The Deals of Warren Buffett. Volume 3 : Making America's largest company / Glen Arnold.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Arnold, Glen, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Capitalists and financiers--United States--Biography.

Capitalists and financiers.

Investments.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (241 pages)

Place of Publication:

La Vergne : Mensch Publishing, 2023.

Summary:

In this third volume of The Deals of Warren Buffett, we trace Warren Buffett's journey as he made Berkshire Hathaway the largest company in America. When we left Buffett at the end of Volume 2, he had reached a fortune of $1bn. In this enthralling next instalment, we follow Buffett's investment deals over the decade from 1989 to 1998, as Berkshire shares jumped 14-fold from $4, 700 to $68, 000 and its market cap grew from $5bn to $100bn.This was a period of Buffett's career when he was approaching normal retirement age. But far from slowing down, he was just hitting his stride. Buffett was as driven as ever to seek out great companies at good prices. By studying the decision-making that went into his investment deals, and the successful and unsuccessful outcomes, we can learn from Buffett and become better investors ourselves.In this decade, Buffett made investments in the following companies: Wells Fargo, USAir, American Express, The Shoe Group, Helzberg Diamond Shops, RC Willey, FlightSafety International, Dairy Queen, NetJets, and General Re.For each of these deals, investing expert and Buffett historian Glen Arnold dives into unprecedented detail to analyse the investment process and the stories of the individuals involved. Arnold's engaging, lucid style transports the reader to the time and place of the deals, to truly appreciate how Buffett was operating.With stories and analysis drawn from decades of investing experience, join Glen Arnold and delve deeper into The Deals of Warren Buffett!

Contents:

Intro

Contents

About The Author

Acknowledgements

The Origins Of This Book Series

Preface

Investment 1: Wells Fargo

Summary of the deal

Here are some reasons for worry

The Wells Fargo case

Wells Fargo going down

What Warren saw in 1990

Should investors desire rising share prices or falling ones?

Was Warren correct to be greedy when others were fearful?

The shorting of Wells Fargo

How did Wells Fargo perform through the recession?

Managing a bank: the basic principles

Berkshire Hathaway wants more of a good thing

Doubling the bank, then doubling again - all in two years

Berkshire Hathaway sells

Phase two: buying by Berkshire

Scandal

Chronically leaking boats

Not one of Buffett's best investments

Learning points

Investment 2: USAir

The making of USAir

Under attack

Buffett, the white squire (or gorilla)

Kamikaze pricing

Things can only get worse

What is value?

The Seth Schofield years

The turnaround

The blink

Shareholder value destroyed completely

Investment 3: American Express

It's all about the economic franchises

The information edge

Reinforcing the franchises through a quality emphasis

The network effect and economies of scale

Blunders

Shareholders were not happy

Buffett's two deals

The second deal

Focus on the franchise restored - so Buffett buys more

Sending money to shareholders

Berkshire becomes the largest shareholder

Intrinsic value - a calculation based on perfect foresight

Change, but continuity

Investment 4: The Shoe Group - H. H. Brown, Lowell, Dexter

H. H. Brown

The deal for H.H. Brown

Why buy?

Who gained from the deal?

How to run a business

Lowell.

A significant pattern

Dexter

Warren Buffett's deal to buy Dexter

But 1994 was the high point for the Shoe Group

Buffett is not perfect

Keeping faith with boots and shoes

What became of the key characters?

Investment 5: Helzberg Diamond Shops

Buffett's acquisition criteria

Merger principles

The wherewithal to buy

A short history of Helzberg

Barnett's reasons for selling

The deal

A meeting

The Jeff Comment era

Why not put Borsheims and Helzberg together?

The 1996 shock

Steady state

Investment 6: R.C. Willey

Rufus Call Willey

Bill Child

Trouble

The accidental businessman

Acting decently

Expansion

Diversification

Going into finance

Doing the right thing

Getting big

Guiding principles

The deal with Warren Buffett

Warren and Bill speak

After the deal

Not on a Sunday

Another tack

Las Vegas, at last

Four at home

Yet more growth

Investment 7: FlightSafety International

Lindbergh and Al Ueltschi's love of flying

Pan Am

His own business

Leaps and bounds

The stock market

Making a pitch

The meeting

What was given?

Investing is not complex, nor is it easy

Carry on carrying on

An old hand takes the joystick

It is a capital-intensive business, yes. But it's still great

Giving until the end

A life well lived

Appendix: Berkshire Hathaway Class B Shares

Investment 8: Dairy Queen

Intrinsic value is not the same as book value, but they generally move in the same direction

Don't preen yourself if a general market rise lifts you up.

What do value investors do when markets have been lifted high?

Let the balls go by

Don't go with a cheery consensus

Why do they do it?

History rhymes

Would you buy this? At this price?

Income sources

Strategically positioned

The lead up to the deal

A quick bid

Investment 9: NetJets

The business model

Before Richard Santulli bought the company

Rich Santulli buys EJA

The building of fractional ownership

An intellectual challenge

Takeoff

Turbulence

A change in share ownership

Selling Buffett a fraction

A short discussion and then a deal

We've only just begun

Why did he buy it?

Growth, but at a price

The fast-talking salesman

Go for it

But then it all went horribly wrong

Will it survive?

Can the business be saved?

Profits at last

Consistently profitable

Investment 10: General Re

The insurance business

General Re in 1998

Synergies

All shares deal

The first five years

Trouble with derivatives

Abundant underwriting profits

A foolish purchase?

A distance travelled

Publishing details.

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780857196507

0857196502