巴菲特在2021年致股东信中批评“猫换狗”的收购手法

#巴菲特# 巴菲特在今年致股东信中批评“猫换狗”的收购手法。

Over time, conglomerates have generally limited themselves to buying businesses in their entirety. That strategy, however, came with two major problems. One was unsolvable: Most of the truly great businesses had no interest in having anyone take them over. Consequently, deal-hungry conglomerateurs had to focus on so-so companies that lacked important and durable competitive strengths. That was not a great pond in which to fish.

Beyond that, as conglomerateurs dipped into this universe of mediocre businesses, they often found themselves required to pay staggering “control” premiums to snare their quarry. Aspiring conglomerateurs knew the answer to this “overpayment” problem: They simply needed to manufacture a vastly overvalued stock of their own that could be used as a “currency” for pricey acquisitions. (“I’ll pay you $10,000 for your dog by giving you two of my $5,000 cats.”)

[这些企业集团]只需要让自己公司的估值变得高得离谱，以作为昂贵收购的“货币”。（“我想用10,000美元买你的狗，我把单价5,000美元的两只猫给你。”）

有些上市公司就喜欢玩这种游戏，将自家股份的价格拉高，这样只要发行一小部分股份就可以收购估值低很多的企业股权，特别是那些没上市的。收购来的资产到手后估值又升高。接着玩下一轮游戏。