伯克希尔增持Bending Spoons至4%引发股价飙升

We definitely do not know if Warren Buffett's behind it. He probably isn't, to be honest. Mhm. Um, you know it's Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway. So in a way he is. But uh I was walking back from a meeting and I start getting instant messages about matrix references. I said what is going on? And um, yeah. Finds out that they invested in the IPO of this company in July, which I am almost positive was not public news I did not know about.

Okay. So they did. I think it was like 300 million in the IPO. They do 13 s. But those are only U.S. companies and this is an Italian company. So it didn't show up on any of those filings. And 300 million for them is a small number. So uh, they invested in the IPO and they just did another 600, which brings them to about 4% of the company. So this is so this is, as you said, an Italian company. What do they do and why?

Why do you think Berkshire is so interesting. Yeah. So uh, as Scala said, I'm the I'm the insurance guy. So I'm not an expert on in spoons or technology, but, um, it's it doesn't scream to me like, you know, you hear Berkshire buying in like tech IPO. Like it's not. I don't think it's exactly that. They buy other companies and I guess rehabilitate them and work on the brand. So, uh, those companies are tech companies, so.

Bones. Yeah. So, um, I think it's not exactly like they're a startup. They're buying other companies. So bending spoons is kind of like a Berkshire but focused on tech companies in a way. Probably a little bit of a stretch. I mean, maybe they're like a repair, but, you know, no one's a Berkshire. Right? So okay. That's true. That's true. Okay. I do like the idea of Berkshire buying Berkshire, but it's buying a company that holds a bunch of.

All right. It's not like a tech startup. It's like it's buying company that I guess. But they buy them to specifically improve them or work on them or Berkshire kind of will buy a company because it's a great company and they own it. So it's a little bit private equity ish. Yeah. It is. Okay. So um, is this kind of consistent with Berkshire's approach to investments overall or does this mark a change? It seems a little new to me.

I mean, you know, we have Greg Abell as a CEO. We don't know if he did it. Uh, it could have been said. Well, sure. Who's an investment deputy? It could have even been Warren Buffett. He's still he is officially retired, but he is, uh, chairman emeritus, and he's still talking to Abel, so he could have been involved. They did buy into the snowflake IPO in 2020. They subsequently sold all those shares in 2024. And I think their investment in in snowflake was around 700 million.

So this isn't completely unprecedented. Um, but definitely a departure from their normal playbook. So, uh, Buffett stepped down. I just looked this up earlier this year. Um, but as you said, he's still sort of in the in the Zeit. Geist. Yes. He look, he's not totally gone. Um, does this mark a departure for Berkshire, or is this, like, a different kind of company? Is this sort of marking a new era for them, or is this very much along the lines of, does this make sense to you when you look at at the US?

Yeah, I think so. Like you were saying on the first read, I was like, oh, kind of didn't, didn't really make sense. Right. Um, but to to read more a little bit about bending spoons and the company that they are probably follow was more into their playbook, but definitely a departure from from the type of companies they've been invested in. Uh, they've been looking at, uh, they've traded in and out of companies and more.

Although I don't think you'd want to buy this at the IPO and, like, kind of trade out of it, but they've done a little bit more of that over maybe call it the past five years in small positions. Okay. So um, Berkshire obviously not just making an investment in bending spoons. It's also done other things. It's, um, increase its stake in Lennar, which is a traditional home builder. I mean, it feels like they're they're stripping away a little bit from their focus on industrial companies.

Is that a fair assessment? Uh, a little bit. I mean, I think Greg is really putting capital to work. I think some when I talk to clients, people say, well, what are they doing? Or do they not, you know, they can't really move the needle. Indeed, they can't move the needle dramatically given how big the company is. But he's he's making moves. He's buying back stock. Uh, linear. They own, uh, Clayton Homes, which is a, um, homebuilder.

It's an they build the home and they bring it to you. So it's an off site home builder. They bring you the whole. Yeah. Prefab. Uh, and then they bought Tyler Morrison, which was a on site builder, and now they're increasing their stake in linear, which is, you know, another home builder. So it's not it's it's a departure from some of their core businesses. But they have experience in the homebuilding business. They Greg Abel is long term bullish.

He acknowledges there's cyclicality in the home builders, especially in those stocks, which is probably why they're buying them now. Mhm. Um but long term housing supply shortage is a thesis for Berkshire. So I feel like there's something like a Berkshire bump that the bending spoons is experiencing is that's is it is a Berkshire investment. Still what it has. What it used to be in terms of you know this the Oracle of Omaha investing in your company and things like that.

It was a different I think. So I think I think so I mean Buffett's still there. It's the company of Buffett able is is really carrying on the ethos. They've got more money I don't know than anybody. Right. They've got 300 plus billion in cash, 300 billion in equities. Uh, so uh, the capital behind it, having that kind of partner, you know, behind you I think still carries a lot of weight.