1996 Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting (Full Version)

[Applause] Just a little early but I think, uh, everyone's had a chance to take their seats. I must say this is the first time I've seen this program. They told me they'd surprise me and they certainly did. Mark Hamburg, our Chief Financial Officer, who is now known around the office of CB, was in charge of, uh, putting all this together.

We have, I want you to know, we have no multimedia. This entire meeting is handled by a regular staff. We have no public relations department or investor relations or multimedia department or anything of the sort, so everybody just pitches in. And, uh, Mark will forever more be in charge of, uh, the pregame ceremonies.

We have a, uh, a very large crowd today. Um, I hope everybody, uh, has found a seat either in this main room or in the three overflow rooms. I think we can handle around 5400 and historically, 62% or just about exactly 62% every year of, uh, the people who request tickets have, uh, have come to the meeting.

If that percentage holds true today, we we have just filled the rooms and we will have a problem in the future, which we haven't figured out the, uh, the answer to yet, but we've got another year. The way we'll run the meeting is that, um, uh, we'll get the business out of the way at the start and we'll talk about the class B issuance then too, so it'll take a little longer than, uh, than, than, uh, historically has been the case.

Then we'll have Q&A for, uh, until about noon. We'll have a short break at noon. Um, there'll be sandwiches outside which you can buy, and Charlie and I will have a couple of sandwiches up here at the podium. Then we will stay around until, uh, about 3:00 to answer more questions. At that time afternoon, I'm sure everybody, um, in the overflow rooms will be able to find a seat here in the main room.

But people have come from great distances to attend this meeting, so we really want to give everyone a chance to get their questions asked. Charlie and I are delighted to, uh, we'll have to break it up at 3 no matter what, but we'll be delighted to stick around. You can leave any time. Obviously, as I've explained in the past, it's much better form to leave while Charlie is talking, uh, but feel free to do that.

Then at noon you'll get a chance to do it, uh, in mass. We have, uh, buses available to take you to, if you have any money left at all after yesterday, to take you to other other other business establishments of Berkshire, uh, locally.

So that will be the plan. I, I hope everyone does get their questions answered. We've got a system where we, uh, break this room into six zones. We have a couple of zones, uh, in other rooms, and then this afternoon everybody will be able to be here in the main room.

Uh, so that is the procedure. I'm sure you recognize Charlie Munger, uh, the vice chairman of, uh, Berkshire Hathaway, who also had not seen that movie before. Showed, uh, we were, I think Mark was afraid to show it to us, but in any event, we will go on.

I thought you might be interested. This is a list of people that came in for tickets, and we had, uh, in addition to 99 from Canada and, of course, the U.S., we had Australia, the Channel Islands, England, Greece, Hong Kong, Israel, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Singapore, Sweden, and Switzerland.

I'm not sure all of those people are with us today, but, uh, but they did send for tickets, and I've met a number that, uh, did come in from a distance. So, with that, uh, introduction, I will, uh, call the meeting to order.

I'm Warren Buffett, uh, chairman of the board of directors, and I do welcome you to this meeting. I hope everybody has a good time this weekend, and I'd like to introduce the directors in addition to myself and to Charlie.

Now, uh, you don't get quite your money's worth this year from our directors—they've collectively lost 100 pounds, uh, since our last meeting. I think they've been trying to live on the director's fees that we have.

We have with us, uh, Howard Buffett, Want Stand, Susan T. Buffett, Malcolm G. Chase III, and Waller Scott Jr. along with us today, our partners.