122:05—125:15· 191s
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Speaker A“I don't really care. So he goes and he meets with Stanton. They discuss the company making a tender offer to buy outstanding shares, in particular Warren's shares. And they have, according to Warren, they have a handshake deal at $11 50 cents a share. And Warren says, great, if you launch a tender offer at that price, I will sell my shares. He goes back to Omaha, gets a letter in the mail. Tender offer is announced at $11.38. $11.38. So what's that, $11.37, $11.38, something like that? Speaker BYep. So 12.5 cents a share less than what they talked about. Speaker AAnd this is like— I still don't understand. I've read a lot about this. Nobody, including Warren, can really seem to explain why Warren gets so worked up about this, because that's not in his personality. Like, he cares a lot about money, but it's not in his personality to get worked up about things or to get emotional about stocks. But he goes off the deep end. He is like pissed. The best explanation I've seen is, sadly, his father Howard was dying around this time and passed away right around this time, and must have been affecting Warren. Speaker BWell, and Buffett is also, uh, you know, he's, he's built a lifetime reputation on doing right by his word and in dealing in good faith. And I have to imagine that, you know, facing off against someone who is not dealing in good faith and is sort of reneging on an agreement, that can't sit well. Totally. Speaker AAlthough, you know, the Munger version of what to do here would be when somebody deals in bad faith, you just don't deal with them. Warren, you know, it would have been completely understandable to say like, all right, fine, whatever, I'm just going to sell my stock at $11.38, get out of this, be done with it, still make a lot of money. If you want to, you know, fight, it would be also totally rational to just hold the stock and say I'm not selling. Instead, Warren says screw you, I'm gonna launch a tender offer for your shares, which is so uncharacteristic for him. He starts canvassing the entire shareholder base trying to get anybody to sell him shares. He is on a mission like a man possessed that he wants to get control of Berkshire Hathaway and kick Stanton out of his company. Speaker BAnd this is like a big-ish company at this point. I think it's something like 15,000 people work in the mills. Speaker AYeah, it's— it is not a small company. Speaker BIt would become a small company, but it is currently a large company. Speaker AIt's now a non-existent company except in name. So by April 1965, Warren gets enough shares to get himself elected to the board. The next month, he stages a boardroom coup, essentially. Also very uncharacteristic of him, he forces Stanton out and installs himself as chairman. He's won and his prize”