While discussing what makes Berkshire Hathaway an attractive place to sell your successful business to, Warren Buffett noted that the term synergy is really just another way of saying that that a lot of people are going to get fired. And often first in line to get fired are the people that helped make a company successful in the first place.
“They would have all these ideas about synergy, and synergy would mean that the people that had helped him build the business over 30 years would all get sacked,” Warren Buffett said at the 2013 Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting. “And that the acquiring company would come in like Attila the Hun and be the conquering people, and he just didn’t want to do that to the people that helped him over the years.”
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© 2022 David Mazor
Disclosure: David Mazor is a freelance writer focusing on Berkshire Hathaway. The author is long in Berkshire Hathaway, and this article is not a recommendation on whether to buy or sell the stock. The information contained in this article should not be construed as personalized or individualized investment advice. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.