Approach to investment liquidity

Berkshire's approach to liquidity follows the pattern set from day one -- thoughtful collaborative discussion around what is best for the company and its shareholders. When we enter an investment, we have no fixed notion regarding our holding period. In most cases we remain invested for typically three to five years. In some cases we have held investments for as short as two years, and in other cases have been involved with companies for over ten years. Berkshire consistently exits with management's full support.

Berkshire has fully exited from 60 of its investments and achieved significant partial realizations from our continuing investments. Some companies were sold to strategic or financial buyers. Some were taken public and others were recapitalized by financial investors and/or management teams. Partial realizations have been achieved through a combination of dividends, redemptions, secondary sales and sales to management and employee stock ownership plans.

We are quite flexible in considering exit scenarios and always work hard to balance management's goals with our own obligations to our investors.