BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY INC.

ACQUISITION CRITERIA

  
   We are eager to hear from principals or their representatives about 
businesses that meet all of the following criteria:

   (1)	Large purchases (at least $25 million of before-tax earnings),
   (2)	Demonstrated consistent earning power (future projections are of 
        no interest to us, nor are "turnaround" situations),
   (3)	Businesses earning good returns on equity while employing little 
        or no debt,
   (4)	Management in place (we can't supply it),
   (5)	Simple businesses (if there's lots of technology, we won't 
        understand it),
   (6)	An offering price (we don't want to waste our time or that of the 
        seller by talking, even preliminarily, about a transaction when 
        price is unknown).

   The larger the company, the greater will be our interest: We would 
like to make an acquisition in the $5-10 billion range.  We are not 
interested, however, in receiving suggestions about purchases we might 
make in the general stock market.

   We will not engage in unfriendly takeovers. We can promise complete 
confidentiality and a very fast answer - customarily within five minutes 
- as to whether we're interested. We prefer to buy for cash, but will 
consider issuing stock when we receive as much in intrinsic business 
value as we give.

   Charlie and I frequently get approached about acquisitions that don't 
come close to meeting our tests: We've found that if you advertise an 
interest in buying collies, a lot of people will call hoping to sell you 
their cocker spaniels. A line from a country song expresses our feeling 
about new ventures, turnarounds, or auction-like sales: "When the phone 
don't ring, you'll know it's me."