Ron Barons' Q2 Shareholder Letter Report - GuruFocus.com (registration)
“If Rocky Aoki can make 60% profit margins selling dead fish, how is it possible I can’t make as much selling highly engineered, industrial, cutting tools. ” Eitan Wertheimer. On Wednesday, April 30, 2015, Eitan Wertheimer, the former Chairman of ISCAR, visited me for lunch in our New York City office. Eitan was traveling from Tel Aviv, Israel to Omaha, Nebraska to attend Berkshire Hathaway’s annual shareholder meeting. In 2006, Eitan sold 80% of ISCAR, his family’s industrial cutting tool business to Warren Buffett ( Trades , Portfolio )’s Berkshire Hathaway ( NYSE:BRK. In 2013, after ISCAR had again about doubled in size, Eitan sold Buffett his family’s remaining 20% interest for $2. 05 billion. Eitan is now devoted to his favorite Israeli philanthropies that strive to minimize socio-economic inequalities, “not by sharing the cake by cutting it into more pieces, but by making more cakes. Eitan has also founded a micro banking loan fund for startup industries in the Negev and Galilee, which has created wealth for a growing number of talented and underprivileged Israeli children. One arranged for Eitan to visit me on his way to what Buffett calls “The Capitalist’s Woodstock” in Omaha. My lunch with Eitan in late April was one of my most enjoyable this year…which is saying quite a lot since I would characterize so many of our lunches as incredibly enjoyable. ISCAR is an Israeli business founded in 1952 in a dilapidated shed in Nahariya, Israel by Stef Wertheimer, Eitan’s dad. Source: www.gurufocus.com
