Warren Buffett's Company Berkshire Hathaway Misses Out On $5B Acquisition Of Tech Data

Berkshire Hathaway is still sitting on a record pile of cash, after its CEO and Chairman Warren Buffett was thwarted in his attempt to buy Tech Data for $5 billion. Buffett's Berkshire missed out on the $5 billion acquisition of Tech Data because it does not intend to counter with a higher offer.

A week ago, Buffett said he bid $140 a share, or a little over $5 billion excluding debt, for the Clearwater, Florida-based Tech Data, according to CNBC. But the Oracle of Omaha lost out to a competing bid by private-equity firm Apollo Global Management for $145 a share, which values the company at about $5.14 billion. Apollo upped its initial offer of $130 a share, or just over $4.77 billion after an unnamed suitor -- Berkshire -- topped it, CNBC reported.

 

Tech Data, which had $37 billion in revenue last year, is a global distributor of technology products and services, buying a wide range of services from manufacturers like Apple, Cisco Systems and HP. It is the No. 88 company on the Fortune 500 list of largest publicly traded companies and employs more than 14,000 people worldwide.

According to Berkshire’s most recent quarterly earnings report, Warren Buffett’s sprawling conglomerate has a staggering $128.1 billion in cash and equivalents— a record amount — despite investing $10 billion in Occidental Petroleum Corp. in exchange for 100,000 shares of stock.

Despite holding so much cash — "far beyond" the level that Buffett and Vice Chairman Charlie Munger prefer — the company has struggled to make any major acquisitions since 2016, citing that asking prices that are too high. Rather, the company has repurchased about $700 million of its own shares, this was an idea that was previously shunned by Buffett.

In May, Buffett told FOX Business’ Liz Claman that the company’s cash pile expands by about $100 million per business day. At the time, he said he was searching the world for new investment opportunities. “In terms of size, there are probably a dozen countries in the world that should have some companies that we would be interested in,” he said at the time.

Last year, in his annual letter to shareholders, Buffett blamed the prices on a buying frenzy driven in large part by CEOs who are cheered on by their boards. Once CEOs have a deal and asking price in mind, it’s difficult to sway their opinions.