[martinkallstrom]

True (until now, I assume). But they must have liquefied some holdings, or did they front the cash for a $10B stake? It tops most of their existing holdings like $5B in Proctor & Gamble and $2B in Wal-Mart (which are some of the largest holdings they have on hand).

[jonknee]

BRK has a mountain of cash, they did not need to sell off stocks to buy shares of IBM.

http://www.google.com/finance?q=NYSE:BRK.A&fstype=ii

(As of the last quarter they had nearly $35b in Cash & Equivalents.)

[basseq]

From The Snowball: "Buffett understood the basics of computers perfectly well. But he would not consider buying a technology stock at any price. 'When it comes to Microsoft and Intel,' he said, 'I know know what the world will look like ten years from now. And I don't want to play in a game where the other guy has an advantage."

This was, I believe, in 1999, so a) he was right at the time coughpets.comcough and b) it's been more than the aforementioned decade, so maybe he has a better idea of what the world looks like now.

Regardless, interesting point.