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Berkshire and Pilot have agreed to settle the Delaware
litigation, including all claims and counterclaims, between
Pilot and Berkshire Hathaway, Pilot Travel Centers and National
Indemnity Company, the companies said in separate statements.
Pilot declined to disclose further detail on the settlement.
Berkshire Hathaway did not immediately respond to a request for
comment.
The agreement averts a billion-dollar trial between Berkshire
Hathaway and the Haslam family, which had been set to begin on
Monday.
The two-day, non-jury trial in Delaware's Court of Chancery,
which was cancelled by the court on Saturday, was meant to
determine the value of the Haslam family's remaining 20% stake
in Pilot Travel Centers, the largest U.S. truck stop chain.
The Haslams, including Cleveland Browns football team owner
Jimmy Haslam, sold 80% of Pilot to Berkshire for $11 billion in
two separate deals in 2017 and January 2023.
Each side had accused the other of accounting tricks to
manipulate Pilot's earnings before interest and tax, or EBIT,
key to determining the value of the Haslams' remaining 20%
stake.
The Haslams sued Berkshire in October last year, alleging it had
changed its accounting to reduce how much the company would owe
if the family exercised an option to sell the 20% stake to
Berkshire in 2024.
Berkshire countersued on Nov. 28, saying Jimmy Haslam tried to
bribe Pilot executives with millions of dollars to inflate
earnings in 2023 at the expense of Pilot's long-term value.
According to court papers, the Haslams believe the 20% stake in
Knoxville-based Pilot was worth $3.2 billion before Berkshire's
accounting change, an amount Berkshire disputed.
(Reporting by Jyoti Narayan in Bengaluru; Editing by Tom Hogue,
Sonali Paul and David Goodman)
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