BRK.A
Berkshire Hathaway Inc
Berkshire's Owners Manual
I'm studying Google right now, and with Berkshire recently taking a $4.3B position, I wanted to look at Buffett's history with Google.
Back in 2017, during the shareholder meeting, Charlie said, "I feel like a horse's ass for not identifying Google,” ... “I think Warren feels the same way. We screwed up."
"Yeah, he's saying, 'We blew it,'" Buffett quipped.
They both noted that they had insight into Google because they were using the advertising at Berkshire-owned insurance company GEICO.
"We could see in our own operations how well that Google advertising was working and we just sat there sucking our thumbs, so we are ashamed. We're trying to atone,” Munger said. “Maybe Apple was atonement.”
Buffett continued... “We were their customer very early on with Geico—these figures are out of date, but as I remember, we were paying $10 or $11 a click. Any time you are paying somebody 10 or 11 bucks to punch a little thing, where you have no costs at all, that’s a good business, unless someone will take it away from you.”
(he obviously couldn't find the moat with Google, because he famously doesn't understand technology)
Buffett added: “The guys that designed the Google prospectus, they came to see me—they modeled it a little bit after Berkshire’s owner manual. I had plenty of ways to ask questions to educate myself. I blew it.
That's the quote I found that made me want to share this post. If you haven't read Berkshire's Owners manual, stop what you're doing now and read it. It's exactly how we want our business leaders to treat us.