Berkshire Hathaway Chairman and CEO Warren Buffett and Tom Pritzker, chairman of Marmon Holdings said Berkshire's purchase of 60 percent of Marmon Holdings Inc. should occur in the first quarter of this year.

Marmon is a private company owned by trusts for the benefit of members of the Pritzker family of Chicago. The proposed acquisition was announced over the holidays.
Prior to closing, Marmon will make a substantial distribution of cash and certain assets to the selling shareholders. At closing Berkshire will acquire 60 percent of Marmon for $4.5 billion. The remaining 40 percent will be acquired through staged acquisitions over five or six years, based on future earnings of Marmon.
Marmon is a private company that was acquired in 1953 by two brothers, Jay and Robert Pritzker, when it was a small ailing manufacturing operation in Ohio. In 2002 Jay's son, Tom, became chairman of Marmon. He then recruited John Nichols to become CEO of Marmon and in 2006 John was succeeded by Frank Ptak who is currently CEO of Marmon.
In addition to its Fontaine Trailer Co. operations and Webb Wheel Products, Inc., the Marmon Group operates more than 125 manufacturing and service businesses within diverse business sectors. These sectors include Highway Technologies, primarily serving the heavy-duty highway transportation industry.