Warren Buffett takes charge

(Fortune Magazine) -- Warren Buffett is famous for his rules of investing: When a management with a reputation for brilliance tackles a business with a reputation for bad economics, it is usually the reputation of the business that remains intact. You should invest in a business that even a fool can run, because someday a fool will. And perhaps most famously, Never invest in a business you cannot understand.

So when Buffett's friend and longtime partner in Berkshire Hathaway (BRKB), Charlie Munger, suggested early last year that they invest in BYD, an obscure Chinese battery, mobile phone, and electric car company, one might have predicted Buffett would cite rule No. 3 above. He is, after all, a man who shunned the booming U.S. tech industry during the 1990s.

But Buffett, who is 78, was intrigued by Munger's description of the entrepreneur behind BYD, a man named Wang Chuan-Fu, whom he had met through a mutual friend. "This guy," Munger tells Fortune, "is a combination of Thomas Edison and Jack Welch - something like Edison in solving technical problems, and something like Welch in getting done what he needs to do. I have never seen anything like it."

Read more at Fortune

Kraft profit seen lower as new investors watch

(Reuters) - Activist investors Nelson Peltz and Carl Icahn both have purchased stakes in the No. 1 U.S. packaged food maker and the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday that Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc also has bought a small stake.




Kraft shares are down about 7.5 percent this year, compared with a 2.5 percent increase in the Standard & Poor's packaged foods index .


Read more at Reuters.com Business News

Bestinver's Parames, Pitching Tips to Warren Buffett, Sours on Spain

(Bloomberg) -- Francisco Parames, Spain's best-
performing fund manager for the last five years, got a hand-
written note from Warren Buffett a few months ago seeking advice
on investing in Spain. He was thrilled to be asked, even though
he isn't enthusiastic about the country's economy.

Parames, who oversees 6 billion euros ($8 billion) at
Madrid-based Bestinver Asset Management, predicts a real-estate
crash in his homeland will spread, dragging down companies
dependent on the Spanish economy. Lending by banks and other
credit institutions has almost tripled since 2000.


Read more at Bloomberg Bonds News

Chanos Short-Selling Moody's Stock in Bet Against Warren Buffett Holding

(Bloomberg) -- James Chanos, president of Kynikos
Associates Ltd., is bearish on Moody's Corp., the bond rating
company whose biggest shareholder is Warren Buffett.

Kynikos sold Moody's stock short, betting it will fall,
Chanos said today. He said Moody's may face lawsuits for keeping
its ratings of loans to the riskiest home borrowers too high.


Read more at Bloomberg Stocks News

Short-Seller James Chanos Says Moody's May Be Warren Buffett's `Mistake'

(Bloomberg) -- James Chanos, president of Kynikos
Associates Ltd., is bearish on Moody's Corp., the bond rating
company whose biggest shareholder is Warren Buffett.

Kynikos sold Moody's stock short, betting it will fall,
Chanos said today. He said Moody's may face lawsuits for keeping
its ratings of loans to the riskiest home borrowers too high.


Read more at Bloomberg Stocks News