巴菲特致股东的信（1999年）⑦1999年的并购活动

Acquisitions of 1999

Our acquisitions usually develop in the same way. At other companies, executives may devote themselves to pursuing acquisition possibilities with investment bankers, utilizing an auction process that has become standardized. In this exercise the bankers prepare a "book" that makes me think of the Superman comics of my youth. In the Wall Street version, a formerly mild-mannered company emerges from the investment banker's phone booth able to leap over competitors in a single bound and with earnings moving faster than a speeding bullet. Titillated by the book's description of the acquiree's powers, acquisition-hungry CEOs -- Lois Lanes all, beneath their cool exteriors -- promptly swoon.

1999 年的并购活动

我们的并购行动发生的形态一向很类似，在别的公司，高级主管通常亲自与投资银行家一起寻求可能的并购机会，所运用的拍卖程序相当制式化，在过程中银行业者准备的帐册让我想到童年时代读到的“超人”漫画，只不过华尔街版换成，一家本来平淡无奇的公司，进到了投资银行特地准备的电话亭后，摇身一变成了一跃升天，收益成长飞快的超人，而抵挡不住卖方帐册所叙述的神力，并购案饥渴成痴的买方，就像是具有冷艳外表的露易丝，立刻融化在其膝下。(投资银行的过度包装)

What's particularly entertaining in these books is the precision with which earnings are projected for many years ahead. If you ask the author-banker, however, what his own firm will earn next month, he will go into a protective crouch and tell you that business and markets are far too uncertain for him to venture a forecast.

而在这其中最有趣的是，这些资料所显示未来几年的收益预测都相当明确，不过要是你问问编造这些报表的银行业者，他们自己银行下个月的收益预估，他会马上露出警戒的神色告诉你，产业与市场的状况是如何变化多端，以致于他无法妄下定论。

Here's one story I can't resist relating: In 1985, a major investment banking house undertook to sell Scott Fetzer, offering it widely -- but with no success. Upon reading of this strikeout, I wrote Ralph Schey, then and now Scott Fetzer's CEO, expressing an interest in buying the business. I had never met Ralph, but within a week we had a deal. Unfortunately, Scott Fetzer's letter of engagement with the banking firm provided it a $2.5 million fee upon sale, even if it had nothing to do with finding the buyer. I guess the lead banker felt he should do something for his payment, so he graciously offered us a copy of the book on Scott Fetzer that his firm had prepared. With his customary tact, Charlie responded: "I'll pay $2.5 million not to read it."

以下有一则故事我忍不住想补充，故事发生在 1985 年，有一家非常大的投资银行受委托负责出售斯科特费泽公司，然而在经过多方的推销后却仍无功而返，在得知这样的情况后，我立即写信给斯科特费泽当时的总裁Ralph Schey 表达买下该公司的意愿，在这之前我从来没有与 Ralph 见过面，不过在一个礼拜之内我们便达成协议，可惜令人遗憾的是，在该公司与投资银行所签订的意向书中约定，一旦公司顺利找到买主便须支付 250 万美元给银行，即便最后的买主与该银行无关也要照付，事后我猜想，或许是该银行认为既然拿了钱，多少都应该办点事，所以他们好心地将先前准备的财务资料提供一份给我们，收到这样的礼物时，查理冷冷地响应说：“我宁愿再多付 250 万美元也不要看这些垃圾。”

At Berkshire, our carefully-crafted acquisition strategy is simply to wait for the phone to ring. Happily, it sometimes does so, usually because a manager who sold to us earlier has recommended to a friend that he think about following suit.

在伯克希尔，我们精心设计的并购策略很简单：就是静静地等待电话铃响。可喜的是，有时还真管用，通常是先前加入我们集团的经理人，间接给我们做了示范宣传，建议其周遭的好朋友可以如法炮制。

Which brings us to the furniture business. Two years ago I recounted how the acquisition of Nebraska Furniture Mart in 1983 and my subsequent association with the Blumkin family led to follow-on transactions with R. C. Willey (1995) and Star Furniture (1997). For me, these relationships have all been terrific. Not only did Berkshire acquire three outstanding retailers; these deals also allowed me to become friends with some of the finest people you will ever meet.

在这里我不免要提到我们的家具事业，两年前我回想到当初在 1983 年我是如何买下内布拉斯加家具店，以及如何通过 B 夫人家族与威利家具(1995 年)及明星家具(1997 年)结缘的经过，就我个人而言，这些经验实在是棒极了，伯克希尔不但得到了三家杰出的家具零售业务，同时也让我得以认识全天下最好的朋友。

Naturally, I have persistently asked the Blumkins, Bill Child and Melvyn Wolff whether there are any more out there like you. Their invariable answer was the Tatelman brothers of New England and their remarkable furniture business, Jordan's.

自然而然地，我就不断地询问 B 夫人家族、Bill 及 Melvyn 身旁有没有像你们一样好的人，他们异口同声的回答都是住在新英格兰地区的塔特尔曼兄弟(Tatelman)，以及他们优秀的业务乔丹家具(Jordan's Furniture/jordans.com)。

I met Barry and Eliot Tatelman last year and we soon signed an agreement for Berkshire to acquire the company. Like our three previous furniture acquisitions, this business had long been in the family -- in this case since 1927, when Barry and Eliot's grandfather began operations in a Boston suburb. Under the brothers' management, Jordan's has grown ever more dominant in its region, becoming the largest furniture retailer in New Hampshire as well as Massachusetts.

终于在去年我见到了 Tatelman 兄弟巴里和艾略特(Barry·Tatelman,Eliot·Tatelman)，很快地我们就签下并购合约(据营业额估计约为 2.5 亿美元)，如同先前的三次并购案，这也是一家家族企业，时间要追溯至 1927 年，当时由两兄弟的祖父塞缪尔在波士顿市郊创立，之后在两兄弟合力经营下，不但成为当地家具业的龙头，更进一步跃升为新罕布什尔州以及马萨诸塞州最大的家具零售店。

The Tatelmans don't just sell furniture or manage stores. They also present customers with a dazzling entertainment experience called "shoppertainment." A family visiting a store can have a terrific time, while concurrently viewing an extraordinary selection of merchandise. The business results are also extraordinary: Jordan's has the highest sales per square foot of any major furniture operation in the country. I urge you to visit one of their stores if you are in the Boston area -- particularly the one at Natick, which is Jordan's newest. Bring money.

Tatelman 兄弟不光只是贩卖家具或者是管理店面，他们还提供上门的顾客一种全新的消费经验，他们称之为“娱乐购物”，合家光顾的客人不但可以见到各式各样的商品(产品展厅)，同时还可享受一段愉快的时光(主题乐园)，这样的经营成果无疑让人印象深刻，乔丹家具拥有全美每平方英尺最高的销售额，如果你家住在波士顿地区，衷心建议你可上门看一看，尤其是位于纳提克市新开幕的那一家(Natick 店于 1998 年 4 月 17 日开业，面积1.1 万平米，拥有展厅空间+狂欢节/波旁街主题)，记得要带钱！(类似运动天堂迪卡侬)

Barry and Eliot are classy people -- just like their counterparts at Berkshire's three other furniture operations. When they sold to us, they elected to give each of their employees at least 50¢ for every hour that he or she had worked for Jordan's. This payment added up to $9 million, which came from the Tatelmans' own pockets, not from Berkshire's. And Barry and Eliot were thrilled to write the checks.

Barry 与 Eliot 堪称谦谦君子，就像是伯克希尔旗下其它三家家具店一样，当他们顺利把公司卖给伯克希尔之后，他们决定至少为店里的每位员工加发每小时 0.5 美元，乘以他们在该店入职时间的分红，总计最后的金额是900 万美元，全部由两兄弟个人而不是伯克希尔的口袋支付，记得当时两兄弟在签支票时手还在发抖。

Each of our furniture operations is number one in its territory. We now sell more furniture than anyone else in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Texas, Nebraska, Utah and Idaho. Last year Star's Melvyn Wolff and his sister, Shirley Toomim, scored two major successes: a move into San Antonio and a significant enlargement of Star's store in Austin.

我们旗下每一家家具店都是当地首屈一指的业者，目前我们在马萨诸塞州(波士顿的乔丹家具)、新罕布什尔州、德克萨斯州(休斯顿的明星家具)、内布拉斯加州、犹它州(盐湖城的威利家具)以及爱达荷州等地的市场占有率都是第一，去年明星家具的 Melvyn 连同他妹妹 Shirley 又再下两城，成功在圣安东尼奥以及奥斯丁大展身手。

There's no operation in the furniture retailing business remotely like the one assembled by Berkshire. It's fun for me and profitable for you. W. C. Fields once said, "It was a woman who drove me to drink, but unfortunately I never had the chance to thank her." I don't want to make that mistake. My thanks go to Louie, Ron and Irv Blumkin for getting me started in the furniture business and for unerringly guiding me as we have assembled the group we now have.

没有一家家具业的经营能够像伯克希尔一样，这是我个人的乐趣，也是各位盈利的关键所在，菲尔兹(W.C.Fields)曾经说过：是女人让我迷醉酒吧，可惜我一直没有机会好好谢谢她。我不想犯下相同的错误，在此我要感谢 Louie、Ron、Irv 等人，是他们让我得以与家具业结缘，而且毫无犹疑地引导我组成现今的梦幻组合。

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Now, for our second acquisition deal: It came to us through my good friend, Walter Scott, Jr., chairman of Level 3 Communications and a director of Berkshire. Walter has many other business connections as well, and one of them is with MidAmerican Energy, a utility company in which he has substantial holdings and on whose board he sits. At a conference in California that we both attended last September, Walter casually asked me whether Berkshire might be interested in making a large investment in MidAmerican, and from the start the idea of being in partnership with Walter struck me as a good one. Upon returning to Omaha, I read some of MidAmerican's public reports and had two short meetings with Walter and David Sokol, MidAmerican's talented and entrepreneurial CEO. I then said that, at an appropriate price, we would indeed like to make a deal.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

接下去要报告的是第二个并购案，这件案子系通过我多年的好朋友，Level3 通讯公司 CEO，同时也是伯克希尔的董事沃尔特·斯科特(Walter Scott)牵线而成，Walter 个人也拥有相当多的人脉，其中他在一家能源企业中美能源公司拥有相当多的股份，同时也担任该公司的董事，去年九月我们共同出席一场在加州举行的研讨会，Walter 不经意地问我是否有兴趣投资中美能源公司，在当时我就直觉地认为这应该是一个很好的主意，回到奥马哈之后，我看了一下中美能源的相关资料，并与 Walter 及中美能源才能兼具的 CEO 大卫·索科尔(David Sokol)短暂地见了两次面，当场我就表示，只要价位合适，我想成交的可能性很高。

Acquisitions in the electric utility industry are complicated by a variety of regulations including the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935. Therefore, we had to structure a transaction that would avoid Berkshire gaining voting control. Instead we are purchasing an 11% fixed-income security, along with a combination of common stock and exchangeable preferred that will give Berkshire just under 10% of the voting power of MidAmerican but about 76% of the equity interest. All told, our investment will be about $2 billion.

并购电力能源公司由于牵涉到包含 1935 年制定的《公用事业控股公司法》在内的各种行政法规而显得有些复杂，因此我们必须设计一个交易，以避免伯克希尔取得多数的控制权，最后决定由我们出资购买 11%固定收益的证券，加上部分普通股与可转换优先股的特殊组合，把伯克希尔对中美能源的表决权压在 10%以下，同时又能持有该公司 76%的经济权益，总计全部加起来的投资金额预计超过 20 亿美元。(最终 33 亿占 80.2%)

Walter characteristically backed up his convictions with real money: He and his family will buy more MidAmerican stock for cash when the transaction closes, bringing their total investment to about $280 million. Walter will also be the controlling shareholder of the company, and I can't think of a better person to hold that post.

而 Walter 也以具体的行动来支持这项合并案，他与他的家人同样投入了大笔的资金买进更多的中美能源股份，累计投资的金额超过 2.8 亿美元，这使得他成为拥有该公司控制权的大股东，我想再也找不到比他更适合这个职位的人了。

Though there are many regulatory constraints in the utility industry, it's possible that we will make additional commitments in the field. If we do, the amounts involved could be large.

虽然在能源业务有许多法规的限制，但我们极有可能在这个产业投入更多的资金，如果真的实行，这个数字铁定十分可观。