"Will Berkshire Meeting Be Fun"
BY MICHAEL KELLY
WORLD-HERALD COLUMNIST
Published Sunday
February 27, 2000
Warren Buffett had just finished an engaging talk in Fremont, Neb., to 100 seemingly awestruck Midland Lutheran College business students. They cared more about the man's legend than his ledger.
"He was just as laid back as could be, with a great sense of humor," said accounting major Shannon Bottorff of Sioux City, Iowa. "He was just a normal person."
Said Parker Thornburg, a marketing major from Fremont: "For someone in such a high-stress position . . . to take his time out to give small-town Fremont people the opportunity to hear him speak is just incredible."
"It was wonderful," added Tom Schuneman, a business major from Milbank, S.D. "Every investor in the world should listen to him talk."
Such praise has been common for Buffett - the Oracle of Omaha, the Wizard of Wall Street, the world's greatest investor. But will the annual Berkshire Hathaway shareholders' meeting April 29 be different?
Normally, it's a "fistful of dollars" lovefest. As Buffett calls it, "our capitalists' version of Woodstock."
But Berkshire Hathaway Class A stock had dropped 47 percent by Valentine's Day, so some shareholders this year might not send roses. The per-share value, which dipped to $43,000, closed Friday at $45,100.
Buffett invests in things he understands - soft drinks, hamburgers, Mickey Mouse, razor blades and such. Mostly, he has avoided the booming high-tech stocks.
Why? After all, Bill Gates of Microsoft is his golfing buddy.
Buffett's standard answer is that he doesn't invest in high-technology businesses because he doesn't understand them. After his talk last week at Midland, I asked what it was that he didn't understand.
"What I don't understand is who has an endurable, competitive advantage over a long period of time," Buffett replied. "That's the key.
"It doesn't mean I don't think anybody has (a foreseeable advantage). I just feel I bring nothing to the party in seeing what the world looks like 10 or 20 years from now in those businesses - whereas I do think I know what McDonald's or Disney or Coca-Cola will look like, in a very gen eral way."
No regrets about not investing in high tech? "No, no!" he said.
Gates doesn't entreat him to invest in high tech?
"No, just the opposite," Buffett said. "He says, 'If I were an investor, I'd invest just like you.' He does say that."
Last week Berkshire disclosed it had invested a bit in Microsoft. But not much. If this were the Christmas season, the $16.7 million stake would qualify as a mere stocking-stuffer.
Even though the tech-heavy Nasdaq index rose 86 percent last year, Buffett maintains a general aversion. He saved his strongest words for the Nasdaq.
Some high-tech stock valuations are "very crazy," Buffett said, adding that someday the bubble will burst.
We live in a world of mass delusion, he said, and "markets are areas where people do go crazy."
False rumors on the Internet this month that Buffett was seriously ill - forcing him to break his longtime policy of not commenting on rumors - couldn't have increased his fondness for the high-tech world. But he was able to laugh about it.
"That was something," he said after his talk. "I should have been checking my pulse all through this thing to see if I'm still here. . . . I feel terrific."
Val Rempel, an accounting major from Plymouth, Neb., said she was impressed with Buffett's comments not only on investing but also on life. He urged the students to think about the kind of society they want.
Buffett stays the course. He invests for the long haul. And he enjoys life.
Friday and Saturday night in Omaha, he will appear on stage in the annual Omaha Press Club Show, spoofing the TV quiz show "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire"
Berkshire shareholders who used to laugh all the way to the bank might take heart in the fact that Buffett once donned a Daddy Warbucks "bald wig" and warbled: "The stock'll go up . . . tomorrow. So you gotta hang on till tomorrow . . . come what ma-a-yyy."
That's his philosophy: Hang on to your stock till tomorrow. And each spring, come to Omaha to hear what Warren Buffett has to say.
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