In the spirit of stock recommendations

[wiseheart]

Which is where my understanding mainly comes from, reading books on Buffett and his style, but maybe your saying his style isn't supposed to apply to companies in the same way?

[SlowHabit]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Graham strongly advises against buying companies that require acquisitions to further growth as they tend to have problems down the road. Why do you cite that as a positive in the company above?

[/ QUOTE ]

That sounds really funny and ironic considering what Berkshire has done.

[/ QUOTE ]
In the words of Warren Buffett, "if I listen to everything Ben said, I would poor right now hahahaha."

[ahnuld]

what buffett does is totally different than what these companies do. He meant companies such as cisco that just bought bought bought in the late 90's for their technology or potential. Buffett buys parts or entire companies but doesnt change anything about them. Passive ownership. Very different.

[SlowHabit]

[ QUOTE ]
what buffett does is totally different than what these companies do. He meant companies such as cisco that just bought bought bought in the late 90's for their technology or potential. Buffett buys parts or entire companies but doesnt change anything about them. Passive ownership. Very different.

[/ QUOTE ]
To add to this. Buffy buys companies because he thinks they will help Berkshire's bottom line, not because his shareholders are telling him to do something with Berkshire's surplus of Bens. Yahoo comes to mind.

[pig4bill]

[ QUOTE ]
what buffett does is totally different than what these companies do. He meant companies such as cisco that just bought bought bought in the late 90's for their technology or potential. Buffett buys parts or entire companies but doesnt change anything about them. Passive ownership. Very different.

[/ QUOTE ]

That actually sounds counter to the Graham statement posted above. Berkshire required those acquisitions in order to grow, because they didn't invent anything. By contrast, Microsoft and Cisco can grow without acquisition, as they invent new product all the time. It just made things easier for them by acquiring those companies, and they did pretty well with them.