Warren Buffett is big winner after US bank stress tests
Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway is poised to net about $1.7bn in dividends after Wells Fargo and other banks in which he is a shareholder sailed through the Federal Reserve’s annual stress tests. [...]
Berkshire is one of the biggest single investors in the financial sector globally. It is the number one shareholder in lenders including Wells, Bank of America and American Express, and has sizeable stakes in several others. [...]
Amazon-Berkshire-JPMorgan Health Venture Takes Aim at Middlemen
The health venture established by Amazon.com Inc., Berkshire Hathaway Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. will take aim at intermediaries in the health-care system as a part of a broad effort to reduce wasteful spending, the venture’s newly named chief executive officer said.
The still-unnamed business will initially seek to develop ways to improve care for the more than 1 million individuals who get health insurance from the three firms. Over time, the venture will make those innovations available freely to other companies, meaning that if it’s successful, its effects could be felt more broadly among the more than 150 million people in the U.S. who get their health insurance through work. [...]
As the newspaper industry navigates a decline in print circulation and advertising revenue, hometown owner Warren Buffett is assigning the fate of his own BH Media Group to an out-of-town company.
Lee Enterprises of Davenport, Iowa, will manage The World-Herald and the 29 other Berkshire Hathaway-owned daily newspapers, the companies announced Tuesday in a five-year agreement that could bring Lee $50 million over five years.
Berkshire Hathaway's Acquisitive Clayton Lands Arbor Homes
After an 18-month courtship, Maryville, Tenn-based Clayton Properties Group closed on the acquisition of Indianapolis' No. 1-ranked home building firm, Arbor Homes, adding to its 8-state map a 24-year old private builder whose signature stock in trade is a rarity these days: the profitable below-$200,000 site-built home.
The 7th regional site-build jewel in the Clayton crown adds to its suddenly hefty portfolio of regional firms--on pace to deliver as many as 4,500 homes in 2018--gives the Berkshire Hathaway unit fresh headway and a platform to launch further inroads in its goal to provide people priced out of many housing markets with an attainable path to homeownership. [...]
BNSF estimates 230,000 gallons of oil spilled in NW Iowa
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds visited Saturday to authorities assigned to clean up 230,000 gallons of oil that spilled Friday morning into the Little Rock River near Doon in northwest Iowa.
The spill was caused by a derailed BNSF train. [...]
The company reported later Saturday that about 100,000 gallons of the 230,000 gallons of spilled oil had been contained, and that oil would be removed from the immediate area with oil-water separators. [...]
How Warren Buffett and Bill Gates ended up walking into an Old Market store
Warren Buffett and Bill Gates didn’t just wander into an Old Market nostalgia store the day after the Berkshire Hathaway shareholders meeting in May, with “Little Brown Jug” playing in the background.
No, some of Gates’ staffers had been to Omaha in the past and were fascinated by Larry Richling’s Fairmont Antiques & Mercantile store/Hollywood Candy, 1209 Jackson St., and its combination of candy store, memorabilia collections, soda fountain and more.
The Gates group decided that it would be just the place for an episode of Gates’ video blog, showing the two friends having a good ‘ol time in Omaha. [...]
