Buffett Invites Analysts to Berkshire Annual Meeting

[Liberty]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204517204577046590844614210.html

 

After decades of largely shunning Wall Street analysts, Warren Buffett is preparing to give them a prominent voice at his company's biggest event.

 

Three research analysts will join Berkshire Hathaway Inc. shareholders in questioning the billionaire and his business partner, Charlie Munger, at the conglomerate's annual meeting next year. The event started with 12 attendees 30 years ago and now draws tens of thousands of people to Mr. Buffett's hometown of Omaha, Neb., each spring to pay homage to the world's most famous investor and hear him speak.

[moore_capital54]

Not sure if I like the fact that after so many years, Buffett is really going out of his way to change some of his core tenets.

 

Don't get me wrong, Buffet is and will always be my number one, but he appears to be losing some of that discipline that helped turn Berkshire Hathaway into what it is today.

 

It's almost as though he does not want to let Mr. Market do his thing, maybe because he wants to see BRK trading at near it's intrinsic value before he passes away?

[Rabbitisrich]

Not sure if I like the fact that after so many years, Buffett is really going out of his way to change some of his core tenets.

 

Don't get me wrong, Buffet is and will always be my number one, but he appears to be losing some of that discipline that helped turn Berkshire Hathaway into what it is today.

 

It's almost as though he does not want to let Mr. Market do his thing, maybe because he wants to see BRK trading at near it's intrinsic value before he passes away?

 

The goal probably has less to do with short-term price movements, and more to do with shaping the shareholder base, an agenda that Buffett has held for a long time.

[alpha231616967560]

Seems to me that he is simply trying to increase the quality of information that an attendees walks away with. I can imagine that as the annual meeting increases in size each year, the questions get more random and maybe less focused on the business of berkshre hathaway. This seems like an attempt at refocus. I don't imagine that having analysts asking 1/3 of the questions will have ant effect on.the stock price either way.

[alwaysinvert]

Not sure if I like the fact that after so many years, Buffett is really going out of his way to change some of his core tenets.

 

Don't get me wrong, Buffet is and will always be my number one, but he appears to be losing some of that discipline that helped turn Berkshire Hathaway into what it is today.

 

It's almost as though he does not want to let Mr. Market do his thing, maybe because he wants to see BRK trading at near it's intrinsic value before he passes away?

It might might come in handy in the event of a future Burlington.

[tooskinneejs]

"Seems to me that he is simply trying to increase the quality of information that an attendees walks away with. I can imagine that as the annual meeting increases in size each year, the questions get more random and maybe less focused on the business of berkshre hathaway."

 

Agreed.  I went one year and heard a half dozen questions about some dam that Indians wanted removed.

[SmallCap]

"Seems to me that he is simply trying to increase the quality of information that an attendees walks away with. I can imagine that as the annual meeting increases in size each year, the questions get more random and maybe less focused on the business of berkshre hathaway."

 

Agreed.  I went one year and heard a half dozen questions about some dam that Indians wanted removed.

 

Then why not just have a process of vetting the questions and possibly have the questions written down and handed in?

 

Something about this smacks me in the wrong way but then again he has gone contrary to my way of thinking before and eventually won me over to his thinking and so I won't put it past him this time.

[bookie71]

Maybe he is simply tying to get the people who seem to not understand the company to at least get a basic understanding.

[mpauls]

This is odd.

[mpauls]

OK, Maybe I do understand.  The quality of annual meeting questions have been in steady decline over the last few years.  Many of these questions have nothing to do with Berkshire's underlying business.  Looks like this is an attempt to get Berkshire oriented questions versus Buffett Munger motivated questions.

 

e.g. What Alpha said.

[Parsad]

Berkshire will look different after Buffett.  The quality of the information in the letters, etc won't be as before.  Adding analysts will only help to increase the quality of the information being disseminated about the company, once it becomes like other stalwart blue-chips after the founder is no longer there.  Buffett didn't cater to analysts in the past, because Buffett to was there to transmit information.  Everything he has done in the last couple of years is to create a cohesive succession plan, and it probably became more evident to him that this is important after the whole Sokol affair.  Cheers! 

[augustabound]

Fidelity analysts and Whitney Tilson "gaming the system".  I applaud them for the thought they put into this.  As someone who has yet to attend an annual meeting, I would me mildly annoyed to trek from near Toronto to hear his fans ask him what he had for lunch yesterday.

 

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203479104577125403745409234.html?mod=ITP_moneyandinvesting_0

 

I warn you not to look at the comment sections, most spell Buffett with only one "t".  ;)