Warren Buffett is the chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. and is one of the world’s wealthiest men. Buffett is known as “the Sage of Omaha” for his remarkable savvy in stock market investments and for the success of Berkshire Hathaway — the textile company he acquired in 1965 and turned into a holding company for investments in many other businesses.
Charlie Munger is Vice-Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., the diversified investment corporation chaired by investor Warren Buffet. He was also the mentor to Chet Holmes, author of “The Ulitmate Sales Machine”.
Here are some highlights of Warren Buffett’s and Charles Munger’s remarks at the Berkshire Hathaway Inc. shareholder meeting this past weekend.
- Mr. Buffett on Newspapers
Mr. Buffett has long held himself out as a newspaper man. As a child, one of his first jobs was delivering newspapers. An Omaha newspaper Berkshire owned, Sun Newspapers, won a Pulitzer Prize in 1973 based in part on a tip Mr. Buffett provided. One of Berkshire’s biggest investments in the 1970s was the Buffalo News, which it still owns.
But his view on the future of the newspaper industry is dismal. “For most newspapers in the United States, we would not buy them at any price,” he said. “They have the possibility of going to just unending losses.”
As long as newspapers were essential to readers, they were essential to advertisers, he said. But news is now available in many other venues, he said.
Berkshire has a substantial investment in Washington Post Co. He said the company has a solid cable business, a good reason to hold on to it, but its newspaper business is in trouble.
Mr. Munger called newspapers’ woes “a national tragedy….These monopoly daily newspapers have been an important sinew to our civilization, they kept government more honest than they would otherwise be.”
For those in business that utilize newspaper advertising; maybe considering another vehicle in advertising your business, such as the internet or television should be looked into more carefully.
“In the last few months you’ve seen a real pickup in activity although at much lower prices,” Mr. Buffett said, citing data from Berkshire’s real-estate brokerage business, HomeServices of America Inc., which is one of the largest in the U.S.
In California, medium and lower-price homes — under $750,000 — have been selling more, though there hasn’t been a bounce back in sale prices, Mr. Buffett said. “We see something close to stability at these much-reduced prices in the medium to lower part of the market.”
With very good interest rates for buyers, now may be a good time to start looking if you’ve been waiting for the market to start a turnaround in the Hawaii real estate market.
Thoughts from Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger
Warren Buffett is the chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. and is one of the world’s wealthiest men. Buffett is known as “the Sage of Omaha” for his remarkable savvy in stock market investments and for the success of Berkshire Hathaway — the textile company he acquired in 1965 and turned into a holding company for investments in many other businesses.
Charlie Munger is Vice-Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., the diversified investment corporation chaired by investor Warren Buffet. He was also the mentor to Chet Holmes, author of “The Ulitmate Sales Machine”.
Here are some highlights of Warren Buffett’s and Charles Munger’s remarks at the Berkshire Hathaway Inc. shareholder meeting this past weekend.
Mr. Buffett has long held himself out as a newspaper man. As a child, one of his first jobs was delivering newspapers. An Omaha newspaper Berkshire owned, Sun Newspapers, won a Pulitzer Prize in 1973 based in part on a tip Mr. Buffett provided. One of Berkshire’s biggest investments in the 1970s was the Buffalo News, which it still owns.
But his view on the future of the newspaper industry is dismal. “For most newspapers in the United States, we would not buy them at any price,” he said. “They have the possibility of going to just unending losses.”
As long as newspapers were essential to readers, they were essential to advertisers, he said. But news is now available in many other venues, he said.
Berkshire has a substantial investment in Washington Post Co. He said the company has a solid cable business, a good reason to hold on to it, but its newspaper business is in trouble.
Mr. Munger called newspapers’ woes “a national tragedy….These monopoly daily newspapers have been an important sinew to our civilization, they kept government more honest than they would otherwise be.”
For those in business that utilize newspaper advertising; maybe considering another vehicle in advertising your business, such as the internet or television should be looked into more carefully.
“In the last few months you’ve seen a real pickup in activity although at much lower prices,” Mr. Buffett said, citing data from Berkshire’s real-estate brokerage business, HomeServices of America Inc., which is one of the largest in the U.S.
In California, medium and lower-price homes — under $750,000 — have been selling more, though there hasn’t been a bounce back in sale prices, Mr. Buffett said. “We see something close to stability at these much-reduced prices in the medium to lower part of the market.”
With very good interest rates for buyers, now may be a good time to start looking if you’ve been waiting for the market to start a turnaround in the Hawaii real estate market.