CNBC Squawk-Box co-anchor Becky Quick scored a scoop early this morning with her 'First on CNBC' report that Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway is paying $2.1 billion dollars to Goldman Sachs for some high-yielding (aka "junk") TXU bonds. That debt had been issued as part of the $45 billion deal in which Kohlberg Kravis Roberts took the Texas utility private earlier this year. (The purchase is also being reported today by Fortune's Peter Eavis.)
But everyone should pay very close attention to this exclusive portion of Becky's report:
The billionaire investor tells me that these TXU bonds are the only junk bonds he's interested in at the moment. Not First Data bonds, not Alltel.
In fact, Buffett tells me that he thinks some of the recent issues give new meaning to the word 'junk'.