Buffett plots last hand at Berkshire Hathaway

When Warren Buffett was asked by The Economist what the next 50 years hold for his Berkshire Hathaway, he simply responded: “In 50 years, we can have lunch and compare the actual to the projected.”

Buffett, who’s run Berkshire Hathaway for 50 years now, declined an interview on the topic, but acknowledged in his note to The Economist that it is an interesting question: “so interesting that I recently assigned the same story to myself. I don’t want to step on my own lines.”

Well played, Mr. Buffett.

What’s known, The Economist says, is the Oracle of Omaha plans to split his job into three: chairman, chief executive and chief investment officer. After all, Berkshire Hathaway is now America’s fifth-most-valuable public company – behind Apple, Exxon Mobil, Google and Microsoft – with a market capitalization of $314 billion.

But first, the annual Berkshire Hathaway shareholder meeting is slated the first weekend of May in Omaha, Neb. True to form, The Economist says the “Woodstock for capitalists” meeting will attract tens of thousands of shareholders, and the festivities will include a corporate film (normally packed with celebrities), an “invest in yourself” 5km run and a newspaper-throwing contest in which Buffett, who made some of his earliest money from a paper round, takes on all comers.


Read more from The Economist.