Subject: Re: Barrons Makes Sense to buy Chubb outright
so warren's initial integrity vetting poor and\or he wanted the deal anyway?
somehow it still escaped him all the way until tranche 3?
2toTango.


There are multiple possibilities.

-he thought the Haslams were not so bad (they seemed like fraudsters to me, but Buffett has clearly looked into the history of their dealings more closely than I have so he may be right; in retrospect, I think I was right and he was wrong; see Tranche 2)
-he suspected they were fraudsters but he figured he could escape the consequences (maybe he didn't think they would go as far in ripping him off in Tranche 2 as they did, actually paying managers to cook the books)
-he has a blind spot or 2 in his integrity vetting for people he personally likes
-he doesn't like having so much cash accumulating, and convinces himself that this big $10b deal will be ok despite some misgivings

None of these are mutually exclusive, it can also be a mixture.

dtb