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The week's question
In December 2024, in the thread "Re: BRK: Why Not XOM?", BreckHutHigh asked the members: "What about the long road trips with kids?" This week it is put to everyone again. The button below opens the small thread re-asking it - read what others have said so far, then give your own answer as an ordinary reply.
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Stocks A to Z / Stocks B / Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A)
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Author: Goofyhoofy ✸✹🐝 HONORARY
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Number: of 21938 
Subject: Buffett on failure
Date: 08/01/26 9:40 AM
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Few business leaders obsess over failure more than Warren Buffett. Though the former Berkshire Hathaway CEO’s record makes him a shoo-in for the investor hall of fame, Buffett often prefers talking about his misses more than his hits. One flub in particular seems to gall him, that being his 1993 purchase of Dexter Shoe. “The worst deal that I’ve made,” he described it, noting that “as a financial disaster, this one deserves a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records.”

What happened was that after Berkshire bought Dexter in 1993, cheap, imported shoes flooded into the U.S., decimating Dexter’s operations. But even worse, much worse, is that Buffett paid for the $433 million acquisition with Berkshire stock—25,203 shares of Berkshire A shares, to be precise. “By using Berkshire stock, I compounded this error hugely,” Buffett wrote in 2007. “That move made the cost to Berkshire shareholders not $400 million, but rather $3.5 billion. In essence, I gave away 1.6% of a wonderful business—one now valued at $220 billion—to buy a worthless business.”

That was almost 20 years ago. Today, 25,203 shares of Berkshire would be worth some $19.3 billion. What happened to all that money?

If you happen to be in Maine this summer, you might see where some of it has ended up: MaineGeneral Health hospital near the state capital of Augusta; a revitalized city of Waterville, home of Colby College; and an eye-popping new campus under construction for the Roux Institute of Northeastern University, on the site of the old B&M baked beans factory on the Portland waterfront. All endeavors were funded from the coffers of the man who sold Dexter to Buffett, Harold Alfond, who died in 2007, and whose charitable work is now carried on by his descendants.
barrons.com - Warren buffett worst ever deal berkshire stock

Sort of a “feel bad, feel good” kind of story.
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This community has written 21,448 posts about Berkshire Hathaway. The article-length ones it recommended most:
BRK: Why Not XOM? · 62 recs · 2024
Second quarter comments · 60 recs · 2023
Berkshire's Profit Contributors · 57 recs · 2023
Summary of 2Q 2026 · 54 recs · 2026
3Q Summary · 53 recs · 2024
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