"He never comes in and fires people or changes things, because he wouldn't have purchased it in the first place if he had to do that. He doesn't want to change or make personnel decisions. He's buying it for the long-term," Kilpatrick said.
Look to Buffett's prior investments in soft-drink companies, candy, razor blades and insurance. The bulk of his $50 billion fortune was made on companies making familiar products that consumers know and use every day.
"He likes 'old economy' businesses," said Robert P. Miles, author of The Warren Buffett CEO and two other Buffett-related books. "He likes to put his money where his mouth is. He purchased a billion dollars' worth of Coca-Cola [stock] in 1988 and 1989 and he still has six servings of Cherry Coke every day. He likes to invest in companies that he will keep and hold on to.
"In Constellation, he's found a business that's been around for more than 100 years and will be around for the next 100 years," Miles said. "It's somewhat of a monopoly, it's something everyone needs, and energy is the fastest-growing company component of his company. It now represents 10 percent of Berkshire's revenue. It's a business he's in, a business that's growing and a business that he and his MidAmerican chairman, David Sokol, understand very well. It fits."
Buffett still lives in the same home in Omaha, Neb., that he purchased decades ago for $31,500. He reportedly does not carry a cell phone, does not have a computer at his desk, and drives his own car, a Cadillac.
When his first wife, Susan, died in 2004, Buffett remarried two years later to longtime friend Astrid Menks. He bought the ring at Borsheim's Fine Jewelry in Omaha, which is owned by Berkshire. His daughter said he surely got an employee discount. The 15-minute ceremony was performed by a local judge, there were only two witnesses and, afterward, the newlyweds went to dinner at the Bonefish Grill, a casual seafood restaurant.
Buffett is known for telling his operating chiefs to go run the business, only asking them to transfer excess cash to Omaha and clear major capital spending plans with him. They can call him as much or as little as they like.
"He doesn't call them," Miles said of Buffett's lack of management meddling. "Rather amazingly, he doesn't even visit the business he is buying."
Even as Buffett runs a business that has 232,000 employees around the country, only 19 are based in his Omaha corporate office.
