...Abstract This paper will discuss a company profile for Berkshire Hathaway. This profile will include a brief history of Berkshire Hathaway's humble beginnings as a textile manufacturer, and subsequent diversification into a successful powerhouse holdings company that has spread it's risk into a variety of industries. These industries include insurance, utilities, building materials, furniture, jewelry, apparel and food companies. This paper will examine Berkshire's recent financial situation over the last 5 years. while touching on the CEO compensation package. The CEO behind this conglomerate, Warren Buffet, is considered to be one of the greatest investors of the 20th Century. Since Buffet took over in 1965, with his 20% majority share of ownership, Berkshire Hathaway, has grown to include over 50 firms under the corporate name. For the last 36 years , "The Oracle of Omaha" as Warren Buffet is known, has lived by a simple philosophy to invest in strong managed companies that produced good products but were inherently undervalued in the market. (Hoover's, 2013) This paper will also discuss Berkshire's competition for their major industries. Company Profile Berkshire Hathaway Inc. is an American multinational conglomerate holding company that has subsidiaries in the manufacturing, retail, and service industries and most importantly reinsurance companies. The company itself was founded by Oliver Chase back in 1889 in New Bedford, MA, under the...
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...Company Profile as of 2/15/2014 Company Profile as of 2/15/2014 Step 1: USG Corporation (USG) Financial Analysis By: Brendan Carr- Materials Step 1: USG Corporation (USG) Financial Analysis By: Brendan Carr- Materials Source | Target Price | Recommendation | Bloomberg | $37.86 | 10/6/1 | Capital IQ | $36.73 | BUY | Siena College | $36.87 | BUY | Yahoo Finance | $36.50 | BUY | Source | Target Price | Recommendation | Bloomberg | $37.86 | 10/6/1 | Capital IQ | $36.73 | BUY | Siena College | $36.87 | BUY | Yahoo Finance | $36.50 | BUY | Step 2: Recommendation: Buy USG Corporation is currently trading at $34.26 and has a market capitalization of $4.7 billion. I recommend a BUY because of the company’s effort to reach an economy of scale, quality of products, and future revenue projections. Step 2: Recommendation: Buy USG Corporation is currently trading at $34.26 and has a market capitalization of $4.7 billion. I recommend a BUY because of the company’s effort to reach an economy of scale, quality of products, and future revenue projections. Thesis: USG Corporation for over 100 years has built an ever-growing portfolio of groundbreaking products backed by unparalleled service. The company continues to show their resilience by continuing to invest in purposeful innovation, expanding into different markets and by working smarter and faster. USG has three main strategic priorities that they are focused on to continue to improve...
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...Warren Buffett's Management Secrets: Proven Tools for Personal and Business Success Operations Management Course BOOK REVIEW BY LAYLA ALHOSHAN Warren Buffett's Management Secrets: Proven Tools for Personal and Business Success By: David Clark (Author) and Mary Buffett (Author) David Clark and Mary Buffet examine and analyze Buffett’s qualities of leadership and management techniques. Warren Buffett has learned a lot in his life through his own skill of self-‐learning to become a manager to whom others look up. He also became the second richest person in the world; building his own empire from scratch. This book is full with stories and techniques that illuminate his philosophy in life and management style. I personally think that this book contains a lot of solutions for new and start-‐up businesses and is considered a guidebook for managers during their early stages of careers. What is obvious...
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...Berkshire Hathaway is an American multinational conglomerate holding company. It was founded in 1888 by Horatio Hathaway. At this time, the company was named the Hathaway Manufacturing Company. When the merger of Berkshire Fine Spinning Associates and the Hathaway Manufacturing Company took place it was named Berkshire Hathaway. Before the combining of these companies, Hathaway Manufacturing Company was its own successful business until World War I caused it to suffer. The combination that created Berkshire Hathaway had fifteen plants. These plants employed over twelve thousand people and represented one hundred and twenty million dollars in revenues. In 1962, Warren Buffett, noticed stock price direction. Buffett brought great importance to the company because of the interest he showed. He bought enough shares that the company decided to buy back his shares for slightly less than pleased by him. This caused Buffett to buy even more stocks to take control of the company. The effort shown by Buffett resulted in him to gain control of most of the company. It was then brought to a new level, thanks to Buffett, as he expanded the company into the insurance industry, utilities and energy, finance and financial products and flight services. The first new investments included National Indemnity Company and the Government Employees Insurance Company (GEICO). These companies formed the foundation of its insurance companies, and are a major source of the company's capital. Unfortunately...
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...most valuable brand name in the world and, one of the most visible companies worldwide, has a tremendous opportunity to excel in all dimensions of business performance. However, over the last ten years, the firm has struggled to reach its financial objectives and has been associated with a number of ethical crises. Warren Buffet served as a member of the board of directors and was a strong supporter and investor of Coca-Cola but resigned from the board in 2006 after several years of frustration with Coca-Cola’s failure to overcome many challenges. Many issues were facing Doug Ivester when he took over the reins at Coca-Cola in 1997. Ivester was heralded for his ability to handle the financial flows and details of the soft drink giant. Former CEO Robert Goizueta had carefully groomed Ivester for the top position that he assumed in October 1997 after Goizueta’s untimely death. However, Ivester seemed to lack leadership in handling a series of ethical crises, causing some to doubt the “Big Red’s” reputation and its prospects for the future. For a company with a rich history of marketing prowess and financial performance, Ivester’s departure in 1999 represented a high-profile glitch on a relatively clean record in one hundred years of business. In 2000 Doug Daft, the company’s former president and chief operating officer, replaced Ivester as the new CEO. Daft’s tenure was rocky, and the company was allegedly involved in racial disrupting long-term contractual arrangements with distributors...
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...Many individual investors will find it agonizing to talk about China’s stock market bubble in 2007. I fully appreciate their feelings since many lost as much as 60% of their fortune in the stock market that year. When Shanghai Stock Exchange Composite Index fell from 6000 to 5500 points, almost everyone who lost money still believed in the market’s strength and hoped it would bounce back so that they could recoup all their losses in the near future. Few were willing to withdraw their investments though most knew that “stop losses” is a basic investment principle. Shanghai Stock Exchange Composite Index is struggling against 3000 points these days and the investors who watched their investments shrank from when the Index was 6000 points are suffering huge losses. A lot of my friends who are not investors ask the same question when we talk about the bear market: why didn’t those investors get out of a falling market sooner? I always laugh at the question because the answer is quite simple: This is human behavior. People set reference points when they start investing. Selling off their positions at a loss is against their natural instinct. An Interesting Study A 1979 study by Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky showed an interesting phenomenon. Subjects were told to choose between two prospects: Prospect 1: A 100 percent chance of losing $3,000 Prospect 2: An 80 percent chance of losing $4,000, but a 20 percent chance of losing nothing. Ask yourself which one...
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...High Glycemic Foods: Affects on Obesity & Disease Are high glycemic diets a cause of obesity and disease in America today? Obesity and chronic diseases such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease are at an all time high in the United States; studies link a high glycemic diet with obesity and chronic disease. The Worldwide Health Organization (WHO) reports that there are more than 1 billion overweight adults globally” (WHO, 2010). According to a 2005-2006 CDC study of the United States population, 34% of adults are obese. In addition, the International Diabetes Federation announced in 2006 that diabetes is becoming the epidemic of the 21st century with 246 million people affected worldwide (Lefebvre, 2006). Diabetes currently affects 23.5 million adults and 2 million adolescents in the United States with 1.6 million new cases diagnosed each year (American Diabetes Association, 2007). The WHO also reports that heart disease is the top cause of death in the world and in high-income countries like the United States (WHO, 2004). In 2006 the American Heart Association estimated that 81,100,000 million people in the United States have some form of Heart Disease (American Heart Association, 2006). Despite the fact that high glycemic foods do not affect all people the same way, high glycemic diets are killing Americans because they increase the risk of obesity and disease. High glycemic diets are prevalent in America today. Due to the rise of coronary heart disease in the 1970’s...
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...Reflections on World’s Leadership Mr. Bill Gates (Good Leader) Mr. George Walker Bush (Bad Leader) Presented to: Prof. Dr. Hayfaa A. Tlaiss Prepared by: Sarwat Praveen Student Number: 3518229 Section-2 & Group-2 Table of Contents MR. BILL GATES 2 INTRODUCTION2 ABOUT HIS LIFE…2 LEADERSHIP QUALITIES OF BILL GATES4 GROWING AND LEARNING4 HAVING VISION5 CARING ABOUT PEOPLE5 MY PERCEPTION, WHY BILL GATE IS A GREAT LEADER…6 BILL GATE IS MY INSPIRATION7 MR. GEORGE WALKER BUSH8 EARLY LIFE AND CAREER8 MY PERCEPTION, WHY HE IS BAD LEADER9 GEORGE BUSH FIRST PRESIDENTIAL TERM…9 FEW GOOD STEPS TAKEN BY GEORGE BUSH10 GEORG BUSH SECOND PRESIDENTIAL TERM10 GEORGE BUSH POST PRESIDENCY11 HOW DID HIS LEADERSHIP STYLE IMPECT ME AND MY LEADERSHIP STYLE 11 REFRENCES…13 Mr. Bill Gates INTRODUCTION William Henry "Bill" Gates III (born October 28, 1955) is an American business magnate, philanthropist, investor, computer programmer, and inventor. Gates is the former chief executive and chairman of Microsoft, the world’s largest personal-computer software company, which he co-founded with Paul Allen. He is an exceptional leader in the business field. Being named the richest man in the world for the past decade by Forbes magazine, it was clear that Bill Gates must be an outstanding business leader taking his company Microsoft from a small firm that was founded in 1975 to a global company that is worth...
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...For exclusive use at ESADE, 2015 W14540 DISRUPTING WALL STREET: HIGH FREQUENCY TRADING 1 Brad Evans wrote this case under the supervision of Professor Derrick Neufeld solely to provide material for class discussion. The authors do not intend to illustrate either effective or ineffective handling of a managerial situation. The authors may have disguised certain names and other identifying information to protect confidentiality. This publication may not be transmitted, photocopied, digitized or otherwise reproduced in any form or by any means without the permission of the copyright holder. Reproduction of this material is not covered under authorization by any reproduction rights organization. To order copies or request permission to reproduce materials, contact Ivey Publishing, Ivey Business School, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada, N6G 0N1; (t) 519.661.3208; (e) cases@ivey.ca; www.iveycases.com. Copyright © 2014, Richard Ivey School of Business Foundation Version: 2014-10-29 The day after the public release of the book Flash Boys, on April 1, 2014 CNBC invited Michael Lewis (New York Times best-selling author of Moneyball and The Blind Side), 2 along with Brad Katsuyama (chief executive officer [CEO] and co-founder of the new Investors Exchange or IEX) and Bill O’Brien (president of BATS Global Markets, Inc.), to talk about high frequency trading (HFT). The ensuing debate was explosive. O’Brien opened the interview with the following charge,...
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...Kraft Foods and Cadbury Introduction The confectionary industry all over the world is comprised of three products, that is, gum, sugar and confectionary. But the world-wide economic recession which in the last few years hit the North American and European markets, adversely affected the confectionary sales. In addition, undue pressure affected the sales volumes as more people moved towards healthier lifestyles, in attempt to avoid what they termed as unhealthy foods. In these developed countries, there are growing concerns about obesity and its side effects. Confectionary makers are now making smaller packets so as to reduce the prices of the purchase which in a way is kind of addressing some of the concerns about unhealthy foods. This is done by improving the portion control even though it increases the sales volumes per kilo, but does not affect the profit margins adversely. Even though the confectionary may tend to be termed as a luxury food item, the sales value appears to be recovering steadily from adversity. In the quest of offering premium products which are more profitable than increasing the sales volumes, the confectionary makers are offering what is seen as low value confectionary. These new products include pro-biotic and antioxidant chocolate. However, the current depression is expected to limit the growth of confectionary, because it is seen as a non-essential food item. Nevertheless, chocolate appears to be picking up in the market and was expected to...
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...Bahria University Department of Management Sciences MBA Program Strategic Management (Sm) Report on “Strategic Management of Coca Cola Company” PRESENTED TO: Sir Naveed m khan PRESENTED BY: * RAFIA ALAM * Irsa afzal * Saira Urf Sana * Sana Anjum * Hina Majeed MBA-6A Dated: 22nd May, 2013 Acknowledgement We have the pearl of our eyes to admire blessing of the compassionate and omnipotent because the words are bound, knowledge is limited and time is short to express His dignity. It is one of the infinite blessings of almighty ALLAH that He bestowed us with potential and ability to complete the present training and make a material contribution towards the deep oceans of knowledge. This report reflects the efforts of few people who assist us in its preparation. First we avail this opportunity to bow our head before ALLAH almighty in humility who given us the wisdom and perseverance for completing this piece of report. We invoke peace for Holy Prophet Muhammad (P.B.U.H) who is forever torch. We feel highly privilege to ascribe the most and ever burning flame of my gratitude and deep scene of devotion to the “Sir Naveed M. Khan” who taught us “Strategic Management” with heart and also gave a guideline to this report and guides right from the beginning till the completion of this report. Than we are grateful to Mr. Tabassum Mumtaz (HR Manager) at Coca Cola in Karachi who guides us about their organization, its products their strategies, financial...
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...The Mammoth Has Arrived: Pension Plans and the darkness that lies within The mammoth has arrived. In the last decade pension obligations have become a serious problem that many organizations are struggling with. The mammoth I speak of is the gigantic pension obligations that are billions of dollars underfunded. The wake of a new era has arisen and organizations are faced with the after effects of years of erroneous expectations on returns on plan assets. The problem has become so explicit that organizations are now overwhelmed and are scrambling to rectify the threats it poses. In this paper I will be using the terms “organization” and “firm” interchangeably. This topic is at the forefront of debate and concern for fortune 500 firms. In consideration of the magnitude and reality of the issues I felt compelled to take a deeper look into the topic. Moreover, I will use this opportunity to illustrate the complexity and seriousness of the issue. The task I am about to dive into will require a moderate overview of pension accounting. That is, I will dissect pension accounting from its roots and try to exemplify a story that has a clear beginning, but lacks any real practical ending. As such, in this paper I will cover the following areas in detail to demonstrate the perplexity that aluminates when this is topic is fetched from the dark holes of the financial statements and put into a context that is, too many, preposterous. This paper...
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...INDEX |CHAPTERS |TOPIC |PAGE NO | | | | | | |EXECUTIVE SUMMARY |1 | | |RESEARCH OBJECTIVE |2 | | |RESEARCH METHODOLOGY |3 | | | | | | |PART I | | | | | | |I |BASIC |4 - 7 | |II |STOCKS |8 - 11 | |IIII ...
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...FIN 4414 Financial Management Course Syllabus Spring 2010 Term INSTRUCTOR: Dr. T. Craig Tapley Graham-Buffett Master Lecturer of Finance Section: Section: Room: 2109 – Monday and Wednesday, Periods 3-4 (9:35 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.) 7111 – Monday and Wednesday, Periods 5-6 (11:45 a.m. – 1:40 p.m.) 112 Matherly Hall Office Hours: Wednesday (2:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.) Thursday (1:00 p.m. - 2:30 p.m.) CONTACT INFORMATION: Office: Phone: Fax: E-Mail: 329 David Stuzin Hall (352) 392-6654 (352) 392-5237 ctapley@ufl.edu http://vista.courses.ufl.edu/ Class Webpage: COURSE MATERIALS: TEXTBOOK 1. Financial Management: Theory and Practice (12th Edition), Eugene F. Brigham and Michael C. Ehrhardt, Thompson/South-Western, 2008, ISBN: 0-324-42269-5. The official textbook for the class will be an excellent reference book as you start your career, as you may easily find that there will be times, on the job, when you need to reference prior material, or formulas, covered in your corporate finance classes at UF. However, books have become somewhat expensive, so you may, instead, purchase the 11th or 10th Edition of the book, typically at a cheaper price, through various online booksellers. However, there are minor differences between the 10th, 11th, and 12th editions; mainly in the order of the chapter. These differences should not impact your ability to perform well in this class, but you may need to map the chapters in the 10th or 11th Edition to those assigned in the 12th Edition. This is...
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...PORTFOLIO MANAGER’S REVIEW A Monthly Publication of BeyondProxy LLC September 30, 2010 Subscribe at www.manualofideas.com When asked how he became so successful, Buffett answered: “we read hundreds and hundreds of annual reports every year.” Edited by the Manual of Ideas Research Team “If our efforts can further the goals of our members by giving them a discernible edge over other market participants, we have succeeded.” Top Five Ideas In This Report Lavendon (London: LVD) ………………… p. 16 Nokia (Helsinki: NOK1V, NYSE: NOK) .. 20 OMV (Vienna: OMV, OTC: OMVKY) …. 24 OPAP THE EUROPEAN VALUE ISSUE ► Snapshot of 100 European value opportunities ► 45 European “magic formula” companies ► 45 book value bargains by country ► 20+ companies profiled by MOI research team ► Top 5 ideas, based on proprietary MOI methodology ► Plus: Superinvestor holdings update ► Plus: Favorite stock screens for value investors ► Plus: Exclusive interview with Ciccio Azzolini (Greece: OPAP, OTC: GOFPY) .. 28 Premier Foods (London: PFD, OTC: PRRFY) ….. 32 Also Inside Editor’s Commentary …………….. p. 4 Superinvestor Holdings Update …. p. 9 45 European MF Companies …… p. 10 Interview: Ciccio Azzollini ……… p. 12 Top 5 European Ideas ……………p. 16 Other European candidates …….. p. 36 Euro Book Value Bargains ……. p. 100 100 Cheap European ADRs …….p. 114 About Portfolio Manager’s Review Our goal is to bring you investment ideas that are compelling...
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