His agreement to buy the battery maker Duracell from Procter & Gamble hits both those requirements.
By essentially agreeing to swap his firm’s holdings in P.& G., worth about $4.7 billion, in exchange for Duracell, Mr. Buffett will gain one of the best-known battery companies in the world, even if its prominence has diminished as its growth has slowed.
And P.& G. will avoid an alternative plan, disclosed last month, that would basically sell a nonessential business to its shareholders in exchange for some of their shares. The consumer products conglomerate has been shedding smaller businesses to concentrate on its biggest moneymakers, including Crest toothpaste, Tide detergent and Gillette razors.
But among the most notable features of the complex transaction is that it will help both Mr. Buffett’s company, Berkshire Hathaway, and P.& G. legally minimize their tax bill. (Berkshire paid roughly $336 million for its stake in P.& G. With the stake now worth many times that, Berkshire might have owed more than $1 billion in taxes