Despite quoted in his letter to his shareholders that he believes in the longevity and viability of newspapers as attractive investments, Warren Buffett did not reflect this enthusiasm in his company's latest SEC filing.
Berkshire Hathaway recorded a whopping USD89 billion in equity investments between April to June of this year. Canadian oil and gas producer Suncor and Charlie Ergen's Dish were the biggest equity investments, scoring USD524 million and USD23.3 million in company valuations by the end of the second quarter. Berkshire purchased 17.8 million in shares in Suncor. Dish offered a sizable 547,312 in stake for purchase to Berkshire.
Gannett Company Inc. no longer has ties with Berkshire, as the latter unloaded its USD38 million-worth of shares with the newspaper giant. Interestingly, a report by British paper "The Guardian" disclosed that the bankers of US paper the Washington Post approached potential buyers, possibly including Buffett, before Amazon bought the paper. Berkshire retained its 1.7 million share ownership, and did not made any move to increase their share in the already Amazon-bought paper, the Guardian report concluded.
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