B of A is still a recovering addict. It more than doubled its float in a decade, only to see its earnings plunge at the end of the aughts. In 2007, B of A had 4.4 billion shares outstanding. It issued a total of 1.5 billion shares to buy Countrywide Financial (a disaster) and Merrill Lynch (in retrospect, a good buy), then from 2008 to 2013 issued an astonishing 4.5 billion extra shares to bolster its capital and skirt bankruptcy, at the expense of existing owners. Buffett's preferred purchase was a necessary part of that distress sale.