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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: mungofitch 🐝🐝🐝 GOLD
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Number: of 21938 
Subject: Re: BRK news release
Date: 04/28/23 6:40 AM
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I have no idea and no data at all, but I can speculate at length:

When acquired, the firms had a lot of liabilities of wildly unpredictable magnitude, so they weren't allowed to declare bankruptcy.
The claims against the acquired firms have finally wound down to the extent that Berkshire is now allowed to put them into bankruptcy, drawing a line under further liabilities.
Perhaps in conjunction with a capped guarantee from Berkshire itself for the small remaining tail.

Since the firms had ceased operations prior to Berkshire having acquired them, it would be interesting to know what the assets were.
They weren't operating assets, so I'm guessing it was a pile of cash or securities (and maybe insurance policy interests) that had been earmarked for the liabilities.
Maybe Berkshire was pretty sure the liabilities would ultimately be less than the assets acquired so thought it a good deal to buy the companies, presumably for a song, to get the excess assets and secondarily the time benefit of the float acquired.

See? You don't have to be a chatbot to make stuff up.

Jim
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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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