Buffett
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 [...]
A Bloomberg news story on Buffett’s “interest” in Brazil has the local markets reacting today. Explaining: Bloomberg compiled a list of 27 companies that “fulfill Buffett’s criteria” as explained in his Owner’s Manual – but while Buffett’s criteria are subjective, Bloomberg had to put numbers to the qualitative descriptions, so it’s little more than guesswork. The market reacted as if Buffett himself was issuing buy orders… We could easily see Buffett warming up to Odontoprev or Marcopolo, but it still wasn’t this time around.
We provide links to the best stories we’ve found on the web about the 2011 Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting. When reading the stories or watching the videos, always remember to keep an open eye to the writer’s biases, experiences, leanings and incentives – as well as to your own, of course. Also keep in mind the relevant subjects discussed in the meeting that just weren’t given enough media because of the Sokol affair, such as the insurance cycle.
UPDATE: The Berkshire Hathaway annual was live when we published the post below, and the Wall Street Journal really was the best source for live coverage during the day. In fact, not only because of the content, but also because of the mobile/smartphone-friendly page. We hope this source was useful for our readers, and expect to post here links to the best post-meeting coverage and analysis.
The Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting is still under way and so far the best source for live-blogging coverage is the Wall Street Journal. Enjoy!
http://blogs.wsj.com/deals/2011/04/30/live-blog-the-berkshire-hathaway-annual-meeting/
The Audit Committee of Berkshire Hathaway has just concluded its report regarding Dave Sokol’s trading in Lubrizol shares. They found that “Mr. Sokol’s conversations with Mr. Buffett and others at Berkshire Hathaway were ‘intended to deceive’ and ‘its effect was to mislead.’ ” Now that the “hype” is unprecedented in terms of a Berkshire “conflict”, and that the noise levels are bound to get even higher, it’s important to try and separate what’s relevant.
Two updates to our posts: ONE – Carl Icahn really didn’t like at least one sentence in the NYT story we posted a few days ago – and wrote an “instant classic” of a letter to the editor. TWO – Stanford CG professors organize the Dave Sokol resignation issues and ask relevant questions in an 11-page PDF.
Much has been said and written in the days since the Dave Sokol story broke – most of it noise, speculation, personal attacks and so on. But there are some valid criticisms, questions and at least one new piece of relevant information in Andrew Ross Sorkin’s story today in NYT’s Dealbook. The new info seems serious: apparently Mr. Sokol bought shares one day “after he told Citigroup to indicate Berkshire’s interest in buying the company”.
Dave Sokol, CEO of MidAmerican and Netjets (both Berkshire Hathaway businesses) and heir apparent to Buffett’s CEO role, has left Berkshire and one of the reasons doesn’t smell too good. Reading the letter from Buffett discussing the resignation, it’s clear that he had to go: the mere appearance of a Berkshire “luminary” practically “front-running” Buffett and Berkshire would be unacceptable (we don’t like it but can’t call it, and we’d discount any strong opinion emanating from anyone other than Buffett or Sokol).
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.”
