Buffett may get heat from once-adoring investors
Jeremy Hobson: Thousands of investors are descending on Omaha, Nebraska for Berkshire Hathaway’s annual meeting this weekend. Usually shareholders go to Omaha for ice cream and a chance to hear from the company’s chairman, Warren Buffett.
But this year’s a little different because Buffett is in the midst of a scandal. It involves his former heir apparent, David Sokol, who bought shares of a chemicals company. And then told Buffett to buy the company, which he did.
Marketplace’s New York bureau chief Heidi Moore reports.
Heidi Moore: Berkshire Hathaway’s annual meeting has always been like an old Southern church revival. The faithful travel to Omaha and quote Warren Buffett in Biblical terms.
Paul Argenti is a professor at Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business, who has been teaching Buffett every year in his corporate responsibility class.
Paul Argenti: Warren Buffett is almost god-like in terms of his stature in our society on issues of ethical leadership.
This year, instead of adoration, there may be fire and brimstone. Some shareholders are unsettled by the scandal around Buffett’s former lieutenant, David Sokol. Buffett initially defended Sokol, leading even die-hard fans to question the Oracle’s judgment. Argenti says he is considering taking Buffett out of his syllabus and putting him in his new book: Fallen Icons.
Argenti: If you set yourself up as a paragon of virtue in this world, you can expect to fall really hard when something bad happens to you.
Analyst Janet Tavakoli also feels betrayed. In her book “Dear Mr. Buffett,” she argued there wouldn’t have been a financial crisis if every financier shared Buffett’s principles.
But she has since left the flock. And she says Buffett’s defense of Sokol was “outrageous.”
Janet Tavakoli: It gives the appearance of Warren Buffett using his reputation to blow smoke in the face of the investing public.
After weeks of silence, Berkshire Hathaway released a report saying Sokol misled them and violated the company’s code of ethics. The strong statement comforted Whitney Tilson, a prominent fund manager and a disciple of Buffett’s.
Whitney Tilson: I really had a pit in my stomach prior to that coming out.
Tilson believes Buffett was blindsided by Sokol.
Tilson: Buffett didn’t do anything wrong other than trusting a top lieutenant.
Buffett’s meeting features a famous six-hour question-and-answer session. Tilson hopes shareholders will focus on Berkshire Hathaway’s billions of dollars in profits and not the Sokol scandal.
In New York, I’m Heidi Moore for Marketplace.
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