Jeff Bezos has pointed to a conversation with Warren Buffett as the thinking behind his newest big bet, a stake in Liverpool FC, according to Fortune. Bezos recalled asking Buffett why more investors do not simply copy his approach given how straightforward it sounds in theory, and said Buffett told him his method is really a get rich slowly scheme, one that rarely appeals to people even though the underlying logic holds up broadly.
Buffett has spent decades telling everyday investors to put their money into low cost funds that track the S&P 500 rather than trying to beat the market by picking individual stocks. Bezos said the real value in that advice is the time horizon behind it, explaining that thinking in terms of seven years rather than three gives an investor a meaningful head start over people chasing faster results.
That patience, Bezos suggested, is part of what drew him into the deal for Liverpool FC. A consortium called 1892 Holdings, led by Bezos alongside businessman Amit Bhatia and Facebook co founder Eduardo Saverin, purchased a 38 percent stake in the club from Fenway Sports Group for roughly 2 billion pounds, or about $2.7 billion, with an option to take majority control within 12 months.
The price tag reflects how dramatically the club's value has climbed. Fenway Sports Group bought Liverpool for about 300 million pounds in 2010, when the team was on the brink of financial collapse, and the club is now valued between 5 billion and 6 billion pounds. That run up came despite a rocky recent stretch on the field, with Liverpool finishing fifth last season and a managerial change following.
Fortune framed the deal as a real world example of the long term thinking Bezos said he took from Buffett, betting on a franchise's enduring value over a period of years rather than reacting to any single disappointing season.