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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: rogermunibond   😊 😞
Number: of 21939 
Subject: Precision Castparts goodwill impairment
Date: 02/19/26 1:02 PM
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In August of 2020, Berkshire wrote down the goodwill on the acquisition of Precision Castparts by $9.8 billion. Additional write down of intangible assets brought the total to $11 billion. Buffett admitted in his 2020 letter that he was "simply too optimistic about PCC's normalized profit potential," admitting he made a significant error in judgment regarding the company's future earnings, which led to an incorrect valuation.

However, subsequent to a horrific 2020, and weak growth in 2021 and 2022, PCC has been, to say the least, going gangbusters. However, according to US GAAP, once the goodwill impairment is recorded it cannot be reversed. Similarly, internal generated goodwill, say the franchise value of See's Candies cannot be recorded as a gain in goodwill.

So I guess my question is for "Grove 1" the operating earnings of Berkshire owned businesses, shouldn't the multiple that's applied whether one uses Price/Earnings or something else be increasing over time? And likewise, shouldn't the intrinsic value of Berkshire be increasing over time such that perhaps 2x Book Value is now a more appropriate measure than 1.5x BV?

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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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