The news that Warren Buffett’s company, Berkshire Hathaway, bought a $10.7 billion stake in IB (64 million shares, a stake of roughly 5.5% of the company) surprised me this morning. This is a man who once explained “Technology is just something we don’t understand, so we don’t invest in it.”

What’s more? In his letter to his shareholders in 2000, Buffett wrote:

We have embraced the 21st century by entering such cutting-edge industries as brick, carpet, insulation and paint. Try to control your excitement.

So yes, let’s all collective welcome Warren Buffett to the 21st century.

I am skeptical on this purchase of IBM compared to other technology stocks such as Google and Apple. What has IBM done that’s really innovative lately? Yes, their Watson project was incredible (winning the Jeopardy! tournament against Brad Rutter and Ken Jennings was quite impressive), but nothing else that they are doing readily stands out, in my mind. What do you think?

###
(hat tip: Dealbook)