CNBC Press Releases

Buffett Excerpt 3: Real Owners

QUICK: how many people are you potentially expecting this year?

BUFFETT: I think we'll have about 30,000 based on the number of tickets we sent out.

QUICK: Which is phenomenal?

BUFFETT: Well, it's-- it's-- they're real owners. I mean they-- they come to this-- they wanna learn more about the company. There's two different kinds. We got the very sophisticated type and they wanna ask kind of sophisticated questions. And then-- then they have-- we have the type that they put their-- a little bit of their life savings in it and they planned on it 'til they died. Just like they'd buy a farm or an apartment house.

And-- and they may not understand all the jargon that gets talked about by some of the shareholders but they-- they still got a feel for the business. They-- they-- we got 200,000 square feet of our products and-- on display. And they-- they feel they own part of a company, which is exactly how we want 'em to feel. It's not some little ticker symbol that moves around or something on a chart or something that gets recommended by some analyst or something. It's a real, honest-to-god business that they've bought into and that they're going to be of the rest of their lives.

QUICK: What's it mean for you to have-- to have these people that have been showing up for years and years and who come back every year and who are so excited to be here. And they-- this is not just a-- another weekend for you.

BUFFETT: Oh, it's-- it's fun. It's a-- it's-- it's a weekend I look forward to, actually. I-- I'm not sure how many CEOs look forward (CHUCKLES) to their annual meeting. But so-- some of these people came from a partnership that I first started in 1956. In fact up until about 10 years ago I could recognize some member of the family of 90 percent of the shares of Berkshire.

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