Berkshire Hathaway Inc., Warren Buffett’s holding company, reported in a quarterly summary filing of its $61.1 billion portfolio that it bought 2.78 million shares of Dow Jones between the announcement of Rupert Murdoch’s $60 per share offer for the company at the end of April and the sealing of the deal three months later. Berkshire Hathaway did not disclose what it paid for the shares. “There’s no way he would have bought this company outright, especially in a bidding war, but he loves arbitrage,” said investment manager Mohnish Pabrai. Berkshire Hathaway also bought 8.7 million shares of Bank of America valued at $425.3 million, a new holding for the company. It also boosted existing stakes in healthcare companies Johnson & Johnson and sanofi-aventis, health insurers UnitedHealth Group and WellPoint, and banks Wells Fargo and US Bancorp. The Wells Fargo stake was worth $9 billion at the end of June.Sources: Bloomberg, Reuters, Forbes
Commentary: Berkshire’s Net Rises 33% On 13% Revenue Growth • Dispelling The Fallacy of “Buffett Can’t Buy More” • Is Berkshire Hathaway a Buy at $111,000?
Stocks/ETFs to watch: BRK.A, BRK.B, DJ. Competitors: BX. ETFs: ELG, PRFF

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