TV show “60 Minutes” had a profile of Howard Buffett following Buffett’s appointment of him as his preferred choice for non-Executive Chairman after Buffett somehow relinquishes that role. As a guardian of Berkshire’s unique culture, he is as good as it gets. We collect a few links and videos about Howard Buffett.
Much noise has been generated by MidAmerican’s purchase of First Solar’s $2 billion Topaz solar energy project. Yes, MidAmerican is Berkshire’s utility/ energy subsidiary and this sizable acquisition has certainly been cleared by Warren Buffett. That does not mean that “Buffett is buying/ betting on solar” as a category. It is Berkshire taking advantage of an opportunity.
Always great to be able to catch up on reading, or almost, and here are a few articles that caught our attention – along with two book lists bound to make us fall behind in our reading again.
First a quick interview (yes, that’s right) with Stephen Hawking. Off-topic for sure, but still inspiring. His sense of humor is impressive. Now for the meat of this post, a one-hour video (also embedded below) with Buffett and Ajit Jain, who emerged from the Dave Sokol affair as a very likely “candidate” for Buffett’s succession [...]
We have had for years a section in our Intranet on Tax legislation and another on interesting corporate structures that save money in any way – operationally, fiscally, etc. The overall idea is to study the state-of-the-art in all espects of corporate life – it’s useful to understand companies’ performances/ strategies/ cultural aspects, and if it’s good it can eventually be shown to companies we invest in. Of course, in the case of tax practices there’s a thin line between aggressiveness and innovation and falling into regulatory traps… Reading this NYT article out today, we still have no idea where GE fits in this range, but it’s safe to say that they’re certainly innovative in the tax department.
The WSJ published a story about the possible tactics that Buffett used in the Lubrizol acquisition. This part sounded like music to our ears: “(…) Buffett undoubtedly told Lubrizol that he would refuse to participate in an auction. And here is where you see Buffett’s cleverness at work. He puts his targets in a dilemma that really only has one answer: take the price that looks very good or let Buffett walk away. Buffett’s real genius is a mix of these tactics and his ability to identify undervalued companies combined with the courage to act quickly on his analysis. That mix has been a recipe for big profits for Berkshire.”
Two quick notes. First, a relatively superficial story about Brazil’s pre-salt oil’s potential for changing the country for good – or bad. It’s interesting to see how this story is being told abroad. Second, an interesting story on Jeffrey Kaplan, who for 24 years was involved with M&A – including some of the largest deals such as the HCA LBO. The interview is an interesting inside view on M&A, private equity, even debt markets.
Berkshire’s new acquisition looks like a logical extension of his Burlington Northern acquisition, in the “picks-and-shovels” realm of the Logistics sector. Bonus: our most loyal reader sent us the transcript of Buffett’s June 2010 testimony at a hearing of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission. You can always send us suggestions, links and texts at editor@buysiders.com.
Warren Buffett recently participated in CNBC’s annual “Ask Warren” 3-hour interview, and it’s never a waste of time despite the CNBC’s focus on shorter-term issues. In fact, this year brought a very funny exchange about gold, highlighted in this post. The whole 60-page transcript is embedded inside.
There’s timing and there’s packaging. The second is easier to control… This WSJ story highlights the success story of GLD, the Gold ETF, and the potential risks caused by its very success. By the way, we’ll have more on “packaging” in a future post.
Read more about The success story of Gold… the ETF, mind you
