No. of Recommendations: 17
Since Berkshire has been transformed into the GOOGL board lately (which I am not opposed to as a long-time Google owner), I am posting this snippet from Ben Thompson that discusses both Berkshire and Google ;-)
FWIW it's clear that Ben Thompson doesn't understand either Berkshire or Google or both.
First of all, See's was tiny as a % of Berkshire's IV when it bought BNSF, so saying that See's profits funded BNSF is a massive stretch at best. Second, See's business was never under threat from any of the Berkshire deals its profits funded in the past (unlike the case with Google's AI capex). Third, BNSF was not some "let's put down massive capex dollars today in the hope that they will earn an ok return in the unknowable future" purchase by Buffett. It was a mature business that was already earning decent returns on capital operating in an oligopoly, and thus not at all speculative/venture type bet.
