Warren Buffett’s Weird Investment You Didn’t Know About

Warren Buffett is known for many things. Buying innovative growth companies is not one of them. Buffett is often criticized for missing many of the biggest trends and success stories of the past three decades.

But that’s not entirely true.

Because 19 years ago, Warren Buffett made a big bet on Amazon.com.

Here’s a full breakdown of the deal, taken from Robert G. Hagstrom’s The Warren Buffett Way:

In July 2002, only one week after Buffett wrote CEO Jeff Bezos a letter praising him for his decision to account for stock options as an expense, Buffett bought $98.3 million of Amazon’s high-yield bonds.

Buffett clearly appreciates managers who exhibit integrity and strong values, and he has long advocated for expensing stock options, but he certainly was not on a goodwill mission when he bought the Amazon.com bonds. The Government Employees Insurance Company, the auto insurance unit of Berkshire, stood to make $16.4…