Warren Buffett Shifts Focus to Manufacturing

(Bloomberg.com) When Warren Buffett took control of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. in the mid-1960s, it was a struggling textile manufacturer.

After trying for years to revive its fortunes, he shuttered the mills and turned his focus to other industries. Today, Berkshire is one of the most-valuable companies in the world because of those efforts. It has interests in insurance, utilities, transportation, retail and — increasingly — manufacturing.

The billionaire has been beefing up the segment of his business that makes everything from T-shirts to bricks. In January, he completed a $32.7 billion takeover of Precision Castparts Corp., a supplier to the aerospace and energy industries. And a month later he closed on the acquisition of battery maker Duracell for more than $2 billion. Bloomberg