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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
by 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 agoNot talking about the specific investment; just the duration of it.