We found 29 articles about Warren Buffett for you this month

Buffett's Berkshire discloses 2.8 percent stake in Goldman Sachs - Reuters, 08 October 2013 Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc (BRK-A) disclosed a 2.8 percent passive stake in Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS) as it converted warrants acquired during the financial crisis. Warren Buffett’s highest-yielding dividend stocks – 27/7 Wall St, 08 October 2013 Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK-A) and Warren Buffett generally hold close to 40 different stock positions in the Berkshire Hathaway portfolio of U.S.-listed shares. Anyone who has followed Buffett's investment holdings through time knows that he loves to invest in dividend stocks. It also happens that 24/7 Wall St. loves dividends as well. Buffett’s crisis-time bets show that sometimes greed pays off - Wall St. Cheat Sheet, 07 October 2013 It’s starting to look like the late-2000s crisis was bad for everyone except Berkshire Hathaway, led by Chairman and CEO Warren Buffett. During a period in which trillions of dollars of household and corporate wealth evaporated into a nebulous cloud of financial fairy dust and credit pipelines froze, Berkshire opened its wallet and lent tens of billions of dollars. Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) - Asbestos Problems - Seeking Alpha, 07 October 2013 Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) has been Warren Buffett's signature effort for the past 50 years. It is a multinational conglomerate holding company that includes a wide range of industries. Buffett makes sweet profit off Mars Investment - Wall St. Cheat Sheet, 05 October 2013 Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRKA)(NYSE:BRKB) Chairman and CEO Warren Buffett has logged a lot of wins in the wake of the late-2000s crisis. During the crisis itself, the firm served as a white knight investor to major companies with a need for a huge amount of cash, and fast. Goldman Sachs hard money lender Warren Buffett gets paid again - Seeking Alpha, 02 October 2013 The name Goldman Sachs (GS) has been one of the premiere names in investment banking in America since the 1800s. However, its sterling reputation did not prevent the company from being involved in the subprime mortgage crisis that threatened to sink the global economy. Buffett's $2.15 billion payday - The Motley Fool, 01 October 2013 On Tuesday, Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-A ) (NYSE: BRK-B ) was set to become the sixth-largest external investor in Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS ) by grabbing a stake in the banking giant worth around $2.15 billion. AIG's buffer against Buffett - The Motley Fool, 28 September 2013 Imagine you're one of the leading insurance providers in the world, back on track after some troubled times. Everything seems to be going great until WHAM -- four of your top guys head elsewhere to start another business that will compete with yours. Seven stocks that Warren Buffett never should have sold - 24/7 Wall St., 27 September 2013 Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK-A) and Warren Buffett often are followed in corporate America as the undisputed investment kingmakers of all time. And 2013 has been an incredibly strong year, with gains so far of nearly 30% for this year alone. Pimco sees Buffett’s India dream cut to junk as vote looms - Bloomberg, 26 September 2013 Little more than two years after Warren Buffett labeled India a “dream market,” the economy is expanding at the slowest pace in a decade and the nation’s debt ratings are at risk of being cut to junk. Warren Buffett won't abandon Bank of America - The Motley Fool, 21 September 2013 Two years ago, Warren Buffett called Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan to suggest a deal. In exchange for a $5 billion investment, which would serve as a vote of confidence in the nation's second largest lender, Berkshire Hathaway received preferred stock that paid a 6% annual dividend and warrants for 700 million shares of common stock with an exercise price of $7.14 a share, the market price at the time.

Warren Buffett - The Investor

Buffett isn’t the only Secret to Berkshire’s success - Wall St. Cheat Sheet, 14 October 2013 It is sometimes easy to forget that there is more to the success of Berkshire Hathaway than mad genius Warren Buffet, who serves as the company’s chairman and CEO. Buffett, a self-made billionaire who is widely respected for his patient, long-term view of markets and business, is both the face of the company and the mastermind behind its enormous success — but the operation is by no means a one-man show. 4 steps to invest like Warren Buffett - The Motley Fool, 09 October 2013 As the memories and pain from the GFC begin to fade away, and our business and investment minds turn to what is happening now or in the near future, some of the wisdom harvested from the experience has to be remembered, or we’ll just do the same thing again next time. 5 Buffett traits that lead me to Microsoft - Seeking Alpha, 08 October 2013 Everyone who invests wants to be good at it. We all think we are smart enough to figure out what stock or what fund will make us money. If you are like me, you do your research, determine how the business is performing, asses the stock price and then decide if you are going to buy the stock or not. A Buffett investment analogy for cricket fans - The Motley Fool, 04 October 2013 Investor and founder of Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-A) Warren Buffett is renowned for many things, including being one of the richest people in the world. However for Fools such as me, of far more interest than the fact that Buffett is rich, is the details of how he became rich! The best investments Warren Buffett ever made - The Motley Fool, 24 September 2013 In his 2011 Letter to Shareholders, Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-A, BRK-B) Chairman Warren Buffett puts investments into three major categories. His comments about each category defy conventional wisdom. 5 reasons Warren Buffett is a better Heisenberg than Bryan Cranston - The Motly Fool, 15 September 2013 Breaking Bad's Walter White, a.k.a. Heisenberg, and Berkshire Hathaway's Warren Buffett possess some strikingly similar traits. Both dominate their respective businesses from relatively obscure areas of the country -- Albuquerque, N.M., and Ohama, Neb. Both have battled cancer.

General News

How Warren Buffett made life easy for Amazon founder Jeff Bezos - The Motley Fool, 14 October 2013 The founder of online retail giant Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN) Jeff Bezos recently made headlines when he purchased the US newspaper The Washington Post for US$250 million from The Washington Post Co. (NYSE: WPO), a media company majority-owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.A). Why Buffett's $10 billion haul won't be the last - The Motley Fool, 12 October 2013 Warren Buffett's investing genius pays off once again. Berkshire Hathaway has now racked up a whopping $10 billion profit on investments made during the financial crisis. Moody's rates Berkshire Hathaway Finance Corp's senior notes Aa2 - Moody's, 08 October 2013 Moody's Investors Service has assigned Aa2 ratings to $400 million of three-year and $550 million of seven-year notes being issued by Berkshire Hathaway Finance Corporation (BHFC). Buffett vs. Twitter: Two smart #investing styles - MarketWatch, 08 October 2013 Today let’s talk about two big investment strategies in the news. They are beckoning, like personal ads on Craigslist. There is the hot young thing in Twitter Inc. (TWTR), which filed for its initial public offering last week. Warren Buffett rebukes Politicians to help Berkshire Shareholders - Seeking Alpha, 07 October 2013 The recent government shutdown has highlighted the dysfunction in the U.S. government. Approving funding that the government has already legislated now seems to be a common political practice. How the negotiations will ultimately play out was the subject of a recent interview of Warren Buffett by CNBC. Buffett likens debt fight to 'nuclear bombs' - Fortune, 04 October 2013 Fighting about the debt ceiling "ought to be banned as a weapon," says Warren Buffett. "It should be like nuclear bombs: too horrible to use." Warren Buffett on the Fed: Great Experiment, Greatest Hedge Fund - Wall St. Cheat Sheet, 21 September 2013 At Georgetown University in Washington on Thursday, Berkshire Hathaway Chairman and CEO Warren Buffett told students that the U.S. Federal Reserve is “the greatest hedge fund in history.” Warren Buffett: Washington just likes to bluff - CNBC, 20 September 2013 Forget the big taper countdown, the markets' new fixation is the fight over the federal budget. In the extreme, it could lead to a partial government shutdown, even a Treasury default. How likely is that? Berkshire Billionaire found with more shares than Gates - Bloomberg, 20 September 2013 Stewart Horejsi’s business was in a funk. It was 1980, and Brown Welding Supply LLC, his family’s third-generation distributor of hydrogen and oxygen tanks, was battling competitors that were intent on expanding into the corner of Kansas he controlled. Not lifting U.S. debt ceiling would be 'dumb': Buffett - Reuters, 20 September 2013 Billionaire investor Warren Buffett said that politicians not lifting the U.S. debt ceiling would be "pretty damn dumb" and viewed a prolonged political standoff on the issue as "disturbing." Buffett lauds Bernanke but laments lack of investment bargains - Reuters, 20 September 2013 Warren Buffett said on Thursday he would recommend reappointing Ben Bernanke as Federal Reserve chairman, while adding that low interest rates have inflated asset values and complicated his hunt for investments at his company Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Do you own these potential Buffett targets? - Street Authority, 18 September 2013 Although most companies appear largely focused on dividends and buybacks these days, some still see the merits of a growth-inducing acquisition.

6 Tips on how to invest in a franchise

Step 1

Assess your own skills and qualifications to determine what type of franchise would best meet your needs. Someone with previous fast food management experience might consider a Subway, Quiznos or other fast food franchise. A worker with experience in the dry cleaning arena might gravitate toward opening a dry cleaning franchise. And someone with strong connections in the business community, might consider a business services franchise. Choosing a franchise that uses the skills you already possess can boost your chances of success.

Step 2

Make a list of several franchises you are interested in, and research the franchise fees and startup costs for each one. The startup costs for a franchise vary quite widely, from just a few thousand dollars to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Step 3

Research the failure rates for each of the franchises under consideration. The failure rates for franchise operation vary just as much as startup costs, and it is important to look at those rates before investing. The reasons for the failure of a particular franchise owner are many, from inexperience to overconfidence, but a high failure rate for a particular franchise should raise some red flags.

Step 4

Check the number of similar businesses in your area before deciding on a particular franchise. It is important to look at competition not only from the same company, such as how many Subway restaurants can a typical town support, but similar businesses as well. Even if you are the only Subway in town, there will be competition from the sub shop down the street and other chain sandwich shops across town.

Step 5

Set a realistic budget for your new franchise. One of the advantages of starting a franchise is that the franchise fee covers many of your startup costs, but you are still likely to face some financial surprises along the way. Sufficient capital on hand, in the form of a small business loan or seed capital from family members, friends and outside investors, will help you weather the storm and keep your business running until sales start to come in.

Step 6

Review all franchise related materials carefully, and have a business attorney review the documents as well. It is always important to have legal representation for a business deal of this type, and a good attorney can often spot problems in the language of the contract that you might have missed.

First printed in smallbusiness.chron

Why invest in franchising

It seems that the popularity of franchising is constantly increasing and delving into the economic viability of investing in a franchise, when compared to that of investing in a new business, it is not very difficult to understand why.


“The most significant advantage of investing in a franchise is that right from the start, the investor is provided with everything they need for a turnkey operation - from recruitment all the way through to the actual product,” “It makes a great deal of sense for new business owners because along with the turnkey operation comes access to considerable expertise, support and understanding.”


It’s no secret that successful businesses are based on a sound understanding of the consumer and as De Sousa points out, a well-established franchise already possesses vital consumer insights which it in turn is able to pass on to new investors.


One of the greatest concerns for a new business owner is lack of support. “There are a great number of business facets that dictate how successful a business is, these include sales and marketing, health and safety, legal requirements and finance, to name a few,” says De Sousa. “Most business owners would have to outsource these areas of expertise at a costly rate, if they are not able to fulfil these functions in-house. Franchise owners, however, are able to access that support from the franchisor.”


In addition to this, new franchise owners have the benefit of lower operating costs. “Everything from the cost of the product to the cost of the business’ insurance is negotiated by the franchisor,” De Sousa adds. From a logistical point of view, they will have access to the systems and supplies of a well-established brand, providing them with far greater security. Not to mention the benefits of gaining national exposure. “This goes as far as landlords granting pre-approval based purely on the brand name invested in.”


Becoming a new franchisee also comes with significant challenges of its own. The franchisors (aka “head office”) operate through uniformity: this is one of the cornerstones of a successful franchise brand and this provides vital functionality. This standardisation is applied to areas such as menu and store design, location choices, franchise fees, as well as a variety of application processes.


As such, it is important to be on board with the brand’s overall philosophy and concept, to feel comfortable operating within their structures and in agreement with their systems. “Don’t just invest in any brand, your success as a franchise owner will depend on you choosing an organisation with a business model and vision that you believe in,” De Sousa explains. However, while start-ups allow more freedom they also pose a much higher risk. “Franchise organisations have the benefit of an already established brand and business operating model, which is a far more secure option in today’s economic climate.”


Investing in a reputable franchise will give you a superior platform for an attractive return on your investment, but at the same time will require a considerable amount of research and stringent finance application processes. De Sousa believes that business owners who are confident in their ability to manage these processes have great potential to succeed.


First published in Moneyweb