Berkshire Hathaway will acquire 100% of outstanding Lubrizol shares for $135 per share - more than 18% above the highest price the local stock had ever sold.
The transaction was unanimously approved by the board of directors of each company but still must be approved by shareholders.
Lubrizol began on Cleveland's East Side as The Graphite Oil Products Company 83 years ago, and today makes fuel additives and other chemical products for various industries.
Worldwide it has about 6,900 employees, nearly 21-hundred of them working locally at facilities in Wickliffe, Brecksville, Painesville, and Avon.
Lubrizol president and C-E-O James Hambrick and other company managers will maintain their positions, and continue to operate the corporation from Wickliffe as a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway.
The sale was a surprise to many analysts. Lubrizol had recently made its own recent acquisitions, just last month expanding its focus on the medical and healthcare market.
