a combined $1.4 billion of value from the second quarter to the third. [...] In the second quarter, Berkshire Hathaway's 400 million shares of Coca-Cola were worth just north of $16 billion -- but at the end of the third quarter, that number had fallen down to $15.2 billion, for a total loss of $892 million, or about 5.5%. [...] The difficulties of IBM have been well documented, and the 3% fall in this tech giant over the quarter resulted in a $400 million loss to the $13 billion position Berkshire Hathaway held. [...] Procter & Gamble remains the fourth largest position in the Berkshire Hathaway portfolio, but its 2% dip in price meant that Berkshire saw an unrealized loss of around $75 million.

What Is Buffett's Plan With ExxonMobil? (Fool)

Warren Buffet's strategy is well known. He likes to buy companies with large moats, competitive advantages, and predictable cash flows that will be around for a long time. The ExxonMobil purchase fits very well with that strategy. As the largest non-government owned oil company, it has immense economies of scale, considerable expertise in complex projects, numerous government connections, a fortress-like balance sheet, and a low cost of capital.

Carpet for a World of Health and Abundance (Sacramento Bee / PR Newswire)

William McDonough and Patcraft, a division of Shaw (a Berkshire Hathaway Company and the world's largest carpet manufacturer), collaborated to design Butterfly Effect flooring to demonstrate how a product—carpet—can be part of a positive path toward a healthier world. [...] Two percent of proceeds will go directly to help St. Jude Children's Research Hospital fund their life-saving treatments and groundbreaking research in pediatric cancer. "The Butterfly Effect describes the notion in chaos theory that something as small as a butterfly flapping its wings in China can yield something as significant as a hurricane off the coast of Africa. As designers, we like our work to be connected to bigger ideas," says William McDonough. "The Butterfly Effect collection demonstrates the power of inspiring design, the ripple effects of Cradle to Cradle CertifiedCM products, and how we can help pediatric cancer patients globally via research."

How Kinder Morgan Is Like Berkshire Hathaway And Why Both Should Outperform (Seeking Alpha)

At first glance Berkshire Hathaway and Kinder Morgan appear to be very different [...] Although most people won't look far past these superficial differences, those who dig deeper can start to see how similar both companies are. Both Kinder Morgan, Inc. and Berkshire Hathaway share a number of traits which are generally associated with market outperformance.

Warren Buffett Watch: Thinking outside ‘asbestos tort box’ (Omaha World-Herald)

This is a regular feature in the Omaha World-Herald that wraps up a lot of smaller stories about Berkshire Hathaway and Buffett. Here are short excerpts from four unrelated items in the article:

Recent discussion about Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s asbestos risk insurance prompted a contact from Rachel Maines, a visiting professor at Cornell University’s School of Electrical & Computer Engineering. [...] But she disputes that narrative’s facts and says responsibility for asbestos-related claims often is wrongly assigned to property owners and others who are sued. [...]

Berkshire Chairman and CEO Warren Buffett got a good review from the Las Vegas Review-Journal after his MidAmerican Energy division and other parties agreed to a settlement viewed as pro-consumer. [...]

“I’m glad you didn’t try and cash that check,” the nurse said. “This old man is from a nursing home. He sometimes dresses up and pretends he is Warren Buffett, but he is really not.” [...]

In a rare joint interview, Buffett and Berkshire Vice Chairman Charlie Munger told Patricia Sellers for Fortune magazine and CNN that they aren’t the smartest guys around. [...]

Warren Buffett: How to teach your children about money (NBC News)

Most parents know how important it is to teach kids about money and managing it properly. There was a study many years ago questioning how to predict business success later in life. The answer to the study was the age you started your first business impacted how successful you were later in life. Teaching kids sound financial habits at an early age gives kids the opportunity to be successful when they are an adult.

Warren Buffett's Secret: He Was a Shoplifter (Fool)

Before Warren Buffett became the world's greatest investor at Berkshire Hathaway, he was a world-class shoplifter. He retold the story, which was published in The Snowball, an authorized biography of his life. Warren Buffett tells Alice Shroeder, the author, that he and a friend had a particular favor for stealing from Sears. [...] What's truly remarkable is that, before this story was ever told in his biography, it wasn't ever really public. Buffett could have taken this story to the grave. But he didn't. He told it, and he told it honestly in a book that he knew millions of people would read.

The Dairy Queen(R) System and Orange Julius(R) Encourage Fans to Name the "Today" Show Goldfish Julius (MarketWatch / BusinessWire)

The Dairy Queen system, part of Berkshire Hathaway , has the perfect name for the "Today" show's Orange Room goldfish mascot: Julius. The show welcomed its newest member and is now turning to viewers to help name it. [...] Vote for the name "Julius" by visiting [http://www.today.com/pets/help-name-orange-room-goldfish-2D11632485] International Dairy Queen, Inc. acquired the Orange Julius concept, famous for its frothy fruit-blended Julius Original drink, in 1987, but the highly popular brand has been around for more than 85 years.