4 ms·

Is this speculation or is there a source for his thinking behind this? It's very unlike a good portion of his investments.

• dharmon 8y ago
  From reading his shareholder letters, watching a boatload of his talks and interviews on YouTube, and most importantly trying to re-create his thinking on most of his investments, from his early partnership days up until about IBM. (he is actually quite open about what he likes in a company, even though people think he's being cryptic) For example, he always cites figures such as return on _tangible_ assets in his interviews. He is also obsessed with moats. A large reason for the relative lack of moats in tech is that the barrier to entry is low, and has been dropping for decades. You could whip up a respectable competitor (technology-wise) to most of today's unicorns in well under a year or so with only a little bit of money, but given many years and billions of dollars you couldn't re-create Coca-Cola's distribution network. I am actually curious how you think this is not like his other investments? His investment style has changed for sure, but I would draw two lines, one that he talks about around See's Candy in the 70's. The other I would put about 10-15 years ago, where he started looking at more capital-intensive businesses (like BNSF). Both were gradual shifts, though.
  • whatok 8y ago
    Not talking about the specific investment; just the duration of it.
• dharmon 8y ago
  Haha, sorry. I mis-read your question and went waaaay too involved. :) As a Buffett-head, I can't immediately think of another time when he has turned around on a stock so fast. (not counting partnership days, where he would flip stocks pretty relatively quickly, but only after their full value was realized)