Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffet held his annual shareholder’s meeting Saturday in front of several thousand attendees, including his longtime friend Bill Gates.
Buffet and Microsoft founder Gates were pictured playing a game of bridge and gabbing during the conference that took place outside the Berkshire-owned Borsheims jewelry store in Omaha, Nebraska.
While the billionaire business magnates have held a 27-year-long friendship, Buffet refuses to buy a Microsoft stock. He, however, invested in an Apple stock back in 2016.
The renowned investor spoke about the matter during the meeting this weekend, saying: ‘It just would be a mistake for Berkshire to buy Microsoft.’
Warren Buffett, chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, left, plays bridge with Bill Gates outside Berkshire-owned Borsheims jewelry store in Omaha, Neb., Sunday, May 6, 2018
On Saturday, tens of thousands of Berkshire Hathaway shareholders attended the annual Berkshire Hathaway shareholders meeting
The investor said at Saturday’s meeting ‘it would be a mistake to buy Microsoft’
Buffett (2nd L) plays bridge with Gates as part of the company annual meeting weekend in Omaha, Nebraska May 6, 2018
Buffet expressed concern about buying the stock due to his closeness with Gates – who became a board member of Berkshire more than a decade ago – as well as speculation over insider trading.
‘If something happened a week later, a month later, in terms of [Microsoft] having better earnings than expected or making an acquisition – anything – both Bill and I would, incorrectly, but would be a target of suggestions and accusations, perhaps even, that somehow he had told me something, or vice versa.
‘I try to stay away from a few things just totally because the inference would be drawn that we might have talked, I might have talked to somebody about something,’ Buffet said at the meeting.
‘There’d be a lot of people who wouldn’t believe us if something good immediately happened after we bought it.’
The billionaire also noted his concerns about speculation over insider trading if he were to invest in a Microsoft stock
Microsoft’s initial public offering was in 1986 – a handful of years before Gates and Buffet met.
Buffet blamed himself for failing to invest in Microsoft in its earlier years and a few other companies he did not name.
‘In the earlier years, it’s very clear – the answer is stupidity,’ he said. ‘But both that and my stupidity have cost us a lot of money.’
Still, there seems to be no hard feelings. Both Buffet and Gates share the same bridge instructor, Sharon Osberg, who called Gates is more ‘scientific’ and Warren, more playful and instinctual when it comes to the card game, while speaking to the Washington Post.
Bridge is wildly popular among investors because ‘like investing, involves sticking to a well-thought-out strategy,’ Investor Bill Graham once said.
‘Sometimes, playing a hand the right way leads to failure; sometimes picking a stock for the right reasons results in a loss,’ Graham said, according to The Globe and Mail.
Gates smiles while playing bridge with Buffett as part of the company annual meeting weekend in Omaha, Nebraska
Buffett gestures as he plays the card game outside Berkshire-owned Borsheims jewelry store in Omaha