In March, Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A +0.43%) (BRK.B +0.40%) announced it would buy insurance company Alleghany for $11.6 billion.
In this clip from "The M&A Show" on Motley Fool Live, recorded on March 25, Motley Fool contributors Dan Caplinger, Jason Hall, and Travis Hoium discuss the Oracle of Omaha's move, and what it might mean for the future of the Nebraska-based conglomerate.
Dan Caplinger: In general, when Berkshire acquires a business, they like to acquire the management team that goes with the business. They don't usually make wholesale changes in operations. The interesting question here becomes with Joe Brandon, who has a history at Berkshire, does he suddenly become a player in the succession plan in a way that Berkshire already kind of had this idea of this succession plan in place with Abel seen as taking over the big business and perhaps Ajit Jain working on the insurance side. Well suddenly, here's Joe Brandon, maybe he's a candidate for the insurance side as well. I think there's plenty of corporate tree, several pots of money going on. When you look at the 13-F filings you can see it's a consolidated deal where you've got probably a dozen insurance entities all managing this money. So how deal with that internally I'm not really sure, but I do think there's an opportunity for Joe Brandon to go beyond the borders of historical Alleghany and perhaps to work himself more fully probably on the insurance side.
Jason Hall: Yeah, Ajit Jain is 70 years old, Dan.
Caplinger: Exactly.
Hall: That's to me is a pretty valuable person to add to your team.
Travis Hoium: It's a little bit of an acquirer. Sounds like at least that plays into it.
Hall: It's part of the whole thing. I think you're right.
