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Can a Muckety map predict a corporate acquisition?

Notice how the extended Buffett-Gates cartel has surrounded Costco.

Should you hear rumblings about a Berkshire Hathaway acquisition, remember this map.

Berkshire vice chairman Charles Munger is a director of Costco. Susan Decker is on the boards of both companies.

Warren Buffett

Warren Buffett pal Bill Gates is a director of Berkshire, and Buffett, of course, is a major benefactor of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Gates’s dad, William Sr., is a director of Costco and co-chair of the Gates Foundation. And Jeffrey Raikes, another director of Costco, is the foundation’s CEO.

Gates Sr. and company Chairman Jeff Brotman have both served as trustees of the University of Washington. (Gates’s sister, Kristianne Blake, is a current regent.)

Berkshire’s connection to Costco is nothing new. Munger has been a Costco director since 1997; Gates Sr. joined the board in 2003 and Decker joined in 2004. Raikes was elected four years later.

So the bonds have strengthened gradually over the years, in a way that closely resembles Buffett’s investment style.

And Buffett has said many times that he likes to invest in businesses he knows…

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