WARREN BUFFETT, CHAIRMAN & CEO, BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY: I’m delighted to be here.
CLAMAN: Well, one thing we are doing, we let our viewers know, is that you were
always supportive of business schools. And what we’ve decided is not only loop in our international audience, because we’ve got people in Australia watching right now, everywhere all over the nation, but we have looped in via satellite three different top business schools so that they can listen in and listen to what you’re saying, but also ask you questions.
We want to welcome some of the business schools around the nation. Let’s give a shout out to Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business first. Good to see you guys.
BUFFETT: Hi.
CLAMAN: Buffett’s waving to you. Everybody’s already excited there from Georgetown.
(APPLAUSE)
CLAMAN: They’re very excited. And your alma mater, Columbia Business School is right there in New York City is standing by. Let’s hear it for Columbia.
BUFFETT: Hi, Columbia
CLAMAN: Yes, they’re excited to see you because you’re their big star alum. And then we’ve got Wake Forest down in Charlotte, North Carolina. Hello to Wake Forest, thanks for getting up early with us, all of you guys. We really appreciate it. And they all dressed in suits for you, as you can see.
BUFFETT: Hi, Wake Forest
CLAMAN: So they’re going to be listening because we know that the young people coming out of business schools always have an interesting sort of perspective of what’s happening.
But let’s first get to your meeting. I love to always ask this as your first question. Number one your stock. Let’s take a look at Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK.A) (NYSE:BRK.B) stock right now. Once again, the market just opened a few minutes ago. It is trading at an all-time high. Last check it’s up about 2 1/2 percent for the A-shares and I’m just hearing now that, yes, the B-shares are also hitting an all-time high. What do you think about that?
BUFFETT: Well, I’m glad to
have the news. We are having a pretty good year so far and we reported our earnings after the close on Friday, so this is the probably the reaction to that.
CLAMAN: Let me get to you report some numbers from the
weekend. Number one, was it a record breaking number of shareholders attending?
BUFFETT: We certainly think so. You never can get an accurate count because people come and go, but all the indications from the overflow room, from business we did, everything, I’m quite sure we had a record
CLAMAN: Of all the businesses — because you’re the only company CEO; you’re the only company that actually makes money off the shareholder weekend because you sell all the wares of your 70 plus companies — which company’s sale surprised you the most this weekend?
BUFFETT: Well, I haven’t gotten in all the figures in yet, but it looks to me, for example, that our — like our furniture store in one week is going to do $40 million. And if any of you are running furniture stores, $40 million in a week is extraordinary. We did $8.3 million on Saturday.
But all of our business, we sold more Geico policies — we sold more of everything
CLAMAN: And that’s the Nebraska furniture mart, just so the people know. And
Geico policies. You said you believe Geico will do a million policies this year?
BUFFETT: I’m sure hoping we do. And that’s a million gain in policies, on a base of 11-million-4. So I think we’ll grab a lot of market share this year
CLAMAN: So fair to say business is pretty good all around.
BUFFETT: It looks that way
CLAMAN: I reach back to 1957 when were you knocking on doors of friends and family asking people to give you money to start your partnership. Did you ever imagine that Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK.A) (NYSE:BRK.B), and
you announced
