Berkshire Hathaway In Discussions with Graham Holdings Co (GHC) Regarding a Split-off Transaction

Warren Buffett and Berkshire and Graham Holdings Co (NYSE:GHC) are discussing to acquire an unformed subsidiary of  Graham, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. This potential subsidiary would own some assets and a business of Graham and might include shares of Berkshire common stock owned by Graham Holdings Co (NYSE:GHC) in exchange for all the class B common stock held by Berkshire.

If the deal is signed Berkshire would turn over its Graham stake and if the transaction does not succeed, then Berkshire might acquire additional shares of Class B Stock, or dispose the securities, which would depend on the performance of its performance in the market

Berkshire Hathaway also disclosed that it owns 1.73 million shares of Graham Holdings Co (NYSE:GHC). The current stake amasses 27.8% of the company’s class B common stock.

Berkshire Hathaway

Washington Post Co. changed its name to Graham Holdings Co (NYSE:GHC) after selling its flagship newspaper to Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN). Graham Holdings is a diversified education and media company.

Earlier, Graham Holdings Co (NYSE:GHC) approved an increase in the annual dividend from $9.80 to $10.20 per share. The company paid $2.55 per share of dividend for the first quarter of 2014.

Last month, Berkshire Hathaway boosted its stake in USG Corporation (NYSE:USG) to 43.4 million shares from around 17.1 million held earlier. The stake is activist in nature amassing 30.5% of the company’s common stock.

A couple of months ago, Warren Buffett that it upped its stake in DaVita HealthCare Partners Inc (NYSE:DVA) to 36.5 million shares by purchasing 1.3 million shares of the company.

Warren Buffett, had 20.79% of its equity portfolio invested in Wells Fargo & Co (NYSE:WFC), of which it held 463.13 million shares at the end of the third quarter of 2013.

Disclosure: none

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