Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger discuss Berkshire Hathaway making strategic deals abroad, noting that they’ve made some great deals with Israel.
GARY RANSOM: Yes. You’ve said that you are looking for non-insurance large acquisitions to put that cash to work. And when you’ve said that, I’ve usually thought of the United States because you’re a big fan of the US business. And I just was wondering whether you’re seeing more opportunities as the rest of the world opens up, grows, whether there’s opportunities for some of those mega transactions in other parts of the world– say, Asia or Europe?
WARREN BUFFETT: Yeah. Gary, I would say that I’ve been disappointed in that because we do see some outside the United States. And thank heavens we saw the one we saw in Israel some years ago when Eitan wrote me a letter. But– and, you know, we bought a business, which is a very important part of Berkshire now.
But we are still not– they’re certainly aware of Berkshire Hathaway outside the United States. But they don’t sort of pick up the phone automatically. In the United States, I think any large, particularly private, company that thinks– is thinking about doing something– they at least think about Berkshire and– but that– the– in Europe or Asia, that– we are not embedded in the minds the same way.
They know about us. They know we got a lot of money. And they know we like to buy things. But we have really– we’re on the radar screen big time in the United States. And we’re not as– we don’t– the immediate desire to be sure that they thought about the Berkshire option does not occur the same way outside the United States. And we’ve tried to encourage it a few ways. But I would say that the results have not been great at all.
And– but I hope tomorrow, you know, I get a call from Germany or Britain or Italy or you name it, and Australia, wherever it may be. And I hope I get a call and then the– and we get an opportunity to do it. There’s a good many countries we’d be quite happy to put substantial money in doing. Like I say, our experience in Israel has been just terrific. Charlie?
CHARLIE MUNGER: Yeah. But the corporate acquisition game now– it’s so driven by the leveraged buyout and this so-called– whatever they call them– strategic– yes, strategic. I usually translate that into barnyard language. And–
[LAUGHTER]And we’re so– there’s so much craziness in price from our view point that, of course, it’s very hard for us to do it. The people in the leveraged buyout game who love the massive leverage and don’t mind high prices– even they are getting nosebleeds. It’s hard. And it’s not an environment that means that it allows Berkshire just to go out and buy a whole lot of companies.
WARREN BUFFETT: Have we ever made a strategic deal?
CHARLIE MUNGER: We have to wait.
WARREN BUFFETT: Have we made a strategic deal that you can remember?
CHARLIE MUNGER: Hmm?
WARREN BUFFETT: Have we ever made a deal that we would have regarded as strategic?
CHARLIE MUNGER: We’ve never had a strategic plan, unless you’ve hidden it from me.
[LAUGHTER]WARREN BUFFETT: OK. That answers that.
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lol!
This was at the Berkshire Annual Shareholders Meeting, I was there. Great experience
Wow did you learn anything?
If any one could get warren Buffett together with a project to save humanity as in a speach I believe he said he wanted to give back to help the world but what would I know about this guy warren Buffett is humble man with a big heart he is worth billions but I would like to ask him a few Questions about something intriguing that I learned last year
You hope you get a call from Britain?????
3:11 what the title is
The richest investors on earth were never strategic. They invest one company at a time.