Berkshire Hathaway Inc. to Acquire 60% of Pritzker Family Company, Marmon Holdings, Inc.

This is Berkshire's largest-ever acquisition outside of the insurance industry.

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Berkshire Hathaway Chairman and CEO Warren Buffett and Tom Pritzker, Chairman of Marmon Holdings today announced that Berkshire will purchase 60% of Marmon Holdings, Inc., a private company owned by trusts for the benefit of members of the Pritzker Family of Chicago.

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The closing is anticipated to occur in the first quarter of 2008. Prior to closing, Marmon will make a substantial distribution of cash and certain assets to the selling shareholders. At closing Berkshire will acquire 60% of Marmon for $4.5 billion. The remaining 40% will be acquired through staged acquisitions over a five to six year period for consideration to be based on the future earnings of Marmon. The transaction remains subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals.

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Marmon is a private company that was acquired in 1953 by two brothers, Jay and Robert Pritzker, when it was a small ailing manufacturing operation in Ohio. In 2002 Jay’s son Tom became Chairman of Marmon. He then recruited John Nichols to become CEO of Marmon and in 2006 John was succeeded by Frank Ptak who is currently CEO of Marmon.