The Wall Street Journal profiles the Koch Brothers, who are trying to position themselves as midwestern corporate buyer of choice in order to compete with Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway.

The article mentions one company, Guardian Industries, in which Koch Industries took a minority stake after Byron Trott of BDT & Co. connected the two. Trott is Buffett’s go-to banker, so it’s interesting to speculate on why Berkshire did not make an offer for Guardian. My guess is that Buffett did not want to get involved in a complicated industrial business without management in place.

Putting politics aside, the capital allocation record of Charles Koch since he assumed control of Koch Industries in 1967 is remarkable.