Billionaire Warren Buffett, 81, tried at the annual meeting of Berkshire Hathaway to dispel fears about the future of the investment company, after being diagnosed with cancer. Buffett revealed at the annual meeting of shareholders, that he recently attempted to make his largest acquisition.
The question of who will be Buffett’s successor, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, became imperative after the billionaire revealed in April that he suffers from prostate cancer in an early stage informs Reuters.
The condition was a reminder that, despite his success as an investor and the recognition he enjoyed, Buffett is mortal and it will be hard to replace him at the company he runs since 1965. For this reason, the future of Berkshire, with or without Buffett, has been the focus of the Berkshire annual meeting held in Omaha, Nebraska, starting Saturday.
At the annual meeting were expected about 40,000 Berkshire shareholders, and Buffett called the event the “Woodstock of capitalism”. The billionaire revealed that he recently analyzed an acquisition of over $20 billion, for which he would have sold some holdings of Berkshire, but he did not mention the name of the company targeted for takeover.
Who are the potential successors of Buffett
The list of possible successors includes Ajit Jaint, Buffett’s main collaborator in the insurance field, Matthew Rose, who runs Burlington Northern, and Greg Abel, MidAmerican Energy Division leader. The annual meeting took place a day after Berkshire has announced that the quarterly net income doubled to $3.25 billion, compared to the same period of the last year, growth sustained by the divisions of insurance and derivatives.
Buffett was optimistic about prospects for Berkshire despite the slow growth of U.S. economy and the inability of the United States and other countries to put order in public finances. Berkshire has a huge investment in IBM, which reached $11.7 billion last year, but will not be involved in buying shares of other technology giants like Google and Apple. “The odds of being wrong with IBM are probably smaller, at least for us, than with Google or Apple,” said Buffett.
Shareholders were able to enjoy the meeting and an annual comedy film made by Buffett’s daughter Susie. In the movie, Buffett sings and is accompanied by ukulele (small guitar like instrument). In another scene, Buffett’s secretary, Debbie Bosanek, sits with feet on the desk looking through a magazine while her boss responds to calls. Buffett said of his secretary that she pays higher taxes than him; she was the inspiration for the “Buffett law” of Obama administration to increase taxes for the rich people, rejected by Congress. Buffett told Reuters Insider that he expects a version of “Buffett law” to be approved by the second Obama administration.
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