Prediction: Greg Abel Will Buy a Stock That Warren Buffett Spent Decades Passing on for This Simple Reason If I had to bet on one Buffett‑worthy stock that Warren Buffett himself never pulled the trigger on but Greg Abel could eventually bless, my money would be on Microsoft…
ASDAQ: MSFT). Buffett has said for years that he admires the business but stayed away for reasons that had little to do with fundamentals
That’s exactly what makes it such an interesting candidate in the Abel era. Buffett has been uncharacteristically blunt about why Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRKB) (NYSE: BRKA) never owned Microsoft. He’s called his failure to buy in early “stupidity,” but once his friendship with Bill Gates deepened and Gates joined Berkshire’s board, he decided buying Microsoft would always look like a conflict of interest, even if nothing improper occurred.
In his words, “It just would be a mistake for Berkshire to buy Microsoft” because if the stock popped on earnings or an acquisition right after a purchase, critics would assume Gates had leaked information. So Microsoft became one of a small handful of companies explicitly “off the list,” not because it failed Berkshire’s investment criteria, but because of optics and ethics. Abel is a different leader Those constraints look different under Greg Abel.