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Buffett Feasting on Tech Shares

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Bloomberg News

Warren Buffett used to avoid tech stocks because he said he didn’t understand them. Apparently, he’s a technophobe no more.

On Tuesday, the billionaire reported recent stakes in Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) and several other companies after the Securities and Exchange Commission refused to let him delay disclosure of the holdings. Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK/B), the Omaha firm controlled by Buffett, said in an SEC filing that it held 167,500 preferred shares of Microsoft on Sept. 30.

Buffett and other big investors, such as money manager George Soros and Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, rely on a quirk in SEC reporting requirements that enables them to delay disclosure of some stakes for at least a year.

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But money managers must show that release of the data would hamper their proprietary trading strategies.

“The SEC has grown a little insensitive to people just always claiming that disclosing their holdings is going to reveal a confidential trading strategy,” said Bob Juelke, an associate at the Philadelphia office of the law firm Drinker Biddle & Reath.

Money managers who handle $100 million or more of stocks must publicly report their holdings to the SEC quarterly on a Form 13F. Those managers can apply for permission each quarter to report some of their holdings on a public form and report others on a confidential filing whose release is delayed for about a year.

To get the confidential treatment, Buffett in previous applications has said disclosure of Berkshire’s holdings would enable other investors to follow his lead, driving up the price of stocks he is buying.

In addition to the Microsoft stock, the new filing disclosed that Berkshire held 1 million shares in Robert Half International Inc. (RHI) and 1.9 million shares in Cox Communications Inc. (COX).

Berkshire’s Class B shares slipped $66 on Tuesday to close at $1,620 on the Big Board.

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