In what year did Berkshire Hathaway acquire Nebraska Furniture Mart? Berkshire Hathaway acquired Nebraska Furniture Mart in 1983.
Nebraska Furniture Mart was founded in Omaha in 1937 by Rose Blumkin, a Belarus-born immigrant better known as “Mrs. B.” She built the store around unusually low prices and a simple promise to customers: sell cheap and tell the truth. Her retail operation became one of Omaha’s best-known businesses.
In 1983, at age 89, Blumkin sold an 80% interest to Warren Buffett for $60 million. The deal was famously completed with a handshake, without Buffett first auditing the company’s books or inventory. He relied on his experience shopping there and his confidence in Blumkin’s business judgment.
The transaction is sometimes described loosely as Berkshire buying the whole store, but the original deal was for a majority stake. Blumkin continued working there for years. After a family dispute led to her retirement in 1989, she opened a competing store across the street; Berkshire later bought that operation and merged it with Nebraska Furniture Mart.