Dont poke the bear!
And FWIW, if good old reliable VMware was enough to give some fits, mainly it seems because a Barrons author wrote a negative piece or something, no way XOM goes over well....too many risks, in a universe where it seems any risk becomes a justification not to make an investment.
With all the very smart people at Berkshire, I dont see why the dont have a team together who's job is to aggregate a bunch of $1-$20B businesses with synergies and simultaneously make offers to take them all out. Theres just way too many excuses and not a lot of them add up. This company is too small, this is too big, this one is not "Buffett like", this one is too levered, that one is owned by a friend, this one is too controversial....its all bullshit.
Its a selfish, ego driven gambit. Best thing he could do if he trusted his "lieutenants" would be to start spinning out some of their businesses and allocating chunks of the cash to their managers. Let them decide to either roll up smaller competitors/grow the business win a way that the scale could create more value or return it to shareholders.