The Snowball_ Warren Buffett and the Business of Life - Alice Schroeder [561]
29. Findings and Conclusions, Motion for Preliminary Injunction, Buffalo Courier-Express, Inc., v. Buffalo Evening News, Inc., November 9, 1977.
30. Dick Hirsch, “Read All About It,” “Bflo Tales” in Business First, Winter 1978.
31. In its first full year under Buffett. Murray Light, From Butler to Buffett.
32. Interview with Stan Lipsey.
33. Ibid.
34. Buffalo-Courier Express, Inc., v. Buffalo Evening News, Inc., United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit, 601 F.2d 48, April 16, 1979.
35. Warren Buffett, “You Pay a Very High Price in the Stock Market for a Cheery Consensus,” Forbes, August 6, 1979.
36. Interview with Wally Walker. Jobs did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
37. Warren Buffett, “You Pay a Very High Price in the Stock Market….”
38. Interview with Stan Lipsey.
39. Blue Chip Stamps 1980 annual report to shareholders.
40. Janet Lowe, Damn Right!: Behind the Scenes with Berkshire Hathaway’s Charlie Munger, New York: John, Wiley & Sons, 2000.
41. Ibid.
42. Warren Buffett memo to employees, December 2, 1980.
43. At first, management and the unions tried to publish without the drivers (Buffalo Evening News, December 2, 1980). The striking union walked out over a pay difference of $41 a week.
44. It was selling 195,000 papers on Sundays, about ⅔ of its rivals. From Lowenstein, Buffett, Audit Bureau of Circulations figures as of March 1982.
45. The Blue Chip Stamps 1980 annual report to shareholders notes the litigation became “less active and costly” that year.
46. Interview with Ron Olson.
Chapter 43
1. From $89 million at the end of 1978 to $197 million in August 1980.
2. Interview with Charlotte Danly Jackson.
3. Interview with Verne McKenzie.
4. Affiliated Publications—bought for $3.5 million, jumped to $17 million after nine years. The Washington Post—bought for $10.6 million, now worth $103 million. GEICO—bought for $47.1 million, now worth almost seven times that, $310 million. Berkshire’s total common stock portfolio was worth double its cost.
5. Buffett and Munger took out a loan of $40 million from Bank of America National Trust and Savings Association for Blue Chip to protect against a rush of redemptions, according to Munger’s testimony in the Blue Chip case.
6. In 1976, the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles had said that Blue Chip no longer had to dispose of one third of its business, recognizing that it was impractical after management contacted more than eighty potential buyers and had no serious bids. Sales shrank from $124 million to $9.2 million. The woes of the Buffalo News, which Blue Chip owned, made valuing Blue Chip problematic until 1983, given Buffett’s proportional interests in the different companies versus other shareholders, principally Munger.
7. Berkshire Hathaway 1983 annual report.
8. In 1984, during a period of relatively high inflation, the union agreed to a wage freeze.
9. The Bank Holding Company Act of 1956 placed restrictions on bank holding companies (those owning more than 25% of two or more banks, i.e., the J. P. Morgans) owning nonbanking interests, in order to avoid monopolistic control in the banking industry. It was amended in 1966 and again in 1970 to further restrict the nonbanking activities of one-bank holding companies (such as Berkshire). In 1982, it was amended to further forbid banks from engaging in insurance underwriting or agency activities. In 1999, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act repealed parts of these acts.
10. Interview with Verne McKenzie. According to him and Buffett, Associated was never able to recover from the disintegration of urban centers after the 1960s and adapt to the new culture required to sell discount dresses in shopping malls.
11. Interview with Charlie Munger.
12. Interview with Howie Buffett.
13. Interviews with Dan Grossman, Peter Buffett.
14. Interview with Peter Buffett.
15. Interviews with Marvin Laird, Joel Paley.
16. Interview with