Berkshire Hathaway Interesting Tidbits

Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A;BRK.B) piloted by Warren Buffet released results on Friday and had a few interesting tidbits. They claim to release on Friday after market close so as to allow investors and media the weekend to digest. The likelihood of Warren Buffet surprising the market with unanticipated news in their earnings is fairly low.
They also come right out and say the press release is inadequate so read the 10Q. The link is provided. This should stimulate debate with the regulatory crowd as to the real role of the press release. Strangely enough they own Business Wire which specializes in distributing press releases.

They own a few businesses such as See’s and a few jewellers. While I am sure they are profitable at this stage in the game you have to ask why are they there. At this level of capital what are they truly contributing?

The Buffalo News continues to be perplexing, even if the cost structure allows decent profits we all know that print media is suffering. Warren Buffet is not the tech guru to come up with the solution to solve that problem.

Life/Health premiums continued to grow. No comment was provided about the potential for impact from reformed Health Care on a political level. Also under car insurance there is liability for health care and no comments are provided as to what will happen if health care reform comes into play. Warren you must be looking at some of the scenario’s and seeing what that does to the money.

Netjets has too many jets by their own admission. They also caution that politically as Wall Street keeps getting bashed the whole private jet thing will continue to go negative. But then they say they expect improvements in 2010. To be sure. But as any airline will tell you jets are matters of technology. Clients will want the newer better stuff which are more cost effective. So are we looking at write downs now and then maybe capital expenditures in the future? Buy and hold does not work in this asset category.

And oh please note. No apparent conference call has been scheduled.