(The following appeared on the New York Times website on February 26, 2011.)
NEW YORK — Berkshire Hathaway is, perhaps more than anything else, a giant deal machine, and Warren E. Buffett signaled in his latest investor letter that he’s eager to make another big acquisition.
So how have his last big deals — the railroad operator Burlington Northern and the manufacturing conglomerate Marmon Holdings — fared?
Pretty well.
Mr. Buffett singled out Burlington Northern, for which he paid $26 billion last year for the 77.4 percent he didn’t already own, for hefty praise. Here’s how he sees the benefits of owning a majority stake in the railroad operator, which earned $3.6 billion last year, on top of $15.1 billion in revenue:
“The highlight of 2010 was our acquisition of Burlington Northern Santa Fe, a purchase that’s working out even better than I expected.”
The full story appears on the New York Times website.