Buffett and his lieutenant Charlie Munger at Berkshire Hathaway have long criticized investors' reliance on EBITDA. Berkshire Hathaway has also employed a far less aggressive stance when pursuing takeover targets, for instance working to maintain top bond ratings through an acquisition. The company generally likes to sit on a cash balance of about $30 billion, in the case of a downturn or unexpected crisis, and will seek to reinvest or spend its annual cash build-up. Finally, Berkshire celebrates capital expenditure and is relatively tame in the world of mergers and acquisition, cutting only a few deals in excess of $10 billion. Malone and Liberty Media are far more aggressive in M&A efforts and far more reliant on paper profits and financial engineering. It's unclear whether Time Warner Cable, under Charter's ownership, would be able to maintain its capital expenditure, or whether the deal would hinge on achieving savings across the business.