Buffett Settled the $1 Billion Accounting Dispute

Last month, I shared that Warren Buffett and the Haslam family were embroiled in a $1 billion accounting dispute over Berkshire Hathaway’s purchase of Pilot Travel Centers from the Haslam family. A lawsuit had been filed. The trial of the case was scheduled to begin today.

Sunday it was announced that the trial had been canceled because the two sides had come to an agreement (i.e., a settlement was reached). The terms of the settlement haven’t been revealed publicly, but Berkshire may eventually have to disclose settlement specifics in filings with the SEC since it’s a publicly traded company. I’m curious about how they settled this dispute and hope the details are released publicly.

In the end, I suspect neither side wanted their top brass to have to answer questions under oath because their answers would be public record, so they opted to settle at the eleventh hour. That’s not unusual.