For the past couple of years, he has been telling the 40,000 or so shareholders who usually attend the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting that they should consider using the Airbnb room sharing service to avoid price gouging by hoteliers in the company’s home town.
Now the investment guru has come up with an even more radical idea: a webcast so investors can watch the famous event without having to make the trek to Nebraska at all, writes US investment correspondent Stephen Foley.
Plans are afoot to broadcast this year’s meeting on April 30, according to insiders, meaning Mr Buffett and his sidekick, Berkshire vice-chairman Charlie Munger, could enjoy the biggest ever audience for their annual Q&A session.
The wisecracking pair take audience questions for the best part of six hours, covering everything from the minutiae of Berkshire’s operating subsidiaries to Mr Buffett’s investment philosophy and macroeconomic outlook.
Such is the attendance, hotels get booked up a year in advance and many demand that guests book in for three nights, whether they want to or not. The Wall Street Journal was first to report planning for a webcast alternative, a short time ago.
Online viewers will not be getting the full “Woodstock of Capitalism” experience, of course. Events in Omaha include personal appearances by Mr Buffett, and a mini-trade fair featuring goods from most of Berkshire’s operating subsidiaries and investee companies, including See’s Candies, Fruit of the Loom clothing and products from Coca-Cola and Heinz.
But a webcast would mean that the man they call the Oracle of Omaha will be able to disseminate his investment wisdom even to those who do not make the pilgrimage – and Omaha’s hoteliers must be quaking in their boots.
