Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Completes Acquisition of WPLG TV Station

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Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK.A) (NYSE:BRK.B), a multinational conglomerate headed by billionaire investor Warren Buffett announced the completion of its acquisition of WPLG, a television station based in Miami and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Graham Holdings Co (NYSE:GHC) formerly known as the Washington Post Company.

Berkshire Hathaway – Graham Holding share-exchange deal

In April, Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK.A) (NYSE:BRK.B) agreed to acquire WPLG TV station, a number of its own shares held by Graham Holdings Co (NYSE:GHC) and cash in exchange for approximately 1.6 million shares of Graham Holdings Class B common stock held by Buffett’s multinational conglomerate.

At the time of the signing of the share-swap agreement, the specific number of shares each company and the amount of cash were not yet determined.

Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK.A) (NYSE:BRK.B) and Graham Holdings Co (NYSE:GHC) said the actual number of share and cash will be ascertained on the closing date of the deal, which is dependent on several factors including market prices of the shares of both companies at that time.

The deal was completed after obtaining an approval from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Tuesday. The total amount of the deal is approximately $1.1 billion.

Final details of the deal

According to Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK.A) (NYSE:BRK.B), it exchanged the 1.6 million shares of Class B common stock of Graham Holdings Co (NYSE:GHC) it owns to acquire the WPLG TV station.

Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK) (NYSE:BRK.B) also regained 2,107 shares of its Class A stock, 1,278 shares of its Class B stock and $327.7 million in cash from Graham Holdings Co (NYSE:GHC) as part of the deal.

The WPLG TV station’s value was $364 million and the value of the shares of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK.B) (NYSE:BRK.B) were approximately $400 million based on the closing price of the stocks on Monday.

Bekshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK.A) (NYSE:BRK.B) and Graham Holdings Co (NYSE:GHC) have a very long business relationship.

Buffett was a friend of the late Washington Post Company CEO Katharine Graham, and he first acquired a stake in the media company in 1973. He also served on the board of directors of the media company.

The media company renamed itself as Graham Holding Company (NYSE:GHC) after selling its flagship newspaper, the Washington Post to Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) on October 2013.

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