Billionaire Warren Buffett must be feeling festive, because Berkshire Hathawaythe so-called Oracle of Omaha’s investment vehicleannounced Friday that it will acquire catalog-based crafts and party supplies company Oriental Trading Company.
While terms of the transaction were not disclosed, The Wall Street Journal, citing an anonymous source close to the deal, reports that Berkshire is paying roughly $500 million for Oriental Trading. Friday’s announcement comes some six years after The Carlyle Group bought a majority stake in Omaha-based Oriental Trading from Brentwood Associates in a deal that valued the company at roughly $1 billion. But as the Journal notes, the retailer saw its sales flag in subsequent years and wound up filing for bankruptcy protection in 2010.