The famed investor’s company has increased its stake in Paramount Global in recent months, according to a filing Berkshire made with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday. Berkshire now owns more than 91 million Class B shares in Paramount, making it the largest outside investor, holding about 15% of the company’s Class B stock, worth about $1.7 billion as of market close.
Warren Buffett said Greg Abel, Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s vice chairman of non-insurance businesses, would be his likely successor if the billionaire were to step down. Buffett told CNBC that the board agrees Abel, 58, would take over if anything were to happen to the 90-year-old chief executive officer of Berkshire, and that age was a determining factor in the selection. Abel had been seen as the most likely candidate.
It will combine it with Scripps’ Katz networks and Newsy “to create a full-scale national television networks business” and will spin off 23 of Ion’s 71 stations to comply with FCC ownership regulations. Scripps has agreed to a transaction with a buyer, who has agreed to maintain Ion affiliations for the stations. Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway gets a warrant to purchase as many as 23.1 million Class A Scripps shares as part of the deal.
2016 Revenue: $82.5 million Stations: 1 Coverage: 1.4% Ownership: Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK.A) Key Executives: Warren Buffett, chairman-president-CEO; Charlie Munger, vice chairman.
Exclusives
26. BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY, Omaha, Neb. 2015 Revenue: $69.5 million Stations: 1 station Coverage: 1.4% Ownership: Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK.A) Key Executives: Warren Buffett, chairman-president-CEO; Charlie Munger, vice chairman.
Speculation has been mounting among Berkshire investors as to who will succeed the 84-year-old Buffett. It seems Ajit Jain and and Greg Abel are the front-runners.
Warren Buffett Buys Post-Newsweek’s WPLG
Berkshire Hathaway’s acquisition of Post-Newsweek’s ABC affiliate in Miami is part of a larger $1.2 billion deal involving a stock swap between Berkshire Hathaway and Post-Newsweek parent Graham Holdings and some cash. The deal values WPLG at $364 million. Post-Newsweek President Emily Barr reassures employees that the group’s other five stations are not for sale .”When you are asked (and you will undoubtedly be asked) if Post-Newsweek Stations is for sale, you can emphatically state we are not,” she says.
Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway has sold off its $38 million stake in newspaper publisher Gannett Company and purchased $23 million worth of shares in the Dish Network, according to SEC filings.
The Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting began humbly in 1982 with a crowd of 15 in an insurance company cafeteria. It has been growing steadily just as the company’s stock price rose to become the most-expensive in the U.S., reaching $162,904 for a Class A share on Friday. Now the meeting regularly fills Omaha’s 18,300-seat arena and every nearby overflow room. Buffett likes to call it “Woodstock for Capitalists.”
The $142 million deal “accelerates the timing of our strategy to focus on our broadcast television business and its future growth opportunities, including digital content and mobile DTV,” said Media General CEO Marshall Morton
Tuesday, Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway disclosed that it has begun buying stock in Viacom Inc., controlled by billionaire Sumner Redstone. Omaha-based Berkshire Hathaway, in a filing with the SEC, said that during the first three months of the year it had acquired nearly 1.6 million shares in Viacom — a stake worth $75.5 million.
