[dkural]

Berkshire is not unique in its ability to buy what you call "distressed" companies. The companies it buys are not usually distressed, but just undervalued by rest of the market. It's entrance into tech is fairly recent.

Overall strategy is simple to state but hard to execute over time consistently: 1) Actually read financial reports. Buy what you truly understand. 2) Don't buy stuff during bubbles or when overvalued (which is a lot of the time) and be happy with just sitting on your accumulated reserves, 3) Buy when you spot companies/stock that is undervalued relative to the market 4) Mostly HOLD forever.

The reason tech came relatively late is it failed Rule #1 of "buy what you understand", and vast majority of the time it fails Rule #2.

What not to do: Time Warner-AOL merger was worth $350 Billion. In 2015, Time Warner got sold for $78 billion.