(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.
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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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