Business Acquisition Quotes

It's better to take over and build upon an existing business than to start a new one.

I bought a company in the mid-'90s called Dexter Shoe and paid $400 million for it. And it went to zero. And I gave about $400 million worth of Berkshire stock, which is probably now worth $400 billion. But I've made lots of dumb decisions. That's part of the game.

The Curbside founders are successful entrepreneurs, who each have sold their companies to Apple.

Ignore the stock market, ignore the economy, and buy a business you understand.

When I was in the leverage buy-out business we bought Weetabix and we leveraged it up to make our return. You could say that anyone who was eating Weetabix was paying for our purchase of Weetabix. It was just business. It is the same for Liverpool.

The vast majority of debt that Anglo maintains is owed is strenuously disputed. However, I cannot now pay those loans which are due, following Anglo taking control of the Quinn Group of companies, which I and a loyal team spent a lifetime building.

I think the foundation at Berkshire [Buffett's stake in Berkshirewill pass to the Buffett Foundation upon his death] will be a plus because there will be a continuation of the culture. We'd still take in fine businesses run by people who love them.

There could be no better time to fully integrate Infinity with Viacom's tremendous portfolio of assets. Infinity is performing at record levels and continues to generate a tremendous amount of free cash flow that will now fully benefit Viacom.

Travelex has grown into a global business in just 25 years. The acquisition of Thomas Cook's Global & Financial Services has created a business that would have had a combined turnover of U.S. $28.4 billion in 2000.

I liked the shaver so much, I bought the company.

The Internet is a powerful way to make lots of money... But we are not going to buy Yahoo!

We may well have a competitive advantage buying decent businesses at decent prices. But they won't be fabulous businesses and fabulous prices. There's too much competition and money out there, with many buyout specialists.

I left 'Wired' before it was sold to Conde Nast and Lycos, so I didn't experience that transition.

I hope to buy brands and businesses globally.

In 2003, Travelex acquired Thomas Cook Financial Services. We only had use of the Thomas Cook name for five years, so I had to increase public awareness of Travelex to migrate all Cook operations over to it. It was a success.

If I could inexpensively pick up a killer sales force without a lot of the other things that I don't necessarily need, yeah, I'd be all there.

After I began to make some money, my brain-damaged accountant put me in one business after another that went bad. The only one that panned out was a small bank, an old Scottish firm with London offices in Pall Mall. I was a director. We sold out to a larger bank. That was the only successful venture I've had, apart from acting.

I don't know how many companies I've bought in my life, and most of them I've bought from children whose father has passed away, and they say, 'Now we're free, would you like to buy it?'

I can make it very clear: I get paid if we make good investments. And if we don't, I don't get paid. I have no incentive to sell our companies to Google; the entrepreneurs get to decide that. We are minority shareholders.

We bought the UFC when not only was it a bankrupt company that was going under, it had a horrible stigma attached to it. This thing was so bad it was not allowed on pay-per-view.

It's much more difficult running a business than buying one.

Even if Pfizer committed itself legally to maintaining some of its research and development in the U.K., its takeover of AstraZeneca would involve dismembering an excellent and strategically important British company.

... the world's largest merger.

The NeXT purchase is too little too late. Apple is already dead.

Understand what you are acquiring and protect it at all costs. You are acquiring people and next-generation products. You are making an investment that together you can grow faster, make more profits, and take more market share.