Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway to sell 4.3 million shares of THIS company worth over $4 billion. What we know…

Mint

4 days ago

Berkshire Hathaway will sell about one-third of its more than $4 billion stake in VeriSign, an internet infrastructure and domain name registry company that Warren Buffett's conglomerate has invested in since 2012, VeriSign said on Monday.
VeriSign, based in Reston, Virginia, said the sale of 4.3 million shares was intended to reduce Berkshire's stake to below 10%, a threshold that triggers regulatory obligations.
Berkshire's stake would fall to 9.6% following the sale, according to a prospectus, and Buffett's company may sell an additional 515,032 shares to meet demand. VeriSign will receive no proceeds from the sale.
As of March 31, Berkshire owned 13.29 million VeriSign shares, or about 14.2% of the company, regulatory filings show.
Those shares were worth about $4.07 billion based on VeriSign's closing price of $305.98 on Monday. VeriSign shares traded at less than one-sixth that level when Berkshire began buying.
In after-hours trading, VeriSign fell 6% to $287.77.
Berkshire ended March with $347.7 billion of cash, and through that month was a net seller of stocks for 10 straight quarters. It had nevertheless been adding to its VeriSign stake as recently as January.
Berkshire's smaller investments in technology-related companies have often been spearheaded by Buffett's portfolio managers, Todd Combs and Ted Weschler.
Buffett, 94, has run Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire since 1965. He is expected to step down as chief executive at year end, and be replaced by Vice Chairman Greg Abel, 63. Buffett would remain chairman.
JPMorgan Securities is underwriting the VeriSign share sale.
(With inputs from Reuters)