Billionaire investing icon Warren Buffett said on Tuesday there are dozens of countries in which his sprawling Berkshire Hathaway Inc conglomerate would be interested in buying new businesses.
Berkshire earlier this year agreed to acquire a German motorcycle apparel and accessories retailer - a purchase that Buffett described as an advertisement to markets that he is shopping abroad. [...]
Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Increases Holdings in Phillips 66 (Business Finance News)
Berkshire Hathaway Inc. increased its investment in Phillips 66. The purchase of another 3.51 million shares of US oil refiner has sum the total number of stakes to 11.4%. Berkshire now holds about 61.5 million shares in the company, with net worth of $4.98 billion. [...]
Another reason for Mr. Buffet’s investment might be that Phillips is one of the customers of Berkshire’s Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) railroad division. With the supply glut in the economy, more refining opportunities existed for refiners. In order to get the oil to the markets, Phillips turned towards BNSF for service. An increased stake in Phillips 66 might be in best interest of BNSF. [...]
Of would-be $1B fees, trips to Omaha and hardball negotiating: Behind the scenes of the Precision-Berkshire deal (Portland Business Journal)
A new Securities and Exchange Commission document outlining specifics of the pending Precision Castparts Corp. sale to Berkshire Hathaway offers insights into the worlds of two upper-echelon business leaders. [...]
Before the companies reached that point, though, many pieces needed to all into place. Here's a truncated timeline, based on last week's SEC filing. [...]
Follow Buffett Reinsurance Guru’s Sage Advice (WSJ)
When Ajit Jain can’t see value in reinsurance, investors across the industry should worry.
The man who runs Warren Buffett’s reinsurance business told The Wall Street Journal this summer that Berkshire Hathaway would be putting more money into normal commercial and retail insurance instead.
Mr. Jain’s views are almost as influential among reinsurers as Mr. Buffett’s are among investors. [...]
Symmonds' stand a boost for Seattle-based Brooks Running (King 5)
[...] Symmonds, after all, is a two-time Olympian and six-time U.S. Champion. He won the 800-meter race at the U.S. Nationals earlier this year and was poised to be a part of last week's events.Nevada solar update: Senator Harry Reid takes on Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway in net metering debate (Lexology)
That was until he was asked to sign a document.
"I'm outspoken and some would say brash, arrogant, I don't know," he said. But he felt like he needed to take a stand, when USA Track and Field required him to sign a Statement of Conditions to take part in the competition. He declined. "I wasn't going to sign a contract without all the terms defined."
That's because Symmonds felt the contract required him to wear Nike branded Team USA gear all the time in Beijing. He's sponsored by Seattle-based Brooks Running and says he's a loyal guy.
"I'm a businessman and when you have partners you try to protect those partners. I want to run for Brooks for another 10 years."
Nevada’s solar net metering policies will continue until year end, perhaps in part thanks to Senator Reid (D-NV) who threatened to intervene in the state’s Public Utilities Commission’s (PUC) review of the policy. Senator Reid, a staunch renewable energy advocate, believed that residential solar in Nevada had gotten a “lousy deal,” and pointed the finger at Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway. [...]
While NV Energy is promoting policies that make roof top solar potentially uneconomic, Warren Buffet has boosted his holding company’s massive investments in large-scale renewable energy—an attractive investment in the state due to Nevada’s ample solar incentives for industrial sized installations for businesses and power companies. [...]
Richline Debuts Wearable Style News Website (IDEX)
The Richline Group has announced the launch of a wearables news website. The company says that WearableStyleNews.com “brings a unique ‘function needs fashion’ perspective to the rapidly growing world of wearables.”Warren Buffett On LTCM, Blind Spots, Leverage, and Unnecessary Risk (Alpha Architect)
The site will focus on the designers, technologists, and manufacturers who are leading the wearable industry. The blog features curated and original content, including interviews with industry talent such as Uri Keren, CEO and co-founder of Hermes Innovation, Scott Amyx of Amyx+McKinsey and Amanda Parkes, Chief of Technology & Research for Manufacture NY. [...]
Notes and highlights from a Buffett talk from 2007. The full talk and Q&A is on YouTube.
Here's an excerpt of Buffett talking about the collapse of Long-Term Capital Management (LTCM):
The whole story is really fascinating because if you take John Merriwether, and Eric Rosenfeld, Larry Hilibrand, Greg Hawkins, Victor Haghani, the two Nobel Prize winners, Merton and Scholes, if you take the 16 of them, they probably have as high an average IQ as any 16 people working together in one business in the country…an incredible amount of intellect in that room. Now you combine that with the fact that those 16 had had extensive experience in the field they were operating in…In aggregate, the 16 had probably had 350 or 400 years of experience doing exactly what they were doing. And then you throw in the third factor that most of them had virtually all of their very substantial net worths in the business. So they had their own money up. Hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars of their own money up. Super high intellect, working in a field they knew. And essentially they went broke. And that to me is fascinating. [...]
