Quick overview

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Berkshire Hathaway, owned by Warren Buffett, cut its ownership of Amazon.com Inc. by over 75% in the fourth quarter, while increasing its ownership of the New York Times Co. This was his final new wager while serving as the company’s CEO.

According to a regulatory filing on Tuesday, Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire purchased 51.1 million shares of the media publishing company during the three months ending in December, for a total stake of $351.7 million at year’s end. Berkshire made its initial investment in Amazon in 2019.

Buffett claimed at the time that he had been “an idiot for not buying” the online retail behemoth’s shares sooner despite his past distaste for technology stocks.

It currently holds about 2.3 million shares of the business. Berkshire also reduced its holdings in Bank of America Corp. during the fourth quarter. and Apple Inc., so that they are now 7 percent and 1 percent, respectively. Buffett began reducing those positions in 2024. The conglomerate announced its first investment in the company in May 2024 after building Chubb in secret the year before. After a trade publication revealed that Chubb had made an informal approach to purchase American International Group Inc., the company’s shares increased by about 11% during the fourth quarter.

The business denied receiving an offer. Having reached an agreement to acquire Occidental Petroleum Corp., Buffett, who resigned as CEO last year, seemed to be back on the market in recent quarters.  Post-market trading saw a more than 10% increase in New York Times shares.