Washington Post sale ends Buffett’s stake in paper

OMAHA, Neb. — Warren Buffett’s company’s longtime stake in the Washington Post newspaper will end when the publication is sold to Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos.

Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway conglomerate holds 1,727,765 shares of the Washington Post Co. Berkshire has been the largest outside shareholder since the 1970s, and Buffett served on the Post’s board for more than two decades.

Buffett invested $10.6 million in the Post after its stock fell in the wake of its publication of its famed Watergate stories. Berkshire will receive about $53.5 million from the newspaper’s sale.

Over the past few years, Buffett has bought more than two dozen newspapers, but apparently he decided the Post didn’t fit with the small and medium-sized newspapers Berkshire has been collecting.

Buffett didn’t immediately respond to questions about the Washington Post deal.