undervalued companies with the intention of holding the securities indefinitely. Giants like Coca-Cola, American Express and the Gillette Company all met his criteria and remained in the Berkshire Hathaway portfolio for many years. In several cases he bought the companies outright and let their management teams carry on running the companies. Companies that are in this category include See’s Candies, Fruit of the Loom, GEICO Auto Insurance and Dairy Queen.
Buffett became a billionaire when Berkshire Hathaway began selling class A shares in the middle of 1990 with the market closing at $7,175 per share. His reputation remained solid until technology stocks increased in popularity. As a self-confessed technophobe, Buffett opted out of the incredible rise of technology stocks during the latter part of the 1990’s and decided to continue to only invest in companies that met is criteria. Buffett was heavily criticised for this but many of the Wall Street experts responsible for this criticism went bankrupt when the dotcom bubble burst and Buffett’s profits doubled.