Berkshire Hathaway and Kraft Heinz

I am quoted in this Business Insider article.

David Kass, a finance professor at the University of Maryland and a longtime Berkshire blogger, told Business Insider that merging Kraft and Heinz was a “rare mistake” for Buffett.

He pointed to Berkshire having to write down the value of its stake by billions of dollars twice: in 2018 and again in the second quarter of this year. Kass added that the investment has yielded a lower return than the benchmark S&P 500 index over the past decade.

Kass said it was “puzzling” and an “apparent admission of failure” by management to split up Kraft and Heinz and undo the synergies created. He said it wasn’t clear to him how this would generate value for shareholders. The company has said it anticipates $300 million of “dis-synergies” from the split, although it hopes to mitigate some.