Warren Buffett takes his own advice in walking away from Unilever bid

Legendary investor has cited baseball on takeover discipline

Warren Buffett is so good at dealmaking that bankers and salesmen study his musings endlessly for clues on how he does it. But even he doesn’t always get his way. And he has advice on that, too.

On Sunday, Kraft Heinz  withdrew its Buffett-backed bid for Unilever, which would’ve created the world’s No. 2 food-and-beverage company. It adds to a list of proposed transactions involving Buffett or his partners that weren’t completed, like reported attempts to buy Yahoo!’s core assets or take over Avon Products Inc., the cosmetics maker.

The decision to back off so quickly after Unilever said it’s not interested