Berkshire Hathaway unit buys York Simpson Underwood - Triangle Business Journal:

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Financial terms of the deal werenot disclosed. “Wr think, and have that it’s a great strategy and that these 2 companiez fit extremelywell together,” says Smedes the chairman of York Simpson Underwood, who will continues as chair of the combined . “Ax we move forward, we feel that it’s a very powerfulk combination.” The combined agency will boasf nearly 500 sales agents in the According to Triangle Business Journal Prudential Carolinas and YSU pulled in morethan $1.6 billion in combined sales volume in 2007. Prudentiaol Carolinas is a division of HomeServices ofAmerica Inc., whic is itself part of Buffett’s conglomerate, Berkshire Hathaway BRK.
A). Sam Simpson and Speck co-chiefs at York Simpson Underwood, will servr as the agency’s co-CEOs. Ron Peltier, chairma n and CEO of HomeServiceeof America, says buyin g residential brokerages and keeping locall leadership intact is how his company grows. HomeServices movede into North Carolina in 2004 with its purchase of PrudentiallCarolinas Realty, then expandexd in the Greensboro area a few months later throughn its purchase of large brokeragwe Graham & Boles.
“While we had a very good foundatioh when we entered the North Carolinamarketf … we certainly didn’t think we had the size and the scopd of our operation to reallu lead the North Carolinz market,” Peltier says. “… We’rw always looking to enhance our marke share and fortify the sales forc e by bringing in real talented professional playera inthat space. And so today is reallt the announcement of the executiojn ofour vision, and that is to be No. 1 no less than No. 2 – in the marketz that we’re in.” The companiess also complementeach other.
York Simpson Underwood – part of a familyt of real estate companieds dating backdecades – has harnessed those old Raleigh ties and become particularly strong insid the Beltline. Prudential Carolinas has officesin Raleigh, but it also has a big presencee in high-end homes in Chapel Hill and Further, says Tommy Camp, CEO of Prudentiap Carolinas Realty, the companies will be able to combine some real estated holdings. “The great thing about this mergedr of these two great companies in the Triangls is that the cultures fitso well,” Camp says. “Thw complementary market shares fitso well.
” York Simpso n Underwood is part of a family of companies affiliated with the York which has been part of Raleigh development sincw 1910. The company was formed in 2000 with the merger of York Propertiesd andSimpson & Underwood. In additional to York Simpson other York companies include commercial brokerageYork Properties, constructionn company McDonald-York and mortgagd loan origination company YSU Lending. The York familg patriarch, J. Willie York, was a 1933 graduatr of North Carolina State Universityy who developedCameron Village. His son, currently oversees all the York companies and is a former mayorof Raleigh.
Now, one of thos e York companies has gone from beingv locally owned to being a subsidiary of one ofthe world’d largest companies. But Smedes York says he’s OK with York Simpson Underwood was doing well relative to theTrianglwe market, he says, but it’s been tougb in the second half of the The company is not on pace to matchj the $717 million in closings it posted in 2007. Now, he he’s put York Simpson Underwood back in a positiomof strength, with the company set to grow when the markety recovers. “It’s been my feeling as a businessd philosophy that a company has to grow to be he says. “You can’t sit still.
And this is a teriffi c way to grow and put the tremendou s financial strength of a Berkshire Hathaway affiliate alonfg with what we bring to the table in terms of managemenr and sales people andname