As part of
The Wall Street Journal's Investing in Funds section published Monday, Jonathan Burton has an
article on fund managers who make it a point to get acquainted with the CEOs of businesses that they invest in to get a better sense of how the companies are run.
Fund managers featured in the piece include
Ron Baron,
Chuck Akre,
David Marcus and
Bruce Berkowitz.
The article also brought up a potential downside to being close to those in the C-suite and points to the experience of Baron Capital in 2000, when fund shareholders lost around $267 million from a majority stake in Sotheby's.
The auction house was caught up in a price-fixing scandal and its stock went
south.
Looking back at that episode, Baron said: "There were plenty of warning signs. I didn't take heed."
Berkowitz said the antidote is to question one's own judgment. "You don't want to be star-struck," he was quoted in the article as saying. 
Edited by:
InvestmentWires Staff,
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