What does this mean? That if we had not all panicked everything would have been alright! Or as Buffett said when everyone is greedy be scared when everyone is scared be greedy!
Aivars Lode
General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt speaks at a news conference after a ''Jobs for America Summit'' at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington, July 11, 2011.
Credit: Reuters/Jonathan Ernst
The company said in a regulatory filing it would pay $3.3 billion, plus unpaid dividends, to cash in famed U.S. investor Warren Buffett's stake, which paid a 10 percent dividend. The redemption date has been set for October 17.
With the long-awaited move, GE Chief Executive Jeff Immelt will aim to close one of the most difficult chapters in the company's history, when trouble at its GE Capital finance arm threatened to take down the entire company.
Buffett bought his preferred stake in GE in October 2008, just a week after taking a $5 billion preferred stake in Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N). The investments were intended to signal his confidence in two storied U.S. companies during a financial crisis he likened to an "economic Pearl Harbor."
That vote of confidence came at a price: GE will have paid Berkshire nearly $1 billion in dividends over the life of the investment.
In his annual investor letter earlier this year, Buffett lamented the likelihood that GE would redeem the shares, saying it would be an "unwelcome" event that would hurt Berkshire's earnings power.
GE shares fell 3 percent to $14.95 in after-hours trading. Berkshire shares were unchanged. (Reporting by Scott Malone in Boston and Ben Berkowitz in New York; Editing by Phil Berlowitz)
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