東指定捐贈的支票給3,660家慈善機
構，除此之外，對於一家集團營業額高達400億美金、股東超過30萬人的大公司，其日
常行政事務有多少可想而知，說到這裡，有這12.8人在身邊感覺真好。
　　I should pay to have my job.
我實在是不應該領薪水，而要付薪水。
Acquisitions of 2000
2000年的購併案
　Our acquisition technique at Berkshire is simplicity itself: We answer the
phone. I’m also glad to report that it rings a bit more often now, because
owners and/or managers increasingly wish to join their companies with
Berkshire. Our acquisition criteria are set forth on page 23, and the number
to call is 402-346-1400.
在Berkshire，我們的購併策略極其簡單-那就是靜待電話鈴響，可喜的是，現在電話好
像有點應接不暇，原因在於有越來越多的公司及其經理人慕名而來想要加入Berkshire
的行列，關於我們購併公司的標準請參見年報23頁，或請電402-346-1400。
　Let me tell you a bit about the businesses we have purchased during the
past 14 months, starting with the two transactions that were initiated in
1999, but closed in 2000. (This list excludes some smaller purchases that
were made by the managers of our subsidiaries and that, in most cases, will
be integrated into their operations.)
接下來讓我詳細向各位報告過去十四個月以來，我們到底買進了哪些公司，先說說兩件
從1999年就開始談，並於2000年敲定的個案，(本表並未包含旗下子公司零零星星所買
下規模較小的個案，通常它們都會被統一納入個別子公司的營運報告中)。
I described the first purchase - 76% of MidAmerican Energy - in last year’s
report. Because of regulatory constraints on our voting privileges, we
perform only a "one-line" consolidation of MidAmerican’s earnings and
equity in our financial statements. If we instead fully consolidated the
company’s figures, our revenues in 2000 would have been $5 billion greater
than we reported, though net income would remain the same.
第一個案子是中美能源76%的股權，在去年的報告中，我就曾提到，由於行政法規限制
我們對該公司的控制權，所以我們只能透過長期投資權益法，將該公司的盈餘與權益納
入母公司的財務報表之上，事實上要是能夠將該公司的財務數字充分反應在母公司的帳
上，則Berkshire的營收將至少增加50億美元以上，當然損益數字並不會有任何變化.

On November 23, 1999, I received a one-page fax from Bruce Cort that
appended a Washington Post article describing an aborted buyout of CORT
Business Services. Despite his name, Bruce has no connection with CORT.
Rather, he is an airplane
broker who had sold Berkshire a jet in 1986 and who, before the fax, had not
been in touch with me for about ten years.
1999年11月23號我收到由Bruce Cort署名的傳真，後附一篇刊登在華盛頓郵報有關CORT
商業服務公司標購失敗的新聞，事實上，除了名字巧合之外，Bruce Cort與CORT公司完
全沒有關係，這位先生是一位中古飛機仲介商，巧合的是，他本人還曾經在1986年賣過
一架飛機給Berkshire，在這張傳真之前，我已經有十年沒有跟他有過任何接觸。
I knew nothing about CORT, but I immediately printed out its SEC filings and
liked what I saw. That same day I told Bruce I had a possible interest and
asked him to arrange a meeting with Paul Arnold, CORT’s CEO. Paul and I got
together on November 29, and I knew at once that we had the right
ingredients for a purchase: a fine though unglamorous business, an
outstanding manager, and a price (going by that on the failed deal) that
made sense.
在此之前，我對CORT公司一無所知，但我馬上調出該公司向證管會申報的文件，一看之
下大喜過望，就在當天，我向Bruce表示我對該公司很有興趣，並請他立即幫我安排與
該公司總裁Paul Arnold會面，不久後Paul跟我在11月29號碰面，當下我就知道我們很
有可能會成交，那是一家樸實無華的好公司，同時價格也合理(當然多多少少受到先前
流標的影響)。
Operating out of 117 showrooms, CORT is the national leader in
"rent-to-rent" furniture, primarily used in offices but also by temporary
occupants of apartments. This business, it should be noted, has no
similarity to "rent-to-own" operations, which
usually involve the sale of home furnishings and electronics to people
having limited income and poor credit.
擁有117個外部展示點，CORT是全美辦公室傢具出租(也有臨時公寓使用者)的領導品
牌，必須說明一點，這個行業與分期付款租賃並不相同，後者通常將目標鎖定在推銷電
子產品及傢具，給經

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