In some respects, Combs’s life hasn’t changed much from his days running a hedge fund. “I read about 12 hours a day,” he told the Florida State alumni magazine last year in a rare interview. “Warren and I will usually catch up once or twice a day on stuff that’s going on—deals, stocks, stuff with our companies. Sometimes our managers reach out or a banker calls with an idea, but that’s about it.”
There’s also travel for board meetings. In addition to JPMorgan, Combs is a director of a few Berkshire subsidiaries, including Precision Castparts and Duracell, the battery maker Berkshire purchased from Procter & Gamble Co. in a tax-saving stock swap Combs negotiated.
Less well-known is the time Combs spends hobnobbing with people at the top of the business world. In January he was with Buffett at a Washington luncheon hosted by Vernon Jordan, the Democratic power broker, before the annual Alfalfa Club dinner, a black-tie event where billionaires and politicians mingle. U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross and Dimon were also there, according to a person who attended.
If Combs has settled on an approach for the new health-care venture, he’s remained tight-lipped about it. People who know him speculate that the company could initially focus on squeezing costs from middlemen who take a cut of prescription drug sales. But the ambitions are clearly wider. “It would be very easy, I think, to go in and shave off 3 or 4 percent just by negotiating power,” Buffett said on CNBC in late February. “We’re looking for something much bigger than that.”
The U.S. health system has powerful incumbents, including hospitals and drug-benefit managers. Years of efforts to curb costs haven’t accomplished much. Bezos, Buffett, and Dimon have united around a common cause, but their plan could run aground if the needs of their wildly different businesses aren’t met.
For now, the focus of the group is to find a CEO to run the new venture, a process that Combs is working on with deputies at JPMorgan and Amazon. One person says Combs may end up being the health-care company’s nonexecutive chairman, given how much work he’s put in so far. Were that to pass, it would be a way for him to stay involved—but remain comfortably in the background. —With Hugh Son and Spencer Soper
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.