Berkshire Cuts Amazon Stake, Makes Bet on New York Times

Berkshire Hathaway Inc. slashed its holding in Amazon.com Inc. by more than 75% in the fourth quarter, while also building a stake in the New York Times Co. — Warren Buffett’s last new bet as chief executive officer.

The conglomerate acquired 5.1 million shares of the media publishing company in the three months through December, a stake worth $351.7 million at year-end, according to a regulatory filing Tuesday. Bloomberg's Matthew Palazola joins to discuss. Berkshire Hathaway Inc. slashed its holding in Amazon.com Inc. by more than 75% in the fourth quarter, while also building a stake in the New York Times Co. — Warren Buffett’s last new bet as chief executive officer.

The conglomerate acquired 5.1 million shares of the media publishing company in the three months through December, a stake worth $351.7 million at year-end, according to a regulatory filing Tuesday.

Berkshire first bought a stake in Amazon in 2019. Buffett, 95, said at the time that despite his historical aversion to technology stocks, he’d been “an idiot for not buying” the online retail giant’s shares sooner. It now owns roughly 2.3 million Amazon shares.

The New York Times rose 1.8% to $75.39 in early trading Wednesday at 8:33 a.m. in New York. Amazon advanced 1.3%. Warren Buffett has said that he underestimated Amazon.com Inc.’s Jeff Bezos. Now one of Buffett’s deputies is willing to put money behind the tech giant.

Berkshire Hathaway Inc. has been buying Amazon shares and the purchases will show up in a regulatory filing later this month, Buffett told CNBC in an interview Thursday. Buffett, Berkshire’s chairman and chief executive officer, said “one of the fellows in the office that manage money” made the purchases, a reference to investment managers Todd Combs and Ted Weschler.

Buffett told CNBC that a deputy made the purchase. Bloomberg Intelligence’s Matthew Bloxham reports.

Combs and Weschler have gained influence at Berkshire in recent years. Buffett credited some of his conglomerate’s purchases of airline stocks and Apple Inc. to the deputies and noted their involvement in helping Berkshire beyond their stock-picking duties. Buffett, 88, and long-time business partner, Charles Munger, 95, have praised the pair, with Munger saying they give Berkshire “younger eyes.”

The Amazon stake further cements the relationship between Berkshire and Bezos’s company. Berkshire is a partner with Amazon and Wall Street bank JPMorgan Chase & Co. in a health venture. The firms are setting up an independent company to offer health-care services to their U.S. employees more transparently and at a lower cost. Amazon’s stock, up 27 percent this year at Thursday’s close, climbed 2.2 percent at 9:40 a.m. in New York. Buffett’s assistant didn’t immediately respond to a message seeking comment.

Warren Buffett

Buffett said in the CNBC interview that he has been “a fan” of the online retail giant and “an idiot for not buying” shares in the past. He was speaking ahead of Berkshire’s annual shareholders meeting, set for Saturday in Omaha, Nebraska.

Buffett has mostly avoided technology-related stocks over the years, saying he didn’t understand the products and markets well enough. One exception was International Business Machines Corp. His $10 billion investment in the computer giant in 2011 was a curiosity for Berkshire, and it didn’t end well. After taking losses, Buffett had sold nearly all the IBM stock by 2018.

Then in 2016, Berkshire jumped into Apple and has built his stake in the iPhone maker into a holding valued at more than $50 billion. Buffett bought Apple and Amazon when they weren’t at their cheapest. Amazon closed Thursday at $1,900.82 and Apple traded at $209.15. Still, Berkshire ended 2018 with its Apple investment valued at more than the cost of buying the shares.

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