Storied investor says a money manager at Berkshire Hathaway decided to invest in the ecommerce giant
Warren Buffett has long voiced his admiration for Amazon, yet it wasn’t the “Oracle of Omaha,” as the celebrated investor is known, to put Berkshire Hathaway’s money where his mouth is. Instead, it was one of his younger deputies who opted to invest in the ecommerce behemoth.
“One of the fellows in the office that manage money… bought some Amazon,” Buffett, Berkshire’s chairman and CEO, told CNBC, likely referring to one of two investment managers, Todd Combs or Ted Weschler, at the company.
The distinction is notable, analysts said, in that Buffett has shied away from investing in technology companies, with IBM and then much later, Apple, rare exceptions. “They got into Apple late in the game–from nowhere five years ago to now it’s their biggest holding,” Cathy Siefert, equity research analyst at CFRA Research, told CBS MoneyWatch.
Investing in Amazon, whose shares are approaching $2,000 apiece, might seem at odds with Buffett’s usual approach of buying stakes in profitable companies that are undervalued by the market.
