No. of Recommendations: 1
I chalk that up to being an old man with likely lifelong ADHD on a cell phone in the yard assuming the whole reason for Berkshire approaching me about converting our A shares was it involved a premium. In fact, I did ask what the reason was to my broker and he said this was an offer by Berkshire for the A shares and I asked if there was a premium and he said "some premium" . In this case, my long-time friend and broker had not done his homework and was likely also just following up on a prompt from HQ to let me know the so called window (a window only in the RJ network it seems) was ending today.
At any rate, I'll do more research in the future before posting something that seemed to be too close to all the discourse here on this esteemed board into Berkshire buying back (or not buying back) shares. I fell prey to confirmation bias, recency bias, old age bias, and possibly another half dozen biases listed years ago by Charlie Munger.
My apologies for spreading incorrect information.
Now, just as Warren Buffett's famous (and funny) story of the oil drillers in Hades goes, it would one day make potential sense for Berkshire to want to increase the number of B shares in circulation while simultaneously reducing the number of A shares in the market so as to delay the day when outside parties garner sufficient voting control to make changes to the Board of Directors leading to eventual changes in the direction of Berkshire Hathaway.
While wholly different from buying back stock, perhaps offering a premium for swapping from A shares to B shares is a viable path for A class shareholders not wanting to incur a tax event. There are other possible variations on this A to B theme. Instead of an upfront financial conversion premium, perhaps B shares are accorded other advantages (dividends or other kickers) to entice A shareholders to let go of their voting shares for non-voting B shares. The oil driller joke ended with the pre-approved for Heaven oil driller electing to follow his own shout out regarding oil in Hades. Perhaps my initial mistaken understanding may eventually presage a pathway Berkshire follows at some point in the future.
Stay tuned.
Uwharrie
