There were three of them in the early years: Buffett, Charlie Munger, and a man named Rick Guerin. Guerin was sharp. He was, by Buffett's own description, every bit the equal of the other two on raw investment instinct. He had one fatal habit. He used leverage.
Berkshire Hathaway disclosed ownership of 5,065,744 shares of the New York Times, valued at approximately $351.7 million, marking its return to media investing after exiting its newspaper portfolio in 2020.
Six years after Warren Buffett sold off all of Berkshire Hathaway's newspapers and predicted unending declines for most of the industry, Berkshire disclosed a new $350 million investment in The New York Times on Tuesday. The somewhat surprising move highlighted the quarterly update Berkshire filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission about the company's stock holdings in Buffett's last quarter as CEO.
While the position is small for Berkshire, accounting for only about 0.1% of its overall portfolio, it's meaningful for The New York Times. After buying nearly 5.1 million shares of The New York Times Co. during the quarter, the stake is now valued at more than $350 million, representing approximately a 3% stake in the company, which commands a market capitalization of more than $12 billion.
In 2020, Buffett's investing vehicle announced it had acquired positions in five major Japanese trading companies. The stakes were worth slightly more than 5% in each firm, around $6.25 billion in total. At the time, Berkshire Hathaway signaled it was part of a long-term strategy, and the company was open to increasing its stakes under the right circumstances. Fast-forward five years, and the Omaha-based giant did increase its holdings-
