Open records
5 of 38 records, free, exactly as they appear in the set. 13 more verified records are in the purchased files.
| Company | Fork date | The fork | Options | Choice | Stated rationale | What happened | Judgment analyst | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Berkshire Hathaway Read the story → verified | 2009-11 | Whether to acquire the rest of BNSF that Berkshire did not already own |
| Acquire the whole company | A long macro wager that the American economy would grow, and that irreplaceable rail infrastructure would keep collecting a toll on goods moving across the country | Latest · 2010-02-12 deal completion: Berkshire completed the acquisition, paying $15.9 billion in cash and issuing stock with market value of $10.6 billion to acquire the remainder | reversibility low verdict held | Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation / SEC EDGAR (2009-11); Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation / SEC EDGAR (2009-12); Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation / SEC EDGAR (2009-11); Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation / SEC EDGAR (2009-12); The Rational Walk (newsletter.rationalwalk.com) (2024-01) |
| Berkshire Hathaway Read the story → verified | 1996-01-02 | Whether Berkshire should buy the rest of GEICO to own the float engine outright |
| Buy the remaining stake | GEICO's low-cost, direct-to-driver model produces disciplined underwriting profit that makes float nearly free capital | 5 years · 2024 Berkshire total insurance float: stood at approximately $171 billion at end of 2024, with GEICO the largest single contributor | reversibility low verdict held | U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission / Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (1996-01); Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (official investor relations) (1996-08); Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (2025-02) |
| Bloomberg Read the story → verified | 2008-07 | Whether to buy out Merrill Lynch's remaining stake to keep Bloomberg private rather than let it become an IPO trigger |
| Buy out Merrill's stake | Removing the last large outside investor eliminated any demand for liquidity and concentrated control in the founder's hands | Latest · 2008 outside investor exit trigger: no large outside investor left to demand liquidity or agitate for a listing | reversibility low verdict held | Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. / SEC EDGAR (2008-07) |
| Dell Read the story → verified | 2013-02 | Whether to finance transformation by diluting equity or by taking on debt to preserve founder control |
| Take on debt | Debt does not vote or dilute the founder, so paying in dollars rather than shares protects ownership concentration | 5 years · 2026-02 Founder beneficial ownership: Michael Dell beneficially owns 45.7% of Class C common stock on an as-converted basis, with sole voting and dispositive power | reversibility low verdict held | Dell Inc. / U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (2013-02); Wikipedia / Dell EMC article, corroborated by Dell/EMC SEC Form 8-K (Sept. 7, 2016) (2016-09); Delaware Court of Chancery (2020-03); The Register (2022-11); U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission — Schedule 13G/A filing by Michael S. Dell (2026-02) |
| Dell Read the story → verified | 2013-08-02 | Whether to sweeten the price and rewrite the voting standard to save the failing take-private |
| Sweeten price and rewrite vote | The first vote lacked enough support to win, so the price was raised and the voting bar lowered to make the deal winnable | Latest · 2013-10-30 Shareholder approval and deal close: Shareholders accepted the revised package worth about $13.88 a share and the deal completed, ending Dell's roughly 25-year run as a public company | reversibility low verdict held | Dell Inc. / SEC EDGAR (2013-08); Wikipedia (citing contemporaneous Reuters/AP reporting) (2024); EMC Corp. / SEC EDGAR (2016-09) |
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- Fork date at the precision the record supports, never sharper.
- The fork, the options, the choice in the form the company faced them.
- Stated rationale as the company gave it or the record documents it, not our theory.
- Capital committed where the record states it; blank where it does not.
- Outcomes at one, three and five years or latest, each dated and cited.
- Reversibility and verdict as analyst judgments, marked as such.
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