Articles/Columns
Warren Buffet Finally Invests in the Technology Industry
In a television interview with CNBC on Monday (Nov. 14th), Warren Buffet unveiled that he purchased 64 million IBM shares in the past eight months. According to Reuters, those 64 million shares is equivalent to nearly 11 billion USD, or 5.5 percent of the company; making him possibly the largest shareholder of IBM. Traditionally, Warren Buffet has had a reputation of avoiding technology stocks in his investment portfolio with Berkshire Hathaway due to his earnest opinion on not fully understanding the industry. With regards to IBM, Buffet was attracted by the way that IBM is able to retain clients and also support their IT departments – an area that has become indispensable in today’s business environment. Investors of Berkshire Hathaway feel that his investment is aimed more toward the service focus of IBM, rather than the technology aspect. Considering that Buffet acquired Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation (the second largest railroad company in the U.S.) in 2009 for 34 billion USD, which is more than three times his current investment in IBM, his recent investments into IBM are not that surprising. Even railroad companies employ multiple layers of technology to operate their business service, which in this case is to transport goods from one location to another. IBM also provides services, primarily in the IT-related areas. Since IT has become an integral aspect of a company’s business operation, then investing in one of the strongest players in the IT industry makes sense from a service perspective. Also, IBM is a 100 years old, so this investment is not the same as Buffet investing in companies such as Google or Amazon; although such a move in the future would not be as surprising as before now that he has an eye on the technology industry.
IBM versus S&P 500, Nikkei, and Berkshire Hathaway (past 2 years)
Source: Reuters
（2011/11/15 掲載）