This week in Inside Business

Chesapeake native and NSU grad helps company score bridge-tunnel project contract

Black leaders urge companies to measure diversity goals

7 5 7 Angels awarded nationally as a top 1 0 angel group

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I read that Zoom Video Communications had a secondary offering. What does that mean? — T.R., Cedar Crest, New Mexico

It means Zoom sold more of its shares to raise money — in this case, about $2 billion. When a company debuts on the stock market, it usually has an “initial public offering” (IPO), selling shares to the public and collecting money from the sale. If the company later needs a cash boost, perhaps to grow faster, it has choices: It could sell off some assets, borrow money — or sell more shares of stock, via a “secondary offering.”

If a company’s shares have skyrocketed, as Zoom’s have, due to videoconferencing demand during the pandemic, it will collect a lot of money for each share.

The downside of offering new shares for sale is that doing so dilutes the value of existing shares. Imagine, for example, a company with 100 shares of stock outstanding. If you own 10 of them, you own 10% of the company. If it issues 20 more shares, though, your 10 shares will only be 1⁄12th of the company, or 8.3%.

What are the best books about Warren Buffett? — P.L., Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania

Try Roger Lowenstein’s “Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalist” (Random House, $20) for a great review of his personal and business history, along with his investment thinking. You can learn a lot through Buffett’s own words via

Carol J. Loomis’ “Tap Dancing to Work: Warren Buffett on Practically Everything, 1966-2013” (Portfolio, $18) and Lawrence A. Cunningham’s “The Essays of Warren Buffett: Lessons for Corporate America” (Carolina Academic Press, $35).