Editor’s Note: Related tickers: Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK.A), VIVUS, Inc. (NASDAQ:VVUS), DaVita HealthCare Partners Inc (NYSE:DVA)
When Dr. Sam Colin was an intern at the Yale School of Medicine, he often gave up the chance to catch a few minutes of sleep between shifts to read the latest investment insights from Warren Buffett. “I had read everything that Warren Buffett had written up until that point,” Colin told Reuters in an interview. “I used to get teased a bit by the other interns.” His medical expertise and fascination with Wall Street ultimately led to a job at investment firm First Manhattan Co. There he has used them to inform a campaign to replace the leadership of VIVUS, Inc. (NASDAQ:VVUS), a drugmaker whose handling of the launch of its diet pill Qsymia angered shareholders.
Guru In Focus: What Is Mohnish Pabrai Buying? (Forbes)
Warren Buffett is known for keeping the investment process simple. He avoids complex models, and once joked that if calculus were required, he’d have to give up the money business and go back to his childhood job of delivering papers. But not even Warren Buffett can match Mohnish Pabrai when it comes to having a Spartan investment philosophy. Pabrai has effectively boiled the entire process down to the logic of a coin flip: “Heads, I win. Tails, I don’t lose too much.” I love it. Short, simple, and yet profound.
Warren Buffett’s newspaper company to buy Atlantic City paper (Omaha)
Warren Buffett’s newspaper company said Thursday it plans to acquire the Press of Atlantic City, N.J., for an undisclosed price. The Press is owned by ABARTA, a private holding company in Pittsburgh that is owned by the Bitzer and Taylor families. The Press has a daily circulation of 67,000 and a Sunday circulation of 77,000 in southern New Jersey. BH Media, the newspaper division of Omaha-based Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK.A), said Mark Blum will become publisher of the Press when the purchase takes effect in August. Blum was controller of the Press from 1989 to 1993 and is publisher of the Morning News in Florence, S.C., one of what will be 30 daily newspapers owned by BH Media. Buffett is chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK.A).
Buffett’s Berkshire shuts insurance broking biz in India (BusinessToday)
At a time when Posco and Arcelor Mittal have shelved their mega steel projects in India, another global player, US billionaire Warren Buffett-led investment firm Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK.A) has decided to close its online insurance broking business in the country. These developments comes at a time when India is trying hard to attract foreign investments to boost the sagging economy. Legendary investor Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK.A) had forayed with a much fan-fare into the Indian non-life insurance sector as a corporate agent of Bajaj Allianz General in 2011.
Buffett Insurer Wrap Firms Up Detroit Debt (BondBuyer)
In the sea of junk-rated Detroit debt trading for 30 to 40 cents on the dollar, a small piece of the city’s defaulted pension certificates continue to see retail bids of nearly 90 cents on the dollar. The higher valued debt features an insurance pledge from Berkshire Hathaway Assurance Corp., the government bond insurer controlled by financier Warren Buffett. In late June, just four days after Detroit emergency manager Kevyn Orr announced the city would default on its pension certificates, the Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK.A)-wrapped debt traded for just under 96 cents on the dollar, with a 6.3% yield.
Warren Buffett’s Secret to Giving Away Billions (Entrepreneur)
Warren Buffett always knew he’d be giving away a lot of money, and he always knew how he would do it: outsourcing. In a video clip for a new online course on philanthropy that starts today, Buffett says he follows the lead of Adam Smith’s division of labor. “I make it and somebody else gives it away.” One of the people he has entrusted with that task is his sister, Doris. Buffett says he’s the “wholesaler” and Doris is the “retailer” when it comes to charity. Her Sunshine Lady Foundation is associated with Learning By Giving, a foundation that “promotes the teaching of effective charitable giving” by supporting what it calls “academically rigorous full-credit courses with grants of $10,000 for each class to distribute to local nonprofit organizations.”
What’s Behind Berkshire Hathaway Inc’s Big DaVita Buy? (Minyanville)
Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK.A) currently sits atop its largest cash cache ever — $69 billion. So its not surprising that takeover rumors surfaced early this month when Berkshire added to its already hefty stake of about 13% in DaVita HealthCare Partners Inc (NYSE:DVA). The $12 billion market cap behemoth provides kidney dialysis services to hospitals and dialysis centers throughout the US. However, the takeover rumors are just that – rumors, with little to back them up right now. In May of this year, the two companies reached a standstill agreement in which it was stipulated that Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK.A) could acquire no more than 25% of DaVita HealthCare Partners Inc (NYSE:DVA), and that Buffett’s firm will not propose any “business combination, merger, tender offer, exchange offer or similar transactions” without consent from DaVita HealthCare Partners Inc (NYSE:DVA), according to Bloomberg.
