Hey Av,
I think that was a demonstration of the true ignorance. He really thinks that BRK has 30,144 times the market cap of Bombardier. And, I don't know, might that also be Canadian dollars?
What a truly asinine post. No one with even a vestigial understanding of the market would make such an assumption. To suggest as much is acutely inane.
I'm managing a seven figure diversified personal portfolio from which I'm enjoying a greater than 14% annual return. How are you doing with your equities and bonds, Ed?
Market cap may be a good indicator of the size of a company, but certainly not it's profitability. What do you suspect Chrysler's or United Airlines' market cap was on the eve of their respective bankruptcies?
A better indicator would be revenues versus earnings.
Bombardier Annual Revenue - 16.750B CAD, Earnings - 232m CAD (projected- down significantly from last year).
Berkshire Hathaway Annual Revenue - $81.663B, EBITDA - $17.22B
Since it seems to be important to you, I'll provide market cap as well.
Bombardier - 6,978 million CAD
Berkshire Hathaway - $161.45 Billion
Of course Bombardier is quoted in CAD, it's traded on the Toronto exchange.
And
Av8rr, some profitable companies, like General Dynamics have recently split (March 27, 2006) and climbed right back up, Bombardier hasn't had the growth to offer a stock spilt in recent memory.
Any way you look at it, Berkshire Hathaway has much deeper pockets than Bombardier - which was my original thesis.
GV