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Nebraska Furniture Mart

Nebraska Furniture Mart Looks to Grab Half of Dallas’s Furniture Market

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Move over Bassett, Charter Furniture, and Pottery Barn, when it comes to the new Nebraska Furniture Mart in Dallas, Texas, Warren Buffett has high hopes. “I believe the store will do over $1 billion,” Buffett recently told CNBC.

Officially, NFM has been projecting that the new Dallas store will have annual revenues of $600 million, which is $200 million more than its Kansas store generates.

If the $1 billion annual sales goal Buffett spoke of can be reached, it will be roughly half of all the home furnishing sales in the Dallas area.

In order to generate that type of business, NFM has built a massive store with a 560,000-square-foot retail showroom and 58 acres of parking. The store’s massive loading area can load 120 cars simultaneously.

Over 2,000 people are staffing the new store, and if the Kansas store is any indication, the average furniture sales associate will sell some $1.1 million of home furnishings a year.

Big Stores for a Big Market

According to Furniture Today Magazine, 41% of all U.S. households have plans to buy furniture and mattresses, and it looks like a huge number of them will be doing that at a Nebraska Furniture Mart.

While the Dallas store is expected to draw customers from as far as 300 mile away, the reach of NFM is nearly nationwide, delivering to 48 states (excluding Alaska and Hawaii).

© 2015 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.

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BNSF

BNSF Railway Unites With Oil Refineries in Washington State for Accident Response Mutual Aid Pact

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BNSF Railway and Washington State-based oil refineries have inked a Mutual Aid Agreement to respond to accidents. The agreement between BNSF and the Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA), which includes Phillips 66, BP Cherry Point, Shell Oil Products US, Tesoro Companies, and U.S. Oil Refining Company, covers both rail accidents and refinery accidents.

“We are extremely pleased to enter into this agreement to further advance rail safety. Working hand-in-hand with community first responders and emergency managers has long been ingrained in the BNSF culture,” said John Lovenburg, BNSF’s vice president, Environmental. “This agreement is an extension of our long-standing practice to provide aid to communities no matter if an incident involves rail or not. Nothing is more important than safely operating through the communities we serve and we are absolutely committed to ensuring local first responders have access to training, information and access to BNSF’s safety experts and response equipment.”

Pressure Builds for Safer Oil Trains

Growing pressure over railroad oil train accidents has BNSF taking a number of measures to increase safety. The measures include lower speeds in high-population density areas, new tank car safety standards that include increasing the thickness of tank car walls, and increased training for emergency responders along BNSF routes.

© 2015 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.

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Benjamin Moore

Benjamin Moore Launches $50 Million Ad Campaign

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With much of the house paint sold to do-it-yourselfers these days being purchased at big-box stores, such as Lowes and Home Depot, Berkshire Hathaway’s Benjamin Moore has launched an aggressive campaign to highlight the brand as a premium product that is sold exclusively at 5,000 small retailers.

The campaign, which uses the new tagline—”Paint like no other,” parodies the big-box store experience by using two marionettes to represent the big-box store staff. The ads emphasis the professionalism of the Benjamin Moore retailers, which are small, locally-owned businesses.

The $50 million campaign is using a mix of TV, radio, print and digital media to reach consumers that have been increasing their DIY projects now that the 2009 recession is firmly in the rear-view mirror.

The ad campaign is Benjamin Moore’s largest ever, and is the first to be overseen by Ron Schuller, who joined the company in November 2014 as the Chief Marketing Officer.

© 2015 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.

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Berkshire Hathaway Energy

Berkshire’s NV Energy Faces Major Defectors

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Berkshire Hathaway’s 2014 $5.6 billion all-cash acquisition of Nevada electric utility NV Energy looked like a home run at the time. After all, who needs loads of electricity more than the neon-bright Las Vegas Casinos?

Well, the casinos need electricity but they are now pushing to get it elsewhere.

Wynn Las Vegas, MGM Resorts International and Las Vegas Sands Corp. are now planning to purchase their power from another “qualified energy provider,” using the exit provision passed by the Nevada Legislature in 2001.

Letters of intent to file applications to leave Nevada Power and its parent company, NV Energy, were submitted to Nevada state regulators in March.

Also looking to leave is Nevada-based Switch Communications, a developer and operator of data center facilities.

As they push for the change, Las Vegas Sands Corp., Wynn Resorts Ltd., Switch, and rooftop solar-energy providers Sunrun and SolarCity have collectively formed the Nevada Coalition to Protect Ratepayers.

Leaving Nevada Power can come with a hefty exit fee. The Public Utility Commission is proposing a $27.7 million exit fee for Switch to leave Nevada Power, and Switch is pushing for an exit fee more in the range of $18.5 million.

At the time of the NV Energy acquisition, MidAmerican (now Berkshire Hathaway Energy) looked at Nevada as a growth market, however, the defections could take a major bite out of NV Energy’s consumer demand.

The Battle Over Net Metering

NV Energy has also been in a battle with rooftop solar providers over Net Metering legislation, which currently caps the cumulative capacity of all net metering systems operating in Nevada at 3 percent of the total peak capacity of all electric utilities in the state. There are already over 3,300 residential systems that feed power in the electric grid, and solar providers are worried that the current cap would severely limit the market for rooftop solar panels.

Under legislation which just passed the Nevada State Senate, S.B. 374 “revises the amount of cumulative capacity for which utilities are required to offer net metering in accordance with existing law.”

The bill allows 235 megawatts of residential systems to qualify under net metering through the end of 2015. It also empowers the state’s public utilities commission to set a new rate structure for solar.

Nevada leads the nation in solar power, the big question is will it be coming from NV Energy.

Transmission Lines a Valuable Asset

No matter who produces the power that flows into the grid, NV Energy will continue to make money from its ownership of the transmission lines, and ownership of transmission lines has been a key area of acquisition for Berkshire Hathaway Energy. In 2014, BHE acquired AltaLink, L.P., a transmission lines company serving Alberta, Canada.

© 2015 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.

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Nebraska Furniture Mart

Nebraska Furniture Mart Has Record $9 Million Day

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The Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting not only brings lots of people to Omaha, Nebraska, it also brings lots of business to Berkshire’s Nebraska Furniture Mart.

Shareholders receive a special discount during the week of the annual meeting, and Tuesday, April 28, 2015, saw sales at the furniture retailer’s Omaha store top $9 million for the day.

The previous one-day record was $8.2 million set in 2014.

Shareholders are Valuable Customers

Over 40,000 shareholders descend on Omaha the first weekend in May each year, and Nebraska Furniture Mart counts on $20 million in sales during the week of the Berkshire annual meeting. It has likely topped that this year, as Berkshire’s shareholders were coming into town having seen a 27.25% rise in the share price in 2014.

While the $9 million day is a record for the Omaha store, (and probably for any furniture retailer anywhere), it could be threatened by Nebraska Furniture Mart’s new 560,000-square-foot store in Dallas, Texas, which is already drawing huge crowds. Customers are driving from as far as 300 miles away to visit the massive store.

For more info on Nebraska Furniture Mart, read a MazorsEdge Special Report on the new Dallas store.

© 2015 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.

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BNSF

Missouri Basin Power Project Settles Dispute with BNSF

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A decade long dispute between the Missouri Basin Power Project and BNSF Railway over coal transportation rates has finally been settled. The dispute predated Berkshire’s Hathaway’s ownership of BNSF.

The lawsuit was originally filed in 2004 by coal suppliers Basin Electric and Western Fuels Association Inc., complaining that BNSF (at that time still known as Burlington Northern Santa Fe) had doubled the shipping rates for coal transported to the Laramie River Station located near Wheatland, Wyoming.

BNSF hauls 8 million tons of coal each year from mines in Wyoming’s Powder River Basin.

The members of the Missouri Basin Power Project are Basin Electric, Lincoln Electric System, Tri-State Generation & Transmission Association Inc., Western Minnesota Municipal Power Agency, Heartland Consumers Power District, and the Wyoming Municipal Power Agency.

In 2009, the Surface Transportation Board (STB) concluded that BNSF’s coal transportation rates were “unlawfully high” at roughly six times the cost of providing the transportation. The STB ordered $345 million in reparations and rate reductions from the railroad. Under the ruling, BNSF was obligated to reimburse the Utilities for roughly $100 million in overcharges from 2004 through 2008 based on the volume of coal transported from the various PRB mines between 2004 and 2008.

The award was the single largest award to a captive shipper (a shipper with no alternative carrier) ever made by the STB.

The STB noted that “customers have been bearing the burden of these unreasonably high transportation rates in their monthly electric bills, a burden they should no longer be forced to bear.” The award was the single largest award to a captive shipper (a shipper with no alternative carrier) ever made by the STB.

BNSF appealed the ruling, spending the next six years in the appeals process, and the negotiated settlement came as a result of the STB’s order for both parties to “confer and resolve the precise amount of damages due the Utilities.”

The exact terms of the settlement between BNSF and the Missouri Basin Power Project have not been released, but BNSF spokeswoman Roxanne Butler said that “both parties are satisfied with the outcome.”

© 2015 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.

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Todd Combs and Ted Weschler

Berkshire Hathaway Benefits From Cable TV Frenzy

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Charter Communications’ agreement to acquire cable operator Time Warner Cable has the cash register ringing at Berkshire Hathaway as well.

Shares of cable operator Liberty Global PLC, with annual revenues of $18.2 billion, has soared as the quickly consolidating cable industry has drawn interest from large Wall Street hedge funds.

Berkshire’s not sitting on the sidelines, as its stake in Liberty Global stood at 10,342,793 shares as of March 31, 2015, making Berkshire the 5th largest institutional holder of the company.

As the battle for Time Warner Cable has heated up over the last year, Liberty Global stock has risen a dramatic 29% over the past 12 months, and 16.2% year-to-date.

Berkshire first disclosed a stake in the international cable TV operator in December 2014, when it announced it owned 2.95 million shares of the company. As of March 31, 2015, Berkshire has trimmed its position by some 473,531 shares.

An International Cable TV Power House Eying Acquisitions

Helmed by cable TV mogul John C. Malone, Liberty Global is the largest international cable company and serves 14 countries, including 12 in Europe, and it’s clearly looking for even more customers and reach.

Malone, who is also the Chairman of Liberty Media Corporation and Liberty Interactive Corporation, and a member of the Board of Directors of Charter Communications, is known as one of the most aggressive dealmakers in a field known for deal making. Malone holds a 26% in Charter Communications through Liberty Broadband.

Is Vodafone Next?

Recently, Malone has expressed interest in British telecommunications company Vodafone Group, suggesting it would be a “good fit” with Liberty Global. As cable operators seek to expand their spheres of operation in the face of growing competition from non-cable Internet services, such as Netflix and Hulu, Malone just might be right that Vodafone’s 400 million customers across the globe are just what Liberty Global needs, and Berkshire could be along for a nice ride.

© 2015 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.

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Berkshire Hathaway Energy

Acquisition of Geronimo Energy Projects Power Berkshire’s Midwest Energy Expansion

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Edina, Minnesota-based Geronimo Energy, LLC, has announced the sale of a portfolio of Midwest renewable energy projects to Berkshire Hathaway Energy’s subsidiary BHE Renewables, LLC.

The projects include the soon to be developed Grande Prairie Wind Farm in Holt County, Nebraska; the soon to be developed Walnut Ridge Wind Farm in Bureau County, Illinois; and a portfolio of future Minnesota solar projects.

About Grand Prairie

Scheduled for completion in 2016, Grand Prairie Wind Farm will produce 400 megawatts of power, and will cover approximately 54,250 acres of land in portions of Willowdale, Antelope, Grattan, Iowa, Scott, and Steel Creek Townships. The wind farm will have up to 266 wind turbines with capacities ranging for 1.5 to 3 megawatts a piece. Grand Prairie will be the largest wind energy project in the state of Nebraska, and will up the state’s wind energy capacity by approximately 50 percent.

About Walnut Ridge

Other projects acquired from Geronimo Energy include the Walnut Ridge Wind Farm, a 123-turbine 225 megawatt wind farm development to be located in north central Illinois that was originally a joint venture between Geronimo Wind Energy and the Mesa Grande Band of Mission Indians of California. The Federal Government’s General Services Administration has already entered into a Power Purchase Agreement for 140 megawatts of Walnut Ridge’s capacity. The facility is scheduled to be constructed in 2016, pending the resolution of a lawsuit brought by area property owners over the visual impact of the wind farm.

Solar Portfolio

An additional Solar Portfolio made up of Minnesota solar projects was also acquired by BHE Renewables. The portfolio includes seven solar developments throughout the state of Minnesota, which are part of Xcel Energy’s Community Solar Garden Program.

Construction of the Solar Portfolio is scheduled for 2016. It is being marketed towards Xcel Energy’s Solar Rewards Community Program. Current subscribers to the Solar Portfolio include, but are not limited to, St. Paul Public Housing Agency, St. Olaf College and District Cooling St. Paul (an affiliate of District Energy St. Paul).

© 2015 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.

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Berkshire Hathaway Energy

Berkshire Hathaway Energy Takes Stake in eVolution Networks

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Warren Buffett has always been tech averse, proclaiming that he doesn’t understand technology companies, so he has no basis to make an investment. But, that doesn’t mean that Berkshire Hathaway avoids tech companies. In addition to its ownership of 79,565,115 shares of IBM, Berkshire through its subsidiaries takes stakes in tech companies that relate to its various businesses.

IES Holding, a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway Energy, has taken a stake in eVolution Networks, an innovator in energy savings solutions for Mobile Network Operators (MNOs).

Based in Israel, the company bills itself as the first company to provide operators with a purely software-based solution that slashes energy consumption on the base station level.

IES Holding’s $22.5 million investment was done jointly with GE Ventures.

According to eVolution Networks, the company plans to expand its worldwide presence and promote its solutions to new industries, such as data center energy management.

“Energy costs are a huge problem for mobile operators,” said Roy Morad, CEO of eVolution Networks. “Operators are constantly forced to expand their network to support the growing data demand from subscribers and the Internet of Things (IOT). However, the way networks are designed today doesn’t allow operators to wisely “right size” their energy use according to live traffic demand. eVolution Networks’ Smart Energy Solution eliminates this problem.”

eVolution Networks’ Smart Energy Solution is a software-based solution that analyzes the mobile network’s traffic needs and adjusts the use of the network’s resources based on real-time demand from subscribers. This adaptive and unique approach to managing the network’s resources has been deployed by Tier-1 operators such as Telefonica Group and has proven to save millions of dollars annually on energy bills.

“This team’s management experience and strong technical background have helped establish eVolution Networks as a leader in the telecommunications energy efficiency market. eVolution Networks is poised for tremendous growth as more customers and business partners realize the benefits provided by the technology,” said Bill Fehrman, president of Berkshire Hathaway Energy subsidiary IES Holding. “This funding will be used to capitalize on this potential, boost the company’s growth worldwide and establish eVolution Networks products and technology as an industry standard.”

eVolution Networks notes that worldwide figures show the telecommunications industry is responsible for 3 percent of the global energy consumption. This translates to an estimated $20 billion spent yearly by mobile network operators. Smart Energy Solution offers an answer by making the networks as efficient as possible through data analysis and advanced load management.

According to the company, eVolution Networks’ Smart Energy Solution reduces up to 35% of the annual energy consumption of mobile operators by analyzing the network’s needs in real time and managing the network resources accordingly from the base station to the data center.

Already in Action

The company’s Smart Energy Solution has already been successfully deployed by tier-1 operators such as Telefonica group.

“Given that energy costs are the largest portion of operating expenses for telecom operators, a 35 percent reduction in energy usage with Smart Energy Solution will have a significant impact on profitability,” said Jonathan Pulitzer, Senior Director at GE Ventures. “GE Ventures is investing in eVolution Networks because of this potential for savings and the positive impact on global energy consumption.”

About IES

Berkshire Hathaway Energy’s IES Holding is an operating subsidiary that integrates, aggregates and manages residential and commercial load, generation and storage assets and related technologies in concert with economic or market based constructs to reduce overall energy system costs and improve grid reliability.

© 2015 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.

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Dairy Queen

Dairy Queen Moves To Healthier Kids’ Meals

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Warren Buffett may love Coca-Cola (he’s 1/4 Coke by his own admission), but Berkshire Hathaway’s Dairy Queen is no longer a lover of carbonated beverages for their kids’ meals.

The franchisor has set a date of September for getting soda out of its children’s menu, which already offers a choice of a carbonated beverage, Arctic Rush slushy drink, or milk.

The move comes as quick-serve restaurants are under increasing pressure to reduce the fat and sugar content of menu items marketed to children.

On the plus side (not the plus size), Dairy Queen already offers the choice of a banana or applesauce in place of French fries, and it already markets a Kids Live Well Menu that features a chicken wrap, a banana, and a bottle of water. The meal omits a frozen dessert.

An Industry-Wide Move Towards Healthier Eating For Children

The Kids Live Well program is an initiative of the Nation Restaurant Association, and is a voluntary industry program that now has over 42,000 participating restaurant locations committed to “providing families with a growing selection of healthful children’s menu choices when dining out.”

For more information, read a Mazor’sEdge special report on Dairy Queen.

© 2015 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.