By Ron Haruni|Oct 18, 2010,
Warren Buffet calls his 1964 decision to buy Berkshire Hathaway (BRKa)(BRKb) a $200 billion blunder, prompted by a urge to retaliate against the CEO who tried to “chisel” Buffett out of an eighth of a point on a tender deal.
From Buffett: “The dumbest stock I ever bought was, drum roll here, Berkshire Hathaway. And that may require a bit of explanation. It was early in 1962, and I was running a small partnership, about seven million. They call it a hedge fund now. And here was this cheap stock, cheap by working capital standards or so. But it was a stock in a in a textile company that had been going downhill for years. So it was a huge company originally, and they kept closing one mill after another. And every time they would close a mill, they would take the proceeds and they would buy in their stock. And I figured they were gonna close, they only had a few mills left, but that they would close another one. I’d buy the stock. I’d tender it to them and make a small profit. read full article >>>>