Significant business acquisitions

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2014

Significant business acquisitions

Note 3. Significant business acquisitions

Our long-held acquisition strategy is to acquire businesses at sensible prices that have consistent earning power, good returns on equity and able and honest management.

On December 19, 2013, BHE acquired NV Energy, Inc. (“NV Energy”) for cash consideration of approximately $5.6 billion. NV Energy is an energy holding company serving approximately 1.2 million retail electric customers and 0.2 million retail natural gas customers in Nevada. NV Energy’s principal operating subsidiaries, Nevada Power Company and Sierra Pacific Power Company, are regulated utilities. We accounted for the acquisition pursuant to the acquisition method. NV Energy’s financial results are included in our Consolidated Financial Statements beginning on the acquisition date.

The preliminary values of NV Energy’s identified assets acquired, liabilities assumed and residual goodwill at the date of acquisition are summarized as follows (in millions).

	December 19, 2013
Property, plant and equipment	$	9,518
Goodwill		2,363
Other assets, including cash and cash equivalents of $304 million		2,505
Assets acquired	$	14,386
Accounts payable, accruals and other liabilities	$	3,456
Notes payable and other borrowings		5,334
Liabilities assumed	$	8,790
Net assets acquired	$	5,596

On January 1, 2014, we acquired the beverage dispensing equipment manufacturing and merchandising operations of British engineering company, IMI plc for approximately $1.12 billion. On February 25, 2014, we acquired 100% of the outstanding common stock of Phillips Specialty Products Inc. (“PSPI”) from Phillips 66 (“PSX”) in exchange for 17,422,615 shares of PSX common stock with an aggregate fair value of $1.35 billion. PSPI, which has been renamed as Lubrizol Specialty Products Inc. (“LSPI”), provides flow improver products to customers worldwide. On June 30, 2014, we acquired WPLG, Inc. (“WPLG”), whose assets included a Miami, Florida, ABC affiliated television station, shares of Berkshire Hathaway Class A and Class B common stock and cash from Graham Holding Company (“GHC”) in exchange for 1,620,190 shares of GHC common stock with an aggregate fair value of $1.13 billion. At their respective acquisition dates, the preliminary aggregate fair value of the identified net assets of IMI plc, LSPI and WPLG was approximately $2.3 billion and the residual goodwill was approximately $1.3 billion.

The following table sets forth certain unaudited pro forma consolidated earnings data for the first nine months of 2013 (in millions, except the per share amount).

Revenues	$	138,168
Net earnings attributable to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders		14,805
Net earnings per equivalent Class A common share attributable to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders		9,008