The stock market is depressed, and apparently that’s great

Reuters

Buffett ends drought with $11.6 billion Alleghany purchase

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc on Monday struck an agreement to buy insurance company Alleghany Corp for $11.6 billion, only weeks after the 91-year-old billionaire bemoaned a lack of good investment opportunities. Alleghany, the owner of reinsurer Transatlantic Holdings, would expand Berkshire’s large portfolio of insurers, which includes auto insurer Geico, reinsurer General Re and a unit that insures against major catastrophes and unusual risks. “Berkshire will be the perfect permanent home for Alleghany, a company that I have closely observed for 60 years,” Buffett, who has run Berkshire since 1965, said in a statement.