When David Sokol, the Berkshire lieutenant thought to be the frontrunner for Warren Buffett's job resigned two weeks ago, Buffett sent a letter mentioning that Sokol owned a bunch of shares of Lubrizol, which he had bought before pitching WB on the idea for the company. Sokol says he didn't know much or how Buffett would react or if there was a snowball's chance in hell BRK would acquire the company, or if anyone would even take this thing seriously. Turns out he may have had some reason to at least have a hunch.

In the March 30 letter, Mr. Buffett wrote that Mr. Sokol bought nearly 100,000 Lubrizol shares in January, just before recommending the industrial manufacturer as a potential takeover target. But the letter never mentioned that Mr. Sokol knew Lubrizol’s chief executive was planning to talk to the company’s board about a possible deal with Berkshire — and that he knew a few weeks before buying $10 million of stock for his personal portfolio. The Lubrizol preliminary proxy, filed on Monday, revealed for the first time that Citigroup told Mr. Sokol about such discussions in December.

[Dealbook]