Buffett says Abel ‘has launched’ with his first big Berkshire deal: an $8.5 billion housing bet

Berkshire Hathaway was long teased as the conglomerate that couldn’t find anything worthwhile to buy. Now, as the cash pile has swelled to $400 billion—it’s highest ever—and with a new CEO in charge, the firm is finally pulling the trigger.Berkshire is buying the Taylor Morrison Home Corp., the country’s sixth-largest homebuilder, for $8.5 billion, or $72.50 a share in cash.

It’s Berkshire’s first major acquisition since Greg Abel became chief executive on Jan. 1, and Warren Buffett, now 95 and a chairman, made a point of standing back from it.  

“Greg did that faster than I could have done it, smoother than I could have done it, and I never talked to the CEO,” he told CNBC’s Becky Quick. 

While Abel has been at the helm for several months now and presided over the company’s annual shareholders meeting for the first time as CEO last month, Buffett indicated his successor has finally made the job his own.

“He has launched,” he said of........

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