“What costs us money is when we misassess the fundamental economic characteristics of the business. But that is something we would not learn by what people generally consider due diligence. We could have lawyers look over all kinds of things, but that isn’t what makes a deal a good deal or a bad deal. And we don’t kid ourselves by having lots of studies made and lots of reports made. They’re going to support whatever they think the guy that pays them, you know, wants anyway. So they don’t mean anything. They’re nonsense. But we do care about being right about the economic characteristics of the business, and that’s one thing we think we’ve got certain filters that tell us in certain cases that we know enough to assess.”
—Warren Buffett.
