I recall Buffett saying to Becky Quick that his non-BRK networth was around $100M and that he was long JPM but its been a few years so my memory could be faulty. This guy provides some evidence that the non-brk networth might be $1b-$2bBuffet has in the past said stocks were to expensive (that is in his career). He shut down his partnership because overall valuations were too high.
I think the buy america thing was more PR than reality. His personal account can't be more than a few million and if he really wanted to buy stocks he would have through Berkshire. But Berkshire was on the ropes because of its derivatives exposure and its impending railroad deal so he said something to prop re markets up. He's not above selling his brand that way.
I recall Buffett saying to Becky Quick that his non-BRK networth was around $100M and that he was long JPM but its been a few years so my memory could be faulty. This guy provides some evidence that the non-brk networth might be $1b-$2b
https://www.quora.com/Does-Warren-B...Does-he-sell-his-shares-in-Berkshire-Hathaway
The largest healthcare settlement in history is $3B. Valeant can afford that. The stuff they did is not even close to as bad as what other companies did. You don't get the impression from twitter and the media beause the issue has been blown out of proportion. You would think they were running concentration camps by reading the articles and looking at the stock. Thats not realityI think the whole $100M option to buy Philidor is for this very reason that they can insulate themselves and walk away, and claim that they do not own Philidor in legal jargon. Philidor is probably going to get sued into oblivion. The main question is if they can tie it to Valeant, and make them liable? It doesn't take a genius that Valeant knew exactly what was going on, and Philidor was operating with Valeant's guidance. So there is going to be a lot of lawsuits going on.
Whatever the case, I would not be rushing out to buy any Valeant shares if I were you. At least wait for the dust to settle. I think there is also a contingent group of folks that would nothing more than to pile into Ackman's misery.
if you look at the ackman presentation, the media has gottan VRX all wrong. the strategy the depends on price hikes is not a sigificant part of the business. going forward the company is not even planning to use that much more. furthermore, the stock, at $93, is a buy even with no growth. it trades at 6-7 times cashflows. and health care cash flows tend to be more durable than other stuff. They are also planning to use their cashflows to delever the balance sheet and turn themselves into investment gradedaal, what if the risk isn't that they get sued, but rather they can't continue their strategy which ensures higher drug prices (and higher profit margins). How will that affect their ability to service their debt?