Buffett/Berkshire - general news

[fareastwarriors]

Buffett’s Assistant Cool Named CEO of Pampered Chef Unit

 

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-10-27/buffett-s-assistant-cool-named-ceo-of-pampered-chef-unit-1-.html

[oddballstocks]

Buffett’s Assistant Cool Named CEO of Pampered Chef Unit

 

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-10-27/buffett-s-assistant-cool-named-ceo-of-pampered-chef-unit-1-.html

 

The next CEO of Berkshire adds one more loop to her belt.

[fareastwarriors]

Buffett’s Assistant Cool Named CEO of Pampered Chef Unit

 

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-10-27/buffett-s-assistant-cool-named-ceo-of-pampered-chef-unit-1-.html

 

The next CEO of Berkshire adds one more loop to her belt.

 

 

 

 

 

Advice from Buffett's 30-year-old right-hand woman

 

http://www.cnbc.com/id/102137315?trknav=homestack:topnews:3

[JAllen]

StockBase.com, a stock news site I built that delivers SEC filings and news from dozens of sources into one easy to create feed, found a couple of articles I don't see here:

 

 

Q&A: Leo Carroll, Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance

http://www.businessinsurance.com/article/20141028/NEWS06/141029828

 

 

and Buffett sold a business!

 

 

Berkshire Hathaway sells marketing unit

 

 

http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSL1N0SN36A20141028?irpc=932

[thefatbaboon]

Maybe I'm being bitchy, but does anyone else think Brit Cool should stop giving advice and interviews until she has actually done something?  She's 30 years old and the only thing I'm aware of her having done is hire the husband of a friend of hers to run Benjamin Moore and subsequently fire him when he cheated on her friend with a secretary.

 

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/advice-buffetts-30-old-hand-174812229.html

[Kraven]

Maybe I'm being bitchy, but does anyone else think Brit Cool should stop giving advice and interviews until she has actually done something?  She's 30 years old and the only thing I'm aware of her having done is hire the husband of a friend of hers to run Benjamin Moore and subsequently fire him when he cheated on her friend with a secretary.

 

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/advice-buffetts-30-old-hand-174812229.html

 

No, you're not being bitchy but it's pretty clear you don't understand.  I will help you here.  I could give you a long winded explanation, but instead I will go a step further.  There are several truisms in the investing world that the sooner you commit to memory, the easier your investing will be.  If after reading through these and digesting them you still don't understand please let me know and I will discuss further. 

 

In no particular order, here they are:

 

1.  Any decision by Buffett is correct.

 

2.  Any statement by Buffett or Munger is witty, profound and embedded with the truth of the universe.

 

3.  Fairfax will compound book value at 15% a year.

 

4.  Any time the market falls more than 0.1% Fairfax's hedges are proven correct.

 

5.  Eddie is a genius and the more his decisions are incomprehensible to the average person, the more genius they are.

 

6.  Eddie is a kick ass capital allocator and, thus, his capital allocation decisions are kick ass.

 

Hope this helps.

[onyx1]

Maybe I'm being bitchy, but does anyone else think Brit Cool should stop giving advice and interviews until she has actually done something?  She's 30 years old and the only thing I'm aware of her having done is hire the husband of a friend of hers to run Benjamin Moore and subsequently fire him when he cheated on her friend with a secretary.

 

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/advice-buffetts-30-old-hand-174812229.html

 

No, you're not being bitchy but it's pretty clear you don't understand.  I will help you here.  I could give you a long winded explanation, but instead I will go a step further.  There are several truisms in the investing world that the sooner you commit to memory, the easier your investing will be.  If after reading through these and digesting them you still don't understand please let me know and I will discuss further. 

 

In no particular order, here they are:

 

1.  Any decision by Buffett is correct.

 

2.  Any statement by Buffett or Munger is witty, profound and embedded with the truth of the universe.

 

3.  Fairfax will compound book value at 15% a year.

 

4.  Any time the market falls more than 0.1% Fairfax's hedges are proven correct.

 

5.  Eddie is a genius and the more his decisions are incomprehensible to the average person, the more genius they are.

 

6.  Eddie is a kick ass capital allocator and, thus, his capital allocation decisions are kick ass.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Classic!

[warrior]

Maybe I'm being bitchy, but does anyone else think Brit Cool should stop giving advice and interviews until she has actually done something?  She's 30 years old and the only thing I'm aware of her having done is hire the husband of a friend of hers to run Benjamin Moore and subsequently fire him when he cheated on her friend with a secretary.

 

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/advice-buffetts-30-old-hand-174812229.html

 

No, you're not being bitchy but it's pretty clear you don't understand.  I will help you here.  I could give you a long winded explanation, but instead I will go a step further.  There are several truisms in the investing world that the sooner you commit to memory, the easier your investing will be.  If after reading through these and digesting them you still don't understand please let me know and I will discuss further. 

 

In no particular order, here they are:

 

1.  Any decision by Buffett is correct.

 

2.  Any statement by Buffett or Munger is witty, profound and embedded with the truth of the universe.

 

3.  Fairfax will compound book value at 15% a year.

 

4.  Any time the market falls more than 0.1% Fairfax's hedges are proven correct.

 

5.  Eddie is a genius and the more his decisions are incomprehensible to the average person, the more genius they are.

 

6.  Eddie is a kick ass capital allocator and, thus, his capital allocation decisions are kick ass.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Classic!

 

 

+1… , Indeed, classic Kraven

[thefatbaboon]

But Kraven I have long accepted this code  ;D  You'll note however that even on the list of commandments there is no mention of Brit Cool!

[Palantir]

Maybe I'm being bitchy, but does anyone else think Brit Cool should stop giving advice and interviews until she has actually done something?  She's 30 years old and the only thing I'm aware of her having done is hire the husband of a friend of hers to run Benjamin Moore and subsequently fire him when he cheated on her friend with a secretary.

 

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/advice-buffetts-30-old-hand-174812229.html

 

Now I ain't saying she a gold digger,

But she ain't messin' with no broke...

[alwaysinvert]

Maybe I'm being bitchy, but does anyone else think Brit Cool should stop giving advice and interviews until she has actually done something?  She's 30 years old and the only thing I'm aware of her having done is hire the husband of a friend of hers to run Benjamin Moore and subsequently fire him when he cheated on her friend with a secretary.

 

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/advice-buffetts-30-old-hand-174812229.html

Is that part true? If it is, it really doesn't bode well for BRK post-Buffett. On the other hand, pardon me if I'm being sexist or something here, but hiring her straight out of school when he has turned down multiple super talents with far more experience (Pabrai comes to mind) who also offered to work for free/very little may not have been optimal either.

[Palantir]

^To be fair, WEB does have a weakness for young, attractive blondes...

[rmitz]

^To be fair, WEB does have a weakness for young, attractive blondes...

 

I think it’s much more likely that she got lucky.  She can’t have been the first woman to try.  He may have started to realize just at that time that he needed more help for some of these things. 

[sleepydragon]

^To be fair, WEB does have a weakness for young, attractive blondes...

 

I think it’s much more likely that she got lucky.  She can’t have been the first woman to try.  He may have started to realize just at that time that he needed more help for some of these things.

 

To be fair, consider this: she was a new MBA graduate in 2009. During the summer of 2008, she had internship with Lehman Brothers, Bank of America, and 85 Broad (85 Broad is a None-profit organization founded by Women MDs/Partners at Goldman sachs). In 2008, every banks was firing people, nobody was hired. Lehman bankrupted. Yet, she got 3 jobs. And she had no real world work experience, especially in finance(before MBA, she was an undergraduate at harvard). After graduation, she got a job with Warren Buffet when I think she could be the only person in her MBA class who got a job.

[LC]

Maybe I'm being bitchy, but does anyone else think Brit Cool should stop giving advice and interviews until she has actually done something?  She's 30 years old and the only thing I'm aware of her having done is hire the husband of a friend of hers to run Benjamin Moore and subsequently fire him when he cheated on her friend with a secretary.

 

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/advice-buffetts-30-old-hand-174812229.html

Is that part true? If it is, it really doesn't bode well for BRK post-Buffett. On the other hand, pardon me if I'm being sexist or something here, but hiring her straight out of school when he has turned down multiple super talents with far more experience (Pabrai comes to mind) who also offered to work for free/very little may not have been optimal either.

 

http://nypost.com/2013/10/13/buffett-protege-caught-in-ceo-sex-mess/

 

Haha this is funny. A 29 year old exec hires her 36 year old friend's 61 year old husband. A marriage based on undying love, no doubt, and an executive hire based entirely on merit, I'm sure. Results: as expected.

[rmitz]

^To be fair, WEB does have a weakness for young, attractive blondes...

 

I think it’s much more likely that she got lucky.  She can’t have been the first woman to try.  He may have started to realize just at that time that he needed more help for some of these things.

 

To be fair, consider this: she was a new MBA graduate in 2009. During the summer of 2008, she had internship with Lehman Brothers, Bank of America, and 85 Broad (85 Broad is a None-profit organization founded by Women MDs/Partners at Goldman sachs). In 2008, every banks was firing people, nobody was hired. Lehman bankrupted. Yet, she got 3 jobs. And she had no real world work experience, especially in finance(before MBA, she was an undergraduate at harvard). After graduation, she got a job with Warren Buffet when I think she could be the only person in her MBA class who got a job.

 

Let me be clear: I have no doubt she’s good.  Very good.  But clearly inexperienced.  What I mean by luck is that surely many many people along the years, some of whom may have been objectively better (though that’s very difficult to actually measure) would have gotten turned down.  That’s life.  All of us who have been successful have some measure of luck, though we may do our best to tilt the odds in our favor.

[bookie71]

To gain experience, you have to have screw-ups as well as successes.  That is why I liked Guy Spier's book,he admitted his screw-ups.

 

[alwaysinvert]

I don't think there's anything necessarily wrong in making a "nepotist" hiring. Sometimes it can be optimal because you know their capabilities best from prior experience.

 

But if it goes awry the way it did in this case, you clearly have not taken the necessary precautions, which due to biases should probably be even more stringent than if you hire someone you don't know. Philandering and sexual harassment are not habits you suddenly take up at age 61.

[Guest longinvestor]

As always, any association with Buffett makes good headlines. Especially about a 29 something woman who shares the Omaha office and seems to enjoy the confidence of the boss. It is also very possible that the combination of a Harvard Business degree and Midwestern farm work ethic/experience has more to do with her getting the job than any other bally-hoo swirling the media. All we know is that she is playing a role that will help the next CEO ease into the job. And no, she is not on that shortlist, that rumor was squashed already.

[fareastwarriors]

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

 

 

http://fortune.com/2014/10/31/how-buffetts-brooks-running-plans-to-become-a-1-billion-brand/

[fareastwarriors]

Buffett Said He Paid a Steep Price. $15 Billion Later, BNSF Is a Cash Machine. 'He Stole It'

 

 

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-11-10/buffett-s-15-billion-from-bnsf-show-railroad-came-cheap.html

[peter1234]

Thanks for posting.

 

Let's not forget that some esteemed value people called the deal very expensive at the time.

;)

[treasurehunt]

Thanks for posting.

 

Let's not forget that some esteemed value people called the deal very expensive at the time.

;)

 

Indeed. I remember Bruce Greenwald, esteemed professor at Columbia University, claim that the BNSF purchase was a crazy deal. "At $100/share we think he has lost his mind." is a verbatim quote. Not so insane, it seems. There is probably some element of luck in how well the BNSF deal turned out, but we should also give Buffett credit for understanding the railroad business better than many others.

[Tim Eriksen]

The article says the 10-Q notes that $15 billion in dividends have been sent to Berkshire since the acquisition.  Does anyone know where that is in the 10-Q?  I personally wasn't a big fan of the purchase back then because it was so capital intensive.  If I understand things correctly BNSF still spends more on capex than depreciation, thus not all of its earnings can be sent to BRK.  If I recall correctly BNSF debt was $10 billion and has increased by nearly $10 billion since the acquisition. 

 

Any discussion of the merits of the BNSF deal should compare it to alternatives which is hard to do.  The S&P500 has doubled over the five year time frame.  Since shares were issued in the deal it diluted shareholder ownership in existing BRK businesses.

 

     

[jay21]

The article says the 10-Q notes that $15 billion in dividends have been sent to Berkshire since the acquisition.  Does anyone know where that is in the 10-Q?  I personally wasn't a big fan of the purchase back then because it was so capital intensive.  If I understand things correctly BNSF still spends more on capex than depreciation, thus not all of its earnings can be sent to BRK.  If I recall correctly BNSF debt was $10 billion and has increased by nearly $10 billion since the acquisition. 

 

Any discussion of the merits of the BNSF deal should compare it to alternatives which is hard to do.  The S&P500 has doubled over the five year time frame.  Since shares were issued in the deal it diluted shareholder ownership in existing BRK businesses.

 

   

 

BNSF files. Check there as it is a line item in the CF statement. IIRC yes, a good chunk of the dividends appear to be debt recaps but thats driven by their increased earning power. I am sure you can lever it more aggressively (just like almost any other BRK business) if he needs the cash (i.e. the debt is entirely appropriate and he isnt sucking the business dry).

 

Agree on the dilution. Buffett should be forced to buyback the dilution  ;)

 

Edit: http://www.bnsf.com/about-bnsf/financial-information/form-10-k-filings/pdf/10k-llc-2013.pdf

 

Distributions 2011: 3500. 2012: 3750. 2013: 4000