Berkshire Hathaway pivot (1965)
Warren Buffett took control of Berkshire Hathaway, a failing New England textile maker. Instead of saving the mills, he used the company as a shell to buy insurance and other cash-generating businesses.
The textile operations kept shrinking while Buffett redirected cash into insurer National Indemnity in 1967.
Berkshire became one of the largest holding companies in the world, owning dozens of unrelated businesses.
ContextLogic is trying the same move: take a dying company's shell and rebuild it as a home for steady, boring, cash-producing businesses.
