Nailing down details of what the sellers got for their businesses isn’t easy. Berkshire usually doesn’t disclose what it pays for closely held companies. It did, though, in the case of Executive Jet Aviation, now called NetJets Inc., a marketer and operator of a fractional jet ownership program. The company’s founder, Richard Santulli, 69, sold the business to Berkshire with Goldman Sachs Group Inc., which had owned 25 percent.
Berkshire Hathaway paid about half the $725 million purchase price in stock, which traded at $69,800 the day the deal closed in August 1998. If Santulli collected 75 percent of his portion of the proceeds in stock -- the maximum possible -- it would amount to the equivalent of about 5,190 Class A shares, valued at less than $900 million at yesterday’s close.
Diamonds, Furniture
Santulli didn’t hold on to all of the shares he received. He contributed a portion of his proceeds from the sale to his charitable foundation, the RTS Family Foundation, and other philanthropic groups, according to a person familiar with the transaction who asked not to be identified because Santulli’s holdings are private.
Other Executive Jet executives received compensation for equity positions too, the person said. Santulli left NetJets in 2009, and is chief executive officer of Dublin-based Milestone Aviation Group Ltd.
In 1995, without disclosing terms, Buffett used Berkshire shares to buy two retailers: R.C. Willey Home Furnishings Inc. of Salt Lake City, and North Kansas City, Missouri-based Helzberg’s Diamond Shops Inc. Berkshire’s 1995 annual report disclosed that it paid a combined 15,762 shares for both companies.
Based on the company’s share price on the day the deal closed, Berkshire spent $173 million in stock for the jewelry business, according to a regulatory filing that shows Barnett Helzberg and his wife, Shirley, received 7,510 shares directly. Today, the 79-year-old’s stake would be valued at $1.3 billion.
Philanthropic Giving
Much of that has been given to charitable interests, according to a person familiar with Helzberg’s giving who asked not to be identified because the matter is private. Recipients include the Helzberg Hall at Kansas City’s Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts and the Kansas City Zoo.
If Bill Child, 81, Willey’s CEO, received three-quarters of the remaining 7,730 shares, he would be a billionaire today had he held onto the stock.