Press one for checking, two for savings, or three for $5B deals

What did Warren Buffett do in 2011 when he wanted to offer Bank of America a $5 billion to give it some stability in the wake of legal claims from the mortgage crisis and make some money for Berkshire?

BofA CEO Brian Moynihan tells Bloomberg TV: "Warren called us... and this story I've heard from Warren, but he called and he got into the call centers and asked to speak to me, and of course, they don't transfer everybody who calls the call centers to the CEO's line."

It didn't take too long, however, before Berkshire's CFO got hold of one of BofA's investment bankers, the connection was made, and the deal was done.

Moynihan continued, "I talked to him for the first time in my life on Monday (August 22) at 11, and we had the agreement signed on Tuesday by 8 or 9 AM, and we got the money by Thursday... He does that."

Along with the loan (in the form of preferred stock), which paid Berkshire a hefty 6% each year, Buffett also negotiated for warrants to buy up to $5 billion in BofA common stock at a bit more than $7 per share.

Six years later, he exercised those warrants to buy 700 million shares when BofA's stock price was above $23, generating a $12B paper profit.

Now Berkshire's stake is 950 million shares and worth $27.5 billion.

For Moynihan, "The interesting thing is, if you're a common stockholder and bought that day, you would have fared as well as he did.  You had to have the courage, and he had $5 billion at a time when other people didn't have it."

BUFFETT AROUND THE INTERNET

Some links may require a subscription

HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE ARCHIVE

Warren Buffett hasn't endorsed any presidential candidate yet for the 2020 race. (He liked Mike Bloomberg, but the former NYC mayor decided not to run.)

While Buffett says he's a "card-carrying capitalist," not a card-carrying Democrat, the past few presidential elections, in which he backed Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, point to him supporting someone from that party.

Over the years, his generally liberal political outlook hasn't gone over well with some shareholders.

In this excerpt from the 2019 annual meeting in CNBC's Warren Buffett Archive, Buffett talks about how he works to keep his politics separate from the company.

BERKSHIRE STOCK WATCH

Berkshire Hathaway Class A shares closed at $312,500 Friday, down 2.6% over the previous four weeks, and up 1.5% from one year ago.

Berkshire Hathaway Class B shares closed at $208.08, down 2.6% over the previous four weeks, and up 1.4% from one year ago.

The benchmark S&P 500 index closed at 2970.27, down 1.2% over the previous four weeks, and up 8.9% from one year ago.

BERKSHIRE'S TOP STOCK HOLDINGS 

Berkshire's top stock holdings by market value, based on today's closing prices. The number of shares held is as of June 30, 2019, as disclosed in the company's August 14 13F SEC filing.

The full list of holdings and current market values is available from CNBC.com's Berkshire Hathaway Portfolio Tracker.

QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS

Please send us any questions or comments about the newsletter to us at buffett@cnbc.com. (Sorry, but we don't forward questions or comments to Buffett himself.)

If you aren't already subscribed to this newsletter, you can sign up here.