Warren Buffett

At 93 years old, Warren Buffett has this physical status:

Warren Edward Buffett (born August 30, 1930) is an American business magnate, investor, and philanthropist who serves as the chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway.

He is regarded as one of the world's best investors and has a net worth of US$86 billion as of December 2019, making him the fourth-wealthiest individual in the world.

He began to study business and investing in his youth at the University of Pennsylvania in 1947 and graduated from the University of Nebraska at the age of 19.

He went on to graduate from Columbia Business School, where he influenced his investment philosophy around the notion of value investing, which was pioneered by Benjamin Graham.

He attended the New York Institute of Finance to narrow his economics background and immediately after, began several commercial collaborations, one with Graham.

Buffett Partnership, Ltd was founded in 1956 and his company later acquired Berkshire Hathaway, assuming its name to create a multi-tier holding company.

Charlie Munger joined Buffett in 1978 and became the company's chairman and majority shareholder.

Global media companies have referred to him as Omaha's "Oracle" or "Sage."

Despite his immense wealth, he is remembered for his dedication to value investing and for his personal frugality.

Buffett's investment philosophy is described as falling within "founder centrism" by a deference to founders with a founder's mindset, an ethical commitment to the shareholder group, and a strong emphasis on exponential value creation.

Buffett's targeted investments shield managers from the market's short-term pains, largely through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Bill Gates co-founded The Giving Pledge in 2009, whereby billionaires have pledged to give away at least half of their earnings.

When determining whether he will vote for him in the 2020 presidential election, he supported Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton in the 2016 US presidential election and will judge former President Donald Trump by his research on national security, economic growth, and economic participation.

Early life and education

Buffett was born in Omaha, Nebraska, the second of three children and the youngest son of Leila (née Stahl), congressman Howard Buffett, and Congressman Howard Buffett. He began his training at Rose Hill Elementary School. "likes math; a future stockbroker" was elected to the first of four terms in the United States Congress in 1942, Warren graduated from Alice Deal Junior High School in Washington, D.C., with his family in 1947. Buffett wanted to go straight into business after graduating from high school and seeing success with his entrepreneurial and investment ventures, but his father was refused to enter college to go directly into industry, but was overruled by his father.

Buffett demonstrated an interest in business and investing at a young age. One Thousand Ways to Make $1000 was inspired by a book he borrowed from the Omaha public library at age seven. Buffett's early childhood years were enlivened by entrepreneurial ventures. Buffett sold chewing gum, Coca-Cola bottles, and weekly newspapers from door to door in one of his first business ventures. He worked in his grandfather's grocery store. Among other things, he earned money by selling golf balls and stamps, and detailing cars when he was still in high school. Buffett took a $35 deduction for the use of his bicycle and watching on his paper route on his first income tax return in 1944. Buffett and a friend spent $25 to buy a used pinball machine in 1945, which they displayed in the local barber store. Several machines were in three separate barber shops around Omaha within months. They sold the company later this year to a war veteran.

Buffett's obsession with the stock market and investing predates his time as a schoolboy who spent time in a regional stock brokerage near his father's own brokerage office in the customer lounge. At one time, his dad, Edwin Buffett, expressed an interest in educating the young Buffett, even taking him to the New York Stock Exchange when he was 10. He purchased three shares of Cities Service Preferred for himself and three for his sister Doris Buffett (who also became a philanthropist). Warren Buffett made more than $100,000 a month by giving Washington Post newspapers. He invested in a company owned by his father and bought a 40-acre farm operated by a tenant farmer in high school. He bought the property when he was 14 years old with $1,200 in savings. Buffett had $9,800 in savings by the time he finished college (roughly $112,000 today).

Buffett attended the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School in 1947. He would have preferred to concentrate on his company ventures, but his father persuaded him to enroll. Warren lived in the United States for two years before joining Alpha Sigma Phi fraternity. He then enrolled in the University of Nebraska, where he earned a Bachelor of Science in business administration at 19 years old. Buffett enrolled at Columbia Business School of Columbia University after being rejected by Harvard Business School after finding Benjamin Graham taught there. In 1951, he obtained a Master of Science degree in economics from Columbia University. Buffett attended the New York Institute of Finance after graduating.

Personal life

Buffett developed a crush on a teenage girl whose boyfriend had a ukulele in 1949. He bought one of the instruments and has been playing it ever since in an attempt to compete. Despite the fact that his attempt to capture her interest was fruitless, his music passion became a central part of Susan Thompson's life and culminated in their marriage. Buffett is a natural performer at stockholder meetings and other occasions. Dave Talsma's love of the instrument resulted in the commissioning of two custom Dairy King ukuleles, one of which was auctioned for charity.

Susan Buffett (born Thompson) married Herbert Buffett in 1952. Susie, Howard, and Peter were three children. The pair married separately in 1977, but they remained married until Susan Buffett's death in July 2004. Susie, their daughter, lives in Omaha, is a national board member of Girls, Inc., and she does charitable work through the Susan A. Buffett Foundation.

Buffett married Astrid Menks, a long-serving man who was then 60 years old, in 2006, who had been living with him since his wife's departure to San Francisco in 1977. Susan had arranged a meet for the two performers before they left Omaha to pursue her singing career. Both three were close, and "Warren, Susie and Astrid" was on their Christmas cards to family and friends. In a rare glimpse into Buffett's personal life, Susan briefly discussed this relationship in an interview on the Charlie Rose Show shortly before her death.

After participating in the Jamie Johnson documentary The One Percent about the growing economic disparities between the wealthy and the average American citizen in the United States, Buffett disowned his son Peter's adopted daughter, Nicole, in 2006. Nicole is one of her "adored grandchildren" and Buffett wrote Nicole a letter saying, "I have not emotionally or legally adopted you as a grandchild, nor has the majority of my family adopted you as a niece or a cousin."

His 2006 annual salary was around $100,000, which is negligible compared to senior executive remuneration in comparable companies. He received $175,000 in 2008, which included a base salary of just $100,000. He continued to live in the same house in Omaha's central Dundee neighborhood that he bought in 1958 for $31,500, a fraction of today's value. He also owned a vacation home in Laguna Beach, California, which he bought for $150,000 in 1971. In 2018, he sold it for $7.5 million. Buffett named it "the Indefensible" after spending nearly $6.7 million on a private jet in 1989. This was a departure from previous CEOs' condemnation of overspending purchases and his practice of using more public transportation.

Buffett is a huge bridge player who competes with fellow fan Gates, and he is estimated to spend 12 hours a week playing the game. He sponsored a bridge match for the Buffett Cup in 2006. Modeled on the Ryder Cup in golf, which was held in the same city right away before the event was held—the teams are chosen by invitation, with a female team and five male teams provided by each country.

He is a lifelong fan of Nebraska football, and he attends as many games as his schedule allows. Following the 2007 season, he favors Bo Pelini's appointment, saying, "it was getting really sad around here." Since being named an honorary assistant coach, he watched the 2009 game against Oklahoma from the Nebraska sideline.

In 2009, Buffett was elected to the American Philosophical Society.

Buffett appeared on Christopher Webber's animated series "Secret Millionaires Club" with DiC Entertainment's chief Andy Heyward. Buffett and Munger appear in the series, which encourages children to have healthier financial habits.

Buffett was born a Presbyterian but has since identified himself as an agnostic. Buffett did not have a cell phone, did not have a computer at his desk, and drove his own car, a Cadillac DTS, in December 2006. In comparison to that, Berkshire Hathaway's shareholder meeting in 2018 claimed that he uses Google as his default search engine. In 2013, he had an old Nokia flip phone and had sent one email in his entire life. Buffett revealed in a CNBC interview in February 2020 that he had traded in his flip phone for an iPhone 11. Buffett reads five newspapers every day, beginning with the Omaha World Herald, which his company purchased in 2011.

Buffett's addresses are well-known for mixing business debates with humour. Buffett presides Berkshire Hathaway's annual shareholder meeting in Omaha, Nebraska, which attracts over 20,000 visitors from both the United States and abroad, earning the event the nickname "Woodstock of Capitalism." The financial media covers Berkshire's annual reports and letters to shareholders, which Buffett produced. Buffett's books are known for containing quotations from reputable sources, such as the Bible and Mae West, as well as tips in a folksy, Midwestern style, and numerous parodys.

Buffett, a long-serving Coca-Cola drinker and shareholder in the company, has decided to have his image on Cherry Coke products in China in April 2017. Buffett was not compensated for this commercial.

Buffett is very closely related to Barack Obama, the 44th president of the United States.

Buffett was diagnosed with stage I prostate cancer during a routine exam on April 11, 2012. He revealed that two months of daily radiation therapy would begin in mid-July. Buffett wrote a letter to shareholders, saying he felt "good" as if he were in my normal good health, and that my energy level is 100%." Buffett announced on September 15, 2012, that he had completed the full 44-day radiation therapy cycle, saying, "it's a great day for me" and "I am so happy to say that it's over."

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Business career

Buffett, Co., as an investment strategist from 1951 to 1954, and Berkshire Hathaway Inc. as a chairman and CEO from 1970 to 1969.

Buffett discovered Graham was on the board of GEICO insurance in 1951. On Saturday, he jumped on the door of GEICO's headquarters until a janitor accepted him. Lorimer Davidson, GEICO's vice president, was present at GEICO's vice president, and the two talked about the insurance industry for hours. Davidson would be a lifelong friend and a long-afforder, and he'll later recall that Buffett was a "extraordinary man" after only fifteen minutes. Buffett wanted to work on Wall Street but his father and Ben Graham discouraged him not to. Graham was offered to work for Graham for free, but Graham declined.

Buffett completed a Dale Carnegie public speaking course in Omaha and worked as a stockbroker. Using what he learned, he felt confident enough to teach an "Investment Principles" night class at the University of Nebraska-Omaha. His students' average age was more than twice that of his peers. During this time, he also bought a Sinclair gas station as a side investment, but it was not profitable.

Buffett married Susan Thompson at Dundee Presbyterian Church in 1952. Susan Alice, their first child, was born next year. Buffett accepted a job at Benjamin Graham's in 1954. His starting salary was $12,000 a year (about $121,000 today). He worked closely with Walter Schloss at the University of Iowa. Graham was a stern boss. After considering the trade-off between their price and their intrinsic value, he was adamant that stocks carry a wide margin of security. Howard Graham, the Buffetts' second child at the time, was born in the same year. Benjamin Graham resigned and ended his association in 1956. Buffett's personal funds were over $174,000 (roughly $1.73 million today), when he founded Buffett Partnership Ltd.

Buffett had three businesses in 1957. He bought a five-bedroom stucco house in Omaha, where he now lives, for $31,500. Peter Andrew, the Buffetts' third child, was born in 1958. Buffett had five partnerships last year. Buffett met future partner Charlie Munger in 1959, and the company soared to six partnerships. Buffett had seven companies by 1960. He asked one of his sons, a surgeon, to find ten other doctors willing to invest $10,000 per year in his relationship. Eventually, eleven people agreed, and Buffett pooled their funds with just $100 in original investment of his own.

Buffett revealed that 35% of the company's funds were invested in the Sanborn Map Company in 1961. He said that Sanborn stock sold for only $45 per share in 1958, but that the company's investment portfolio was worth $65 per share. Sanborn's map company was worth "less $20" because it was being assessed at "minus $20." Buffett eventually purchased 23% of the company's outstanding shares as an activist investor, receiving a seat on the board of directors and allies of other dissatisfied shareholders to control 44% of the shares. To avoid a proxy war, the board was able to repurchase shares at a fair price while still paying for a portion of the company's investment fund. The remaining 77% of the outstanding shares were turned in. Buffett had a 50 percent return on investment in only two years.

Buffett made a fortune in 1962 because of his marriages, of which over $7,178,500 belonged to Buffett. He turned these organisations into a single entity. Buffett invested in and eventually took over Berkshire Hathaway, a textile manufacturing company. He started buying Berkshire shares from Seabury Stanton, the owner, who later resigned. Buffett's relationships started at $7.60 a share. Buffett's investments began purchasing Berkshire more than a year ago, when the company had limited funds of $19 per share. Fixed assets (factory and equipment) were not included in this analysis. Buffett purchased Berkshire Hathaway at a board meeting and appointed Ken Chace, the company's current president, to lead it. Buffett ended the relationship in 1966 in order to raise new money. Later, he said that the textile industry had been his worst sector. He then expanded the company into the insurance market, and in 1985, the last of Berkshire Hathaway's main business was sold.

Buffett's first investment in a private company — Hochschild, Kohn and Co., a privately owned Baltimore department store — was announced in a second letter. Berkshire paid out its first and only dividend of ten cents in 1967. Buffett dissolved the company in 1969 and sold the company's shares, including Berkshire Hathaway's shares. Buffett's now-famous annual letters to shareholders began in 1970. He survived solely on his salary of $50,000 per year and his outside investment income.

Berkshire first began to purchase shares in the Washington Post Company in 1973. Buffett became close friends with Katharine Graham, who formerly ran the company and its flagship newspaper, and joined the board of directors. The SEC opened a formal probe into Buffett and Berkshire's acquisition of Wesco Financial in 1974 due to a potential conflict of interest. There were no charges levied. Berkshire leased the Buffalo Evening News for $32.5 million in 1977. Antitrust litigation was launched, sparking by its adversary, the Buffalo Courier-Express. Both newspapers lost money before the Courier-Express folded in 1982.

Berkshire first started purchasing shares in ABC in 1979. Capital Cities reported a $3.5 billion investment in ABC on March 18, 1985, surprising the media industry as ABC was four times larger than Capital Cities at the time. Buffett was able to finance the transaction in exchange for a 25% interest in the combined company. Capital Cities/ABC (or CapCities/ABC) was forced to sell some stations due to Federal Communications Commission ownership laws. Several radio stations had already been owned by the two companies in the same markets.

Berkshire Hathaway bought a 12% interest in Salomon Inc. in 1987, making it the country's biggest shareholder and Buffett the CEO. A scandal involving John Gutfreund (former CEO of Salomon Brothers) surfaced in 1990. Paul Mozer, a rogue trader, was making bids in excess of what was allowed by Treasury laws. Gutfreund did not immediately suspend the rogue trader as he was brought to his attention. Gutfreund joined the company in August 1991. Buffett was chairman of Salomon until the crisis was over.

Buffett first started buying The Coca Cola Company stock in 1988, eventually buying up to 7% of the company for $1.02 billion. It will be one of Berkshire's most profitable investments and one that it also holds.

Buffett became a billionaire when Berkshire Hathaway began selling class A shares on May 29, 1990, with the stock closing at $7,175 a share. After a long loss and several years, he acquired General Re (Gen Re) as a subsidiary in a deal that presented challenges, according to the Rational Walk investment website, "underwriting capabilities were found to be ineffective," while a "problematic derivatives book" was published after a substantial loss. Buffett became affiliated with Maurice R. Greenberg at AIG in 2002, and Gen Re later provided reinsurance.

During an accounting fraud lawsuit involving AIG, Gen Re executives were implicated. Since New York state regulators said that AIG had been involved in questionable transactions and misleading accounting as chairman and CEO on March 15, 2005, the AIG board ordered Greenberg to resign from his post as chairman and CEO. AIG decided to pay a $1.6 billion fine on February 9, 2006. The US government reached a $92 million deal with Gen Re in 2010, allowing the Berkshire Hathaway subsidiary to avoid prosecution in the AIG lawsuit. Gen Re made a pledge to implement "corporate governance compromises," which required Berkshire Hathaway's chief financial officer to attend General Re's audit committee meetings and authorized the appointment of an independent director.

Buffett launched a $11 billion back-end contracts in 2002 to produce US dollars against other currencies. His total gain on these contracts was over $2 billion by April 2006. Buffett announced in June 2006 that 85% of his Berkshire funds would be divided into five charities in annual gifts of stock, beginning in July 2006—the largest contribution to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Buffett revealed in a letter to shareholders that he was looking for a younger successor, or even replacements to lead his investment company.

Buffett was chastised for delivering funds too early, resulting in suboptimal loans during the Great Recession's 2007 and 2008, when he first experienced the Great Recession in 2007. "Buy American" is a American. I am." In 2008, he wrote an opinion piece for the New York Times. Buffett called the financial recession that began in 2007 "poetic justice." Berkshire Hathaway's Berkshire Hathaway saw a 77% drop in earnings in the first quarter of 2008, and several of his later deals suffered significant mark-to-market losses.

Berkshire Hathaway bought 10% of Goldman Sachs' perpetual preferred stock. Some of Buffett's put options (European exercise at expiry only) that he wrote (old) were losing around $6.73 billion mark-to-market as of late 2008. The severity of the loss prompted the SEC to request that Berkshire produce "a more complete listing" of the factors used to value the contracts. Buffett also paid for Dow Chemical's $18.8 billion takeover of Rohm & Haas. With his Berkshire Hathaway, who earned $3 billion, he became the single largest shareholder in the enlarged company, underscoring his vital role in the debt and equity markets.

Buffett was the world's richest individual in 2008, surpassing Bill Gates, who had been the highest-ranked individual on the Forbes list for 13 years. Gates regained first place on the Forbes list in 2009, with Buffett returning to second place. Both of the men's values dropped, to $40 billion and $37 billion respectively, according to Forbes, Buffett lost $25 billion in a 12-month period from 2008 to 2009.

Buffett had decided to purchase General Electric (GE) preferred stock in October 2008, according to the media. Buffett was given a 10% dividend (callable within three years) as a result of special incentives: he had the opportunity to buy three billion shares of GE stock at $22.25, five years after the deal was signed, and Buffett also received a 10% dividend. Buffett removed some Procter & Gamble Co. and Johnson & Johnson shares from his personal portfolio in February 2009.

In response to mistiming rumors, the decision to hold certain of Berkshire's key interests, including The Coca-Cola Company, which reached its high point in 1998, has raised concerns. In the company's 2004 annual report, Buffett addressed the challenges of knowing when to sell:

Buffett said in a cable television interview in March 2009 that the economy had "fallen off a cliff," but that people have really changed their lifestyles in a way that I hadn't seen. Buffett's concern, in addition, that inflation levels that were low in the 1970s, which resulted in years of painful stagnation, could resurface.

Berkshire Hathaway's shares reached $200,000 a share for the first time on August 14, 2014, the company's capitalization reaching $328 billion. Although Buffett had sold a majority of his stock to charities by this time, he still had 321,000 shares worth $64.2 billion. Berkshire Hathaway was fined $896,000 for failure to announce on December 9, 2013. The company was required to purchase shares in USG Corporation as required on August 20, 2014.

Buffett's efforts to raise equity capital in 2009, which culminated in $2.6 billion. Berkshire Hathaway was already owned a 3% interest, with the right to purchase more than 20%. Buffett bought Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. for $34 billion in cash and stock in 2009. Alice Schroeder, the Snowball author, said that a key reason for the purchase was to diversify Berkshire Hathaway from the financial market. Berkshire Hathaway, the eighth largest company in the world as of June 2009, was the eighth largest company in the country, as measured by market capitalization in the Financial Times Global 500.

Buffett sluggish investment in ConocoPhillips in 2009, telling his Berkshire investors.

On BNSF shareholder approval during Q1 of 2010, the merger with the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway (BNSF) came to a halt. The transaction was worth approximately $44 billion (with $10 billion in outstanding BNSF debt) and represented an increase of the previously owned stake of 22%. Buffett defended credit-rating firms for their part in the US financial crisis in June 2010, boasting: "i'm a man who defended the credit rating companies for their involvement in the US financial crisis."

Goldman Sachs was given permission by the Federal Reserve on March 18, 2011, to purchase Berkshire's most coveted stock, Goldman. Buffett was reluctant to sell the stock, which averaged $1.4 million per day, because the company was unwilling to give up the dividends.

Buffett had purchased 64 million shares of International Business Machine Corp (IBM) stock, worth about $11 billion, in November 2011. The company's unanticipated investment increased his stake in the company to around 5.5 percent, the company's largest stake in IBM behind State Street Global Advisors. Buffett had stated on several occasions that he did not invest in technology because he did not fully understand it, so the decision came as a surprise to many investors and observers. Buffett said during the interview, in which he revealed the company's investment to the public, he was impressed by the firm's ability to retain corporate customers and added, "I don't know of any large company that has really been as specific on what they do and how they do it as IBM."

Buffett's acquisition of Media General, consisting of 63 newspapers in the south-eastern United States, was reported in May 2012. It was Buffett's second news print purchase in one year.

On July 18, 2013, Interim publisher James W. Hopson announced that the Press of Atlantic City would be sold by ABARTA, a private investment firm headquartered in Pittsburgh, New York, to Buffett's BH Media Group, but that the firm's annual return of ten percent is expected. Following other investments, including Virginia, United States' Roanoke Times and The Tulsa World in Oklahoma, the United States, the Press of Atlantic City became Berkshire's 30th daily newspaper.

Buffett likened the Federal Reserve to a hedge fund during a Washington, D.C., speech in late September 2013 and said the bank is making "$80 billion or $90 billion a year probably" in government income. Buffett also spoke out against societal wealth disparities: In fact, he and the US developed even more on the subject of wealth inequality: a socioeconomic perspective.

Buffett was able to return the company to its pre-recession peak in Q2 2014, the most it had ever earned in a three-month period, despite the challenges of the economic crisis.

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