(Bloomberg) — Berkshire Hathaway Inc. “had no prior knowledge” of Microsoft Corp.’s plans to acquire Activision Blizzard Inc. before the conglomerate took a stake in the gaming giant last year, billionaire Warren Buffett said.
The stock purchases were made by one of Berkshire’s two investment managers, Ted Weschler and Todd Combs, Buffett said in a statement. The investment was made “independently of me,” he wrote. The New York Post reported his comments earlier.
Buffett, Berkshire’s chief executive officer, is longtime friends with Bill Gates, Microsoft’s co-founder and former CEO, and a onetime Berkshire board member. Berkshire held nearly 14.7 million shares in the video-game company as of Dec. 31, according to a regulatory filing this week. The stock was purchased ahead of Activision’s $69 billion deal with Microsoft, which was announced in mid-January.
Buffett said Berkshire acquired its Activision stake at an average price of $77 a share. Activision stock jumped nearly 26% on the day of the deal’s announcement, and has climbed about 22% since the end of 2021. The shares fell less than 1% to $80.97 in New York on Thursday.
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