Warren Buffett News: Is Warren Buffett eying Costco Wholesale Corporation (COST)?

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BERKSHIRE HATHAWAYIs Warren Buffett eying Costco? (Muckety)
Can a Muckety map predict a corporate acquisition? Notice how the extended Buffett-Gates cartel has surrounded Costco Wholesale Corporation (NASDAQ:COST). Should you hear rumblings about a Berkshire Hathaway acquisition, remember this map. Berkshire vice chairman Charles Munger is a director of Costco. Susan Decker is on the boards of both companies. Warren Buffett pal Bill Gates is a director of Berkshire, and Buffett, of course, is a major benefactor of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Big deals: Transactions that shaped 2012 (RichmondBizSense)
Warren Buffett, shopping centers and football: They were fuel for the some of the highest-profile and biggest-money deals announced in Richmond during 2012. Warren Buffett dropped $142 million to rid Richmond-based Media General of its newspaper holdings, including the Richmond Times-Dispatch. The deal, which closed in late June, left the downtown company with 18 television stations and on better footing to keep its hundreds of millions of dollars in debt under control. Fall was the season of huge shopping center transactions. First came the sale of the Shops at White Oak Village. An Arizona firm bought about 440,000 square feet of the Eastern Henrico retail development for $68 million.

Ajay Banga 11 notches ahead of Buffett! (DNAIndia)
Ajaypal Singh Banga, the chief executive officer of Mastercard Inc (NYSE:MA), was named 8th in the Fortune magazine’s The 2012 Businessperson of The Year rankings. That’s the highest ranking notched up by any person of Indian origin. He is also 11 levels ahead of United State’s billionaire and legendary investor Warren Buffett. Banga, 52, – he’s 8 years younger than Manvinder Singh, or Vindi, Banga, former chief of Hindustan Unilever — has steered the electronic payments network company so successfully, it outperformed archrival Visa as a result of which, the share price has more than doubled to $4.94 on Friday from $2 in July 2010, when he was named CEO.

Is it time for us to tackle our Warren Buffett-style tax anomalies? (LeadingCompany)
In his 2012 State of the Union address US President Barack Obama lamented the fact that billionaire Warren Buffett faces a lower tax rate on his income than his secretary. The situation arises because the secretary’s salary income will be taxed at the normal US tax scales. On an income above US$34,500 but below US$83,600, Buffett’s secretary would face a 25% tax rate. But the dividends and capital gains the billionaire investor makes on his directly held investments are likely to be taxed at a maximum rate of 15%. Political deliberations to tackle the fiscal cliff in the US are focusing heavily on the tax system that gives rise to these types of anomalies.


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