In March, I noted that while Warren Buffett was disappointed he couldn't seal the deal on any large acquisitions in 2012, he was quick to point out that Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-B ) (NYSE: BRK-A ) had "a record year for 'bolt-on' purchases."
In all, Berkshire spent about $2.3 billion last year for 26 companies that were melded into its existing businesses.
While that amounted to a seemingly paltry $88.4 million per acquisition, the $2.3 billion total definitely wasn't chump change. What's more, Buffett also said he and Charlie Munger "love these acquisitions" because they are "low-risk, burden headquarters not at all, and expand the scope of [Berkshire's] proven managers."
Now, growth-by-acquisition certainly isn't a foreign concept, but it's intriguing to know that a legendary investor like Buffett sees the value in buying multiple tiny companies to build up Berkshire's already-massive $280 billion market cap.
Buffett's not alone
If you're wondering who else might have a knack for making small acquisitions to build an empire, look no further than Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL ) CEO Tim Cook.
Top 10 Airline Stocks For 2015: WellPoint Inc.(WLP)
WellPoint, Inc., through its subsidiaries, operates as a health benefits company in the United States. The company offers various network-based managed care plans to large and small employer, individual, Medicaid, and senior markets. Its managed care plans include preferred provider organizations; health maintenance organizations; point-of-service plans; traditional indemnity plans; and other hybrid plans, including consumer-driven health plans, hospital only, and limited benefit products. The company also provides various managed care services comprising claims processing, underwriting, stop loss insurance, actuarial services, provider network access, medical cost management, disease management, wellness programs, and other administrative services to self-funded customers. In addition, it offers specialty and other products and services, including life and disability insurance benefits; dental, vision, and behavioral health benefit services; radiology benefit management; personal health care guidance; and long-term care insurance. Further, the company serves as an intermediary providing administrative service for the Medicare program that offers coverage for persons, who are 65 or older and for persons who are disabled or with end-stage renal disease. WellPoint, Inc. markets its products through a network of independent agents and brokers, consultants, in-house sales force, or Internet. The company, formerly known as Anthem, Inc., was founded in 1944 and is headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By MONEYMORNING.COM]
WellPoint, Inc. (NYSE: WLP) is a managed healthcare provider with an exceptionally large reach. In fact, the company is the largest for-profit managed healthcare provider in the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association.
Top Warren Buffett Companies To Watch For 2014: Emeritus Corporation (ESC)
Emeritus Corporation operates senior living communities in the United States. The company�s communities offer Alzheimer�s and dementia care, independent living, assisted living, specialized memory care, and skilled nursing care services. It also provides management services to independent and related-party owners of assisted living communities. As of November 15, 2012, the company operated approximately 470 senior living communities in 44 states with a resident capacity for approximately 50,000 residents. Emeritus Corporation was founded in 1993 and is headquartered in Seattle, Washington.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By John Kell]
Brookdale Senior Living Inc.(BKD) has agreed to merge with Emeritus Corp.(ESC) in a deal that values the operator of long-term, assisted-living facilities at about $1.4 billion, as the companies look to form a national senior-living-solutions company. Emeritus surged 34% to $28.75 premarket.
- [By Seth Jayson]
Calling all cash flows
When you are trying to buy the market's best stocks, it's worth checking up on your companies' free cash flow once a quarter or so, to see whether it bears any relationship to the net income in the headlines. That's what we do with this series. Today, we're checking in on Emeritus (NYSE: ESC ) , whose recent revenue and earnings are plotted below. - [By Lisa Levin]
Emeritus (NYSE: ESC) shares gained 3.20% to touch a new 52-week high of $33.18. Emeritus shares have jumped 31.71% over the past 52 weeks, while the S&P 500 index has gained 16.93% in the same period.
Top Warren Buffett Companies To Watch For 2014: Imperva Inc (IMPV)
Imperva, Inc. (Imperva), incorporated on April 2002, is engaged in providing data security solutions focused on providing visibility and control over business data across systems within the data center. The Company�� securesphere data security suite is a solution designed to prioritize and mitigate risks to high-value business data, protect against hackers and malicious insiders and address and streamline regulatory compliance. SecureSphere is an integrated, modular suite, which provides database, file and Web application security and secures all business data across a range of systems in data centers, including traditional on-premise data centers as well as private, public and hybrid cloud computing environments. The Company also offers on-demand, cloud-based security services. The Company has two segments: Imperva, which is comprised of its financial position and results of operations and those of the Company�� wholly owned subsidiaries, and Incapsula, which is comprised of the financial position and results of operations of the Company�� majority owned subsidiary. In February 2014, Imperva Inc acquired real-time mainframe security auditing agents from Tomium Software.
The Company�� products include SecureSphere data security suite for enterprise data centers and its cloud-based security services that it provides through Incapsula for mid-market enterprises and small and medium business (SMBs). The Company�� solution includes database security, file security and Web application security.
Database Security
Database security provides full visibility and control over structured business data repositories, including database data usage, vulnerabilities and access rights and enables security, audit, risk and information technology (IT) professionals to improve data security and address compliance requirements. The database products cover the enterprise database platforms, including Oracle, MS-SQL, IBM DB2, Sybase, Informix, MySQL, Progress, Teradata and ! Netezza. The database security products include discovery and assessment server, database activity monitoring, database firewall, user rights management for databases and analog-to-digital converter (ADC) insights. The discovery and assessment server automates the process of discovering databases and other business data on the network and performs a security assessment to identify risks to high-value business data. Database activity monitoring includes all discovery and assessment server functionality. Database firewall includes database activity monitoring functionality. User rights management for databases enables the management of user rights across heterogeneous enterprise databases by aggregating user rights to illustrate what rights users have to business data. ADC Insights provides user tracking for identifying the real end user behind database transactions.
The Company competes with International Business Machines Corporation, McAfee, Inc. and Oracle Corporation.
File Security
File security provides full visibility and control over unstructured business data repositories, including file ownership, usage and access rights and enables security, audit, risk and information technology (IT) professionals to improve file data security and address compliance requirements. The file security products are designed to secure files, including spreadsheets, presentation slides, word processing documents and portable document format (PDFs) containing high-value business data that its customers store in unstructured repositories, such as file servers, network attached storage and storage area network devices. The File security products include user rights management for files, file activity monitoring and file firewall. User rights management for files enables the management of user access rights across multiple different file storage systems by aggregating user rights based on organizational context and actual file usage to illustrate what rights users have to sensitive ! files. Fi! le activity monitoring includes all user rights management for files functionality. File firewall includes all file activity monitoring functionality, and provides real-time blocking of suspicious activity that violates corporate policies.
The Company competes with EMC Corporation and Symantec Corporation.
Web Application Security
Web application security protects Web applications from large scale cyber attacks, adapts to evolving threats to prevent data breaches and addresses compliance requirements. Its product includes Web application firewall (WAF), which fortifies Web defenses with research-driven intelligence on current threats.
The Company competes with Citrix Systems, Inc. and F5 Networks, Inc.
Cloud-Based Services
The Company�� cloud-based service offerings are its Incapsula service, the Imperva Cloud WAF Service and its ThreatRadar subscription service. The Incapsula service is designed to be easy to deploy and to be accessible to small and medium size businesses that need data security and compliance solutions, but do not have the size or resources to deploy its SecureSphere WAF appliances into their own Website infrastructure. Incapsula�� security and optimization offerings include the services, including Web application firewall services, content delivery optimization and distributed denial of service-attack prevention. Web application firewall services provide enterprise-grade blocking of attacks against Web applications to help ensure Website safety and availability; enhanced security through real-time and centralized threat detection across all protected Websites; allows customers to address compliance requirements. Content delivery optimization optimizes Website performance by reducing page load times, server load and bandwidth consumption. Distributed denial of service-attack prevention blocks malicious attack traffic and allows filtered, legitimate traffic to flow to the customer Website allowing its b! usiness t! o run without interruption.
Imperva Cloud WAF powered by Incapsula, bundles the incapsula service with managed support services from our security operations center (SOC). Managed services include provisioning, security alert notifications and tuning, incident response, real time service dashboard and statistics, customer support and weekly reports on alerts and attack trends. ThreatRadar is an add-on, premium subscription service for the Company�� SecureSphere WAF appliance that recognizes attack sources and dynamically adjusts Web security policies within its SecureSphere WAF appliance to provide protection against them.
The customers include four of the telecommunications companies, three of the commercial banks in the United States, three of the financial data service firms, three of the computer hardware companies, two of the food and drug store companies, over 150 government agencies worldwide and more than 100 Fortune 1000 companies. The Company primarily sells its products and services through its network of over 350 channel partners worldwide, including both distributors and resellers. The Company derives its revenue from sales and licenses of its products and sales of its services. Services revenue consists of maintenance and support, professional services and training and subscriptions. A majority of the Company�� revenue is derived from customers in the Americas region. As of December 31, 2010, 66% of its total revenue was generated from the Americas, 24% from Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) and 10% from Asia Pacific, and for the six months ended June 30, 2011, 63% of its total revenue was generated from the Americas, 24% from EMEA and 13% from Asia Pacific.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Monica Gerson]
Imperva (NYSE: IMPV) shares tumbled 41.52% to touch a new 52-week low of $29.08 after the company cut its first-quarter outlook. Imperva now expected a loss of $0.40 to $0.44 per share, on revenue of $31 million to $31.5 million.
- [By Monica Gerson]
Imperva (NYSE: IMPV) shares tumbled 37.68% to $30.99 after the company cut its first-quarter outlook. Imperva now expected a loss of $0.40 to $0.44 per share, on revenue of $31 million to $31.5 million.
- [By Jake L'Ecuyer]
Equities Trading DOWN
Shares of Imperva (NYSE: IMPV) were down 38.35 percent to $30.66 after the company cut its first-quarter outlook. Imperva now expected a loss of $0.40 to $0.44 per share, on revenue of $31 million to $31.5 million.
Top Warren Buffett Companies To Watch For 2014: Colonial Municipal Income Trust (CMU)
MFS High Yield Municipal Trust operates as a nondiversified, closed-end management investment company. The trust invests primarily in medium and lower quality bonds and notes issued by or on behalf of state and local government units. Its portfolio primarily comprises investments in health care, tax-backed, utilities, transportation, housing, education, industrials, resource recovery, industrial, manufacturing, oil and gas, and refunded/escrowed sectors. Columbia Management Advisors, Inc. serves as the investment advisor of the trust. The trust was formerly known as Colonial Municipal Income Trust and changed its name to MFS High Yield Municipal Trust in 2007. MFS High Yield Municipal Trust was founded in 1987 and is based in Boston, Massachusetts.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Paul McWilliams]
Marvell (MRVL) is clearly carrying a big zit on its forehead from the ongoing legal battle with Carnigie Mellon University (CMU). A jury awarded CMU damages slightly in excess of $1B, and the judge could triple that.
Top Warren Buffett Companies To Watch For 2014: China Mobile Games and Entertainment Group Ltd (CMGE)
China Mobile Games and Entertainment Group Limited, incorporated on January 20, 2011, is a holding company. The Company is engaged in the development, operation and sale of feature phone and smartphone games, as well as the provision of handset design products and services. The Company operates in three segments: feature phone games, smartphone games and handset design. As of December 31, 2011, it was a subsidiary of VODone Limited.
CMGEconducts its primary business operations through its subsidiaries and a variable interest entity (VIE). Kangri Yingxiong Zhuan is a single-player smartphone game, which was launched during the year ended December 31, 2011.Paopao Xiyou, YY Three Kingdoms, Thumb Monopoly and Creation Song are its smartphone mobile social games. Xiao'ao Jianghu is its internally-developed feature phone mobile social game. The Company has a diversified portfolio of games for feature phones and smartphones. As of March 31, 2012, the Company�� portfolio included 450 mobile games, of which 130 of its 136 feature phone games were developed in-house; it licensed 302 of its 314 smartphone games from third parties and it developed its smartphone mobile social games in-house.
On February 14, 2012, the Company established four wholly owned subsidiaries, which included HYD Holding Limited, OWX Group Limited, OWX Development Limited and 3GUU Holding Limited. On March 23, 2012, CMGE transferred all of the interests in Beauty Wave Limited (Beauty Wave) and China Wave Group Limited (China Wave) to HYD Holding Limited; transferred all of the interests in OWX Hong Kong Limited (OWX HK) to OWX Development Limited, and transferred all of the interest in 3GUU Mobile Entertainment Industrial Co. Ltd. (3GUU BVI) to 3GUU Holding Limited.
The Company generates feature phone games revenues principally from the sale of in-game features of mobile phone games on feature phones. The Company generates smartphone game revenues from the sale of in-game premium features of mobile ! social games that it develops in-house, as well as from the sale of single-player games on smartphones that it develops in-house and license or acquire. CMGE operates mobile social games and single-player games under a free-to-play model and a subscription-based model, respectively. The Company contracts with third-party payment platforms for billing, collection and transmission services offered to mobile phone game players who have purchased game points. It also contracts with mobile application and software Websites to distribute its mobile social games by providing platforms for mobile phone game players to download such games.
CMGE generates handset design revenues from the provision of handset design solutions to mobile phone manufacturers and mobile phone content providers. Handset design solutions include operating system software and hardware design with one-year post-contract customer support (PCS) service; printed circuit board with operating system software and optional assembly service, and mobile phone contents installation service. Operating system software and hardware designs with PCS services are provided to mobile phone manufacturers for either a fixed fee or a variable fee based on the units of production by the mobile phone manufacturers at a prescribed unit price. Printed circuit boards with operating system software are sold to mobile phone manufacturers for a fixed unit price. Mobile phone contents installation services are rendered to mobile phone content providers for a prescribed percentage of the mobile phone content providers' net profits.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Monica Gerson]
China Mobile Games and Entertainment Group (NASDAQ: CMGE) is projected to report its Q2 earnings at $0.21 per share on revenue of $43.60 million.
Rediff.com India (NASDAQ: REDF) is estimated to report its Q1 earnings.
Top Warren Buffett Companies To Watch For 2014: BioDelivery Sciences International Inc.(BDSI)
BioDelivery Sciences International, Inc., a specialty pharmaceutical company, focuses on developing and commercializing products in the areas of pain management and oncology supportive care. The company uses its patented BioErodible MucoAdhesive (BEMA) and Bioral cochleate drug delivery technologies in the development of its products. The BEMA technology is a small erodible polymer film for application to the buccal mucosa; and the Bioral cochleate drug delivery technology encapsulates a selected drug or therapeutic in a cochleate cylinder. Its pain franchise consists of products utilizing the patented BEMA technology, including ONSOLIS, a fentanyl buccal soluble film for the management of pain in opioid tolerant adult patients with cancer; and BEMA Buprenorphine, which is in the development stage for the treatment of moderate to severe chronic pain, as well as for the treatment of opioid dependence. The company also engages in developing product candidates utilizing the B EMA technology for conditions, such as nausea/vomiting. BioDelivery Sciences International, Inc. was founded in 1997 and is headquartered in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By John Kell]
Shares of BioDelivery Sciences International Inc.(BDSI) jumped after the company disclosed favorable results for a Phase 3 study of a treatment for severe chronic pain. BioDelivery shares surged 45% to $9.04 premarket.
- [By Lisa Levin]
BioDelivery Sciences International (NASDAQ: BDSI) shares climbed 5.61% to $12.05. The volume of BioDelivery Sciences shares traded was 332% higher than normal. BioDelivery Sciences shares have jumped 165.97% over the past 52 weeks, while the S&P 500 index has gained 20.55% in the same period.
- [By Garrett Cook]
BioDelivery Sciences International (NASDAQ: BDSI) shares shot up 12.43 percent to $13.48 on positive top-line Phase III results.
Shares of Kandi Technolgies Group (NASDAQ: KNDI) got a boost, shooting up 5.43 percent to $14.76 after the company announced a subsidy of $31.8 million for sales of more than 3,000 electric vehicles between June and December of 2013.
- [By Garrett Cook]
BioDelivery Sciences International (NASDAQ: BDSI) shares shot up 9.17 percent to $13.09 on positive top-line Phase III results.
Shares of Kandi Technolgies Group (NASDAQ: KNDI) got a boost, shooting up 6.36 percent to $14.89 after the company announced a subsidy of $31.8 million for sales of more than 3,000 electric vehicles between June and December of 2013.
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