One-on-One: Warren Buffett
Monday, May 07, 2007
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(Susie Gharib began this interview by asking Warren Buffet to explain his "elephant-sized acquisition" philosophy.) Susie Gharib: What kind of elephant are you talking about? Warren Buffet: (Laughs.) Well, we don't know exactly, but, somewhere out there... we're talking about business elephants obviously, and I have my elephant gun loaded. I am out there stalking these elephants, but they are hard to find. And, there's a lot of competition for the elephants these days. But, we need big businesses to move the needle at Berkshire Hathaway. A 160 or 70 billion of market value, so if we're going to increase that at a reasonable clip you know we can't do it by buying lemonade stands. SG: Would you find Dow Jones to fit in that elephant-sized category? Is that attractive for you? WB: Well, it's an interesting business, I'll put it that way. It's not a huge business. It used to be muchbigger business relative to American industry generally than it is now. But, it's still... it's a very important business. In its present form it is not earning a lot of money, but is a very important business. It should have been a very big business. It really lost its position to quite an extent in the past thirty years or so. SG: Would you be interested in buying Dow Jones? WB: (Laughs.) Well, I'll tell you a story. Do you know the difference between a diplomat and a lady? SG: No. WB: If a diplomat says yes, he means maybe. If he says maybe, he means no. If he says no, he's no diplomat. If a lady says no, she means maybe. If she says maybe, she means yes. And, if she says yes, she's no lady. Well, I will say maybe, but you'll have to decide whether I'm a diplomat or a lady. (Laughs.) SG: Now that you've made an international acquisition are you interested in doing more? WB: Oh...always, always. Yeah. We will comb the globe, and we would love to make large deals outside the United States. And, I think we have a better chance of doing that than we did a few years ago. SG: What's your process for finding a Chief Investment Officer? How are you going about it? WB: Well, one of the... It's not quite American Idol, but at the moment we've got maybe six or seven hundred applications of one sort of the other. Shortly after this meeting, I'm going to go through those and narrow it down to thirty or forty and then try to narrow it down to three or four? And, I hope by this time next year that I have one or more people that will be possibilities for succeeding me in that position. SG: Are you going to be interviewing these candidates? WB: I am sure I will be talking to them. (Laughs.) I am not to turn this one over to somebody out of a blind pool. SG: One last question... WB: I'll give you one more... SG: Berkshire stock has been flat recently. What's weighing on the stock? Is it still a good stock to buy? WB: I don't worry about the stock price. All I worry about is what the business is worth. And, if the business is worth a lot more ten years from now, the stock price will be a lot more. And, if it isn't worth a lot more ten years from now, we will deservedly not sell at a lot more. Thank you. SG: Mr. Buffett, thank you very much. WB: Thank you.
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| The report Susie Gharib filed from the Berkshire Hathaway shareholder's meeting aired in the May 7, 2007 edition of Nightly Business Report. You can read a transcript of the report by clicking the link below. | |||||||||
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| Earlier this month, Susie Gharib interviewed the CEOs of three Berkshire Hathaway companies for her special series, "Working with Warren." She asked these CEOs what it's like to work for Warren Buffett. Analysts say one of the chief executives she interviewed, Richard Santulli, is a candidate to succeed Warren Buffett. Watch the interviews and learn more by clicking the link below. | |||||||||
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