Go Elizabeth Warren! Without her prodding, I am sure this would never have happened. He was very happy with firing the 5k employees and not taking any blame on himself for what was essentially his push.
I suspect Warren Buffet may have pushed for Stumpf's resignation/termination, as well as other damage control measures. This is a similar situation to the Solomon scandal, although Buffet has a smaller stake in WFC.
> Berkshire Hathaway (BRKB) owns nearly 470 million shares of Wells Fargo (WFC), a 9.5% stake. Buffett also personally owns a little more than 2 million shares in the bank. The combined value of that investment has dropped by nearly $1.5 billion since Friday.
I would also suggest Buffett is very focused on his reputation, and doesn't want to be seen tolerating behavior like this. From one of his letters to his managers:
We can't be perfect but we can try to be. As I've said in these memos for
more than 25 years: "We can afford to lose money — even a lot of money. But
we can't afford to lose reputation — even a shred of reputation."
We must continue to measure every act against not only what is legal but
also what we would be happy to have written about on the front page of a
national newspaper in an article written by an unfriendly but intelligent
reporter.
First of all, Warren Buffett has recently petitioned the SEC to allow him to own more than 10% of WFC. If the SEC were to allow that, BRK's holding in WFC would have to be (basically) silent. No control over WFC management could be exerted.
WRT to Solomon, as a percentage, yes BRK owned more, but in absolute terms, WFC is much larger. It's like 20:1.
