Making the World's Most Respected Company

By Glen Arnold

In this fourth volume of The Deals of Warren Buffett, we trace Buffett’s journey as he made Berkshire Hathaway the most respected company in the world.

When we left Buffett at the end of Volume 3 towards the end of the 1990s, he was leading the largest corporation in America and his personal fortune had reached $40 billion. In this enthralling next instalment, we follow Buffett’s investment deals over the first few years of the 21st century, as Berkshire grew to become a giant with annual profits north of $4 billion.

Buffett, then in his early 70s, was still tap dancing to work, thoroughly enjoying analysing companies, finding bargains and interacting with his growing team of managers.

By studying the decision-making that went into his investment deals and the successful and unsuccessful outcomes, we can learn from Buffett and become better investors ourselves.

During this period, exploiting the low prices following the dotcom crash, Buffett made investments in the following companies: MidAmerican Energy, CORT, Moody’s, H&R Block, Shaw Industries, Star Furniture, Jordan’s Furniture, Ben Bridge Jeweler, Justin Boot, Acme Brick, Benjamin Moore and CTB.

For each of these deals, investing expert and Buffett historian Glen Arnold dives into unprecedented detail to analyse the investment rationale, the stories of the individuals involved and, where possible, the profits Buffett made.

Despite holding positions of Professor of Investment and Professor of Corporate Finance, Glen Arnold concluded that academic life was not nearly as much fun, nor as intellectually stimulating, as making money in the markets. He now spends most of his time running an equity portfolio for clients of Henry Spain Investment Services from an office in the heart of rural Leicestershire, and serves as a director on the board of Zytronic.

For decades his main research focus explored the question, 'What works in investment?', drawing on the ideas of the great investors, academic discoveries and corporate strategic analysis. While he used to teach on this subject in the City of London, he would now rather concentrate on actual investment analysis for clients' portfolios.

He is the author of the UK's bestselling investment book and 14 other books.