Berkshire Hathaway’s Audit Committee has determined that David Sokol’s trades in Lubrizol shares prior to Berkshire’s announced acquisition of the company “violated company policies.” It also determined that his “misleadingly incomplete disclosures” to Berkshire management “violated the duty of candor he owed the Company.” The Audit Committee reported these findings in an April 26 report
Thoughts About Sokol’s Lubrizol Trades and the Berkshire Derivative Suit
Berkshire Hathaway Chairman Warren Buffett was not exaggerating when he stated at the opening of the company’s March 30, 2011 press release (here) that the release “will be unusual.” Not only did Buffett disclose the resignation of David Sokol as Chairman and CEO of several subsidiaries, but the release also revealed that Sokol
A Closer Look at Buffett’s Annual Letter to Berkshire Shareholders
On February 26, 2011, Berkshire Hathaway issued Chairman Warren Buffett’s much-anticipated annual letter to the company’s shareholders (here). Although aficionados of Buffett’s letters will not be disappointed, this year’s letter is largely focused on Berkshire’s performance and has fewer excursions into larger topics than in past years. (Full disclosure: I own BRK.B shares
A Closer Look at Buffett’s Letter to Berkshire Shareholders
The much-anticipated annual letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders of its Chairman Warren Buffett has long been valued for its business insights and occasionally humorous tone. The 2009 version, which was released on Saturday February 27, 2010, and which can be accessed here, is no exception, though the expanding size of Berkshire’s business portfolio has
A Closer Look at Buffett’s Letter to Berkshire Shareholders
On February 28, 2009, Berkshire Hathaway released (here) the annual letter of its Chairman Warren Buffett, to the company’s shareholders. Like prior editions, this year’s letter contains homey and often humorous aphorisms and thought-provoking observations both about Berkshire and about the business economy as a whole. But, consistent with the fact that
Reading the New Buffett Bio
When asked at the October 7, 2008 presidential debate whom he would appoint as his Treasury Secretary, John McCain commented that "it’s going to have to be someone that inspires trust and confidence." The first specific name McCain mentioned was that of Warren Buffett, someone, as McCain noted, that has "already weighed in and
Buffett and Banks
According to various news sources (here), Kansas Bankers Surety (KBS, about which refer here), a unit of Berkshire Hathaway, is exiting the business of privately insuring bank deposits beyond the $100,000 limit of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. The September 10, 2008 Wall Street Journal reported (here) that the
Buffett, in His Own Words
In May 2003, I was fortunate enough to to attend the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting in Omaha, Nebraska. (Full disclosure: I attended the meeting because I was then and remain now a Berkshire shareholder.) While at the meeting I struck up a conversation with some other attendees, who turned out to be a group of
A Closer Look at Buffett’s Shareholders’ Letter
Warren Buffett’s annual letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders has become a capitalist cult classic, eagerly awaited each year not only by Berkshire shareholders but also by a broader audience of readers keen to read Buffett’s observations about both his company and the larger business and economic environment. This year’s letter (here), issued after
Houses of Glory, Mansions of Shame: CEOs’ Homes and Corporate Performance
It is now a well-established part of the mythology of American capitalism that Warren Buffett still lives in the same modest brick colonial in Omaha, pictured above, that he bought in 1958 for $31,000. (According to Forbes magazine’s annual survey of billionaires’ houses, here, Buffett’s home had a 2003 tax valuation of $700,000.) Intuitively,