Tomorrow’s annual meeting of Berkshire Hathaway shareholders will be most notable for who will not be on stage in front of nearly 20,000 fans at the Chi Health Center Ohama arena.
Tomorrow’s annual meeting of Berkshire Hathaway shareholders will be most notable for who will not be on stage in front of nearly 20,000 fans at the Chi Health Center Ohama arena.
As The Wall StreetJournal’s Karen Langley notes, Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger, best friends for more than six decades, played off each other expertly as they answered questions, as if they were old-time vaudeville stars.
“The pairing of Buffett’s lengthier and more diplomatic remarks with Munger’s acerbic one-liners, along with the clear camaraderie between the two men, could make their appearances feel like episodes in a great buddy comedy of capitalism.”
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Lyle McIntosh, a Missouri farmer who has been in the audience since the 1980s, told the Journal, “I feel like there’s going to be a place in my heart missing when we don’t see Charlie up there. Of course we’ll all adapt to it, but this first year especially it’s going to be kind of like an empty-chair feeling.”
In a live interview with Omaha ABC affiliate KETV, Dr. Robert Johnson of Creighton University’s Heider College of Business predicted the meeting will be “more a celebration of Charlie’s life and not somber.”
He thinks it will be “very difficult” for Buffett, but “cathartic, because he is going to be surrounded by people that genuinely loved Charlie like he did.”
What you need to know
The morning and afternoon Q&A sessions will be carried live both on CNBC television, on the CNBC app, and at CNBC.com/brklive.
Here is the schedule (all times Eastern):
9:30 am: CNBC Pre-Show
9:45 am: Berkshire’s Annual movie (This is the first time it will be included in live coverage of the event)
10:15 am: Morning Q&A with Warren Buffett, Vice Chairman, Non-Insurance Operations Greg Abel, and Vice Chairman, Insurance Operations Ajit Jain.
1:00 pm: CNBC Halftime Show
2:00 pm: Afternoon Q&A with Buffett and Abel
4:00 pm: CNBC Post Show
Questions will alternate between randomly selected shareholders attending the meeting and questions from non-attending shareholders that will be selected by CNBC’s Becky Quick from submissions emailed to berkshirequestions@cnbc.com” style=”text-decoration: underline; color: #732634;” rel=”noopener”>berkshirequestions@cnbc.com.
The formal business meeting at 5:00 pm ET will not be included in CNBC’s live coverage. It is at this session that the directors are elected and shareholder proposals are considered.
In a news release, Berkshire announced it will be issuing the company’s first quarter earnings release and 10-Q quarterly report on its website before the meeting at approximately 8 am ET.
Berkshire has a “Shareholders Guide” to the meeting that includes a complete schedule of events over the weekend.
Oregon plaintiffs seek $30B from Berkshire utility over wildfires
One thousand plaintiffs have filed new claims against Berkshire Hathaway’s PacifiCorp over the Oregon wildfires in 2020.
They are seeking a total of $30 billion, $5 million each for actual losses and another $25 million each for non-economic losses, including emotional distress.
Reuters notes that amount is almost four times the company’s maximum projected loss.
The new plaintiffs have been added to a suit in which a jury awarded $90 million in total last June to 17 property owners who had accused the utility of recklessly failing to shut off its power lines during a powerful windstorm, allowing some of those lines to spark fires.
Burned car is seen in a neighborhood after wildfires destroyed an area of Phoenix, Oregon, September 10, 2020. REUTERS/Carlos Barria
PacifiCorp is appealing in that case.
It tells Reuters it has already settled more than 1,000 claims and will continue to settle what it calls “reasonable claims.”
But in this case, “The $30 million demand for each plaintiff clearly demonstrates the need for some manner of reform in the legal process.”
In his annual letter to shareholders this year, Buffett warned that utilities in the western U.S. “may face survival problems” if they continue to be held responsible for wildfire damages.
