Berkshire tests Microsoft shares
Last Update: 9:32 PM ET Feb 22, 2000 NewsWatch
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) -- It may not mark a change in philosophy, but Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. purchased 167,500 shares of Microsoft preferred stock last year.
Microsoft is the world's leading manufacturer of computer software. The company's chairman, Bill Gates, is known to be a friend of Buffett's.
The purchase was revealed Tuesday in a public filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. As of Sept. 30, Berkshire's Microsoft holdings were valued at $167 million, according to the filing.
A Berkshire Hathaway spokeswoman declined to comment on the purchase.
The company had requested confidentiality on the purchase, but the SEC denied that request and the information became public.
Buffett has in the past criticized the investment boom in high-tech stocks. The billionaire investor has also said he avoids high-tech investments because he doesn't understand them.
However, an SEC filing revealed last fall showed that Berkshire had purchased 3 million shares in First Data Corp.
The Atlanta-based First Data processes payments for Internet merchants such barnesandnoble.com, Dell Computer Corp,. and Ticketmaster Online and CitySearch Inc.
But as recently as Monday at Midland Lutheran College in Fremont, Buffett said some naive investors will face sad outcomes from the high-tech stock boom.
He qualified that statement and said not all Internet valuations are crazy, but many are.
Shares of Microsoft (MSFT: news, msgs) slipped 1 /4 to 93 13/16. Shares of Berkshire Hathaway (BRKA: news, msgs) fell 1900 points, or 3.73 percent, to close Tuesday at 49,000.
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