COMPANIES When Charlie Munger, Warren Buffett’s chief aide, addressed the 2007 shareholder meeting of one of the companies in the Berkshire Hathaway group, he was frank about railroad investing. The pair who run Berkshire had been too late to spot a change in the nature of a business they had hated, he admitted.
In light of that admission, Berkshire Hathaway’s $26bn bid for Burlington Northern Santa Fe – which values the company at $44bn, including $10bn of debt and the value of the stake Berkshire had accumulated since 2007 – looks like a bold effort to make up for lost time.
