????某種程度上說，巴菲特和彭明盛今年其實是在競購IBM的股票。巴菲特投下107億美元買入6,400萬股，而IBM本身在2011年前九個月投入近115億美元，回購了近6,900萬股。

????這九個月中，IBM回購這批股票的平均價格約為167美元——根據巴菲特剛剛宣布的數據，他在3月份至11月之間建倉的平均成本與此恰好一樣。

????巴菲特并未見過彭明盛（就連后者的名字他今天都說錯了一次），也沒有見過彭明盛新任命的繼承人弗吉尼亞?羅曼提，后者將在年底接過首席執行官權杖。不過，10月初《財富》主辦“最有權勢女性大會”時，羅曼提擔任了演講嘉賓，當時，巴菲特也賞光出席。（彭明盛和羅曼提的生日在同一天——都是7月29日，這可是365分之1的小概率事件——若是考慮閏年因素，那還要小一些，莫非這是什么征兆？）

????彭明盛現年60歲，他將繼續擔任IBM董事長，毫無疑問他將毫不松懈地監督IBM最新計劃的實現。這份稱為2015路線圖的計劃同樣表述清晰、公之于眾，它要求在2010年11.67美元的基礎上，2015年IBM的每股營業利潤應至少達到20美元。計劃同時包括進一步的回購股票，不過那自然得在價格合適的時候進行，否則可過不了巴氏測謊儀這一關。

????是伯克希爾公司的倉位，那他會非常開心。那當然不可能發生，可巴菲特或許覺得推動IBM提高回購量不是壞事。

????本文作者卡羅爾?盧米斯女士是《財富》雜志資深編輯，她是沃倫?巴菲特的老朋友，同時還持有伯克希爾的股票。

????譯者：小宇

????In a sense, Buffett and Palmisano have been in competition for IBM's stock this year. While Berkshire was paying its $10.7 billion for 64 million shares, IBM itself spent nearly $11.5 billion in 2011's first nine months to buy almost 69 million shares.

????IBM's cost-per-share for the stock it repurchased in those nine months was about $167 -- just what Berkshire's cost is on the facts that Buffett has announced for the March-into-November period.

????Buffett has not met Palmisano (whose name Buffett bobbled once today) nor his just-announced successor, Virginia Rometty, who will take over as CEO at yearend. Buffett, however, was in the audience at Fortune's Most Powerful Women's conference in early October when Rometty was a featured speaker. (In a 1-out-of-365 chance, or less considering Leap Year, Palmisano and Rometty share the same birthday, July 29th; is that an omen of some kind?)

????Palmisano, 60, is to stay on as IBM's chairman and will no doubt be unflaggingly watching what happens under IBM's latest stated, publicized plan, called the 2015 Roadmap. The plan calls for operating earnings per share to rise from $11.67 in 2010 to at least $20 in 2015. More buybacks are also on the agenda, though naturally they will need to be made at prices that don't make the polygraph blow a gasket.

????Buffett said today that if IBM got its shares down to 64 million -- Berkshire's holding, that is -- he'd be happy. That won't happen, of course, but Buffett probably figured it wouldn't hurt to give IBM a nudge.

????Fortune senior editor-at-large Carol Loomis, who wrote this article, is a long-time friend of Warren Buffett's and a Berkshire shareholder.