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Dive Brief:
- Holding company Berkshire Hathaway has acquired the remaining 20%. to Pilot Company from the Haslam family, which founded the travel center chain in 1958, according to an announcement Tuesday.
- This marks the final step in a series of ownership transfers between the two companies that began when Berkshire acquired a 38.6% stake in Pilot in 2017. At the time, the Haslam family retained about 50.1% of Pilot shares, but agreed that Berkshire would become the majority owner by acquiring an additional 41.4% in 2023, leaving the Haslams with 20%.
- The agreement comes 10 days later Berkshire and the Haslam family settled a lawsuit which saw the companies accuse each other of accounting tricks intended to manipulate the sale price of the Pilot.
Dive Insight:
Tuesday’s deal closes the door on a tumultuous, months-long back-and-forth between Berkshire and the Haslam family.
The agreement was made in 2017 gave the Haslams a 60-day annual window to sell its remaining 20% to Pilot, with that sale price based on Pilot’s profits from the previous year. But late last year, the Haslams accused Berkshire of changing their accounting practices to deflate the sale price, while Berkshire accused Pilot chairman Jimmy Haslam of trying to bribe Pilot employees with payments to increase the selling price.
Berkshire and the Haslams reached an agreement on January 7. Terms of the settlement were not disclosed.
Following Tuesday’s deal, Berkshire officially owns 100% of Pilot.
“While this was certainly an emotional decision for us, it is one that we felt was right for our family at this time,” Jim Haslam II, founder of Pilot, said in the release. “We look forward to continuing to support our lives. longtime hometown of Knoxville, Tennessee, and to advance our deep commitment and philanthropy throughout the region we all love.”
Headquartered in Knoxville, Tennessee, Pilot operates more than 870 travel centers in 44 US states and six Canadian provinces.