Saturday, May 5, 2012

Morningstar is Live Blogging the 2012 Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting (BRK.b)

Thanks to a reader.
From Morningstar:
EARLIER

11:42
Paul Larson: 
Munger: I think Amazon will be terrible for a lot of retailers. Not slightly terrible, but really terrible.
11:43
Paul Larson: 
Question (hard to discern) about insurance.
11:44
Paul Larson: 
Buffett: It's hard for corporations to stick with core principles for long periods of time like we have. We are a bit unique.
11:46
Paul Larson: 
Quick / CNBC : What goes into thinking when voting shares of other publicly traded companies?
11:46
Drew Woodbury: 
Buffett: We rarely vote against management. Sometimes we have, for example with stock option grants.
11:49
Drew Woodbury: 
Jay Gelb: Would Berkshire be open to increasing its primary (vs. reinsurance) commercial P&C exposure ?
11:50
Drew Woodbury: 
Buffett: Yes, we have been making acquisitions in primary commercial insurance (medical malpractice from GE, Princeton Insurance, etc.). Would need a first class business though, not too many he would get excited about.
11:51
Paul Larson: 
Question: Have you considered being a bit more flexible in price you would buy back stock? (Currently, below 1.1x book value.)
11:52
Drew Woodbury: 
Buffett: Does not believe announcement of buyback price puts a ceiling on the shares. May put a floor in some situations, but when markets really deteriorate floors disappear.
11:53
Paul Larson: 
Sorkin: Has your opinion of $WMT changed following Mexican bribery scandal?
11:54
Drew Woodbury: 
Buffett: They may have made a mistake in the way they handled it, but that does not change the fundamental attractiveness of the business.
11:54
Paul Larson: 
Buffett: I don't think the earnings power five years from now will be materially different because of this.
11:58
Jeremy Glaser: 
Breaking for lunch now. We'll be back in about an hour......