Warren Buffett searching for the Starz

Warren Buffett, one of the world's richest people as well as the nation's most celebrated traders, is putting cash behind Starz as his holding Berkshire Hathaway boosts its media profile. The Oracle of Omaha has mostly shied from showbiz since the time of the old Capital Urban centersOrMastening numbers before Wally Disney bought in 1996. But he recently acquired 1.7 million shares of John Malone's Liberty Media, with different Opportunities and Exchange Commission filing now, in addition to elevated Berkshire's stake in DirecTV to twenty.3 million shares from about 4.2 million. Wall Streeters think the move may reflect no less than this is the influence of numerous new investment managers Buffett's triggered since the 81-year-old views succession. Fund managers Todd Hair hair combs and Ted Weschler have extended Berkshire's portfolio in technology and, now, media. The nearly $1 billion position in DirecTV makes Berkshire one of the company's top single traders. The SEC filing revealed Berkshire's U.S. equity holdings by 12 ,. 31. Last fall Liberty Media introduced expects to combine monitoring stocks of the Liberty Starz and Liberty Capital models and increase share buybacks, as have media companies, to draw traders. It labored. The stock rose continuously inside the fourth quarter. It hopped 2% Wednesday on news of Buffett's endorsement. Englewood, Colo.-based Liberty Media's primary possibilities are Starz, the Atlanta Braves baseball team and TruePosition, along with interests in Sirius XM and Barnes&Noble and minority stakes with time Warner and Viacom. Monitoring stock Liberty Interactive controls QVC and HSN. And Liberty Global has cable, satellite and telco assets in Europe, Latin America and Australia. Berkshire Hathaway can be a former textile company that is now offering stakes inside the apparel and retail, insurance and financial, energy, building products together with other industries. It's possessed one newspaper, the Zoysia Evening News, sine 1977. Coca-Cola is its greatest position at $14 billion. On tv, Buffett aided to purchase Capital Cities' acquisition of ABC in exchange for any slice from the combined company. More youthful crowd features a history with Disney. In the 1991 lecture at Notre Dame, he infamously known to how he bought 5% of the mouse button for $4 million in 1966 as Wall Street overlooked it. "The whole company was selling for $80 million. "Mary Poppins" had just emerge. "'Mary Poppins' made about $Thirty Dollars million that year, and many years later you'll probably show it to kids the identical age. It's like getting an oil well where all the oil seeps in." Contact the number newsroom at news@variety.com