(FROM THE WALL STREET JOURNAL 1/30/16) 
   By Anupreeta Das 

Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger are taking their act to the Internet.

For the first time in its history, Berkshire Hathaway Inc. is planning to webcast its annual meeting, people familiar with the matter said.

A webcast would give the tens of thousands of shareholders who descend on Omaha every spring another option for hearing the two legendary investors' views on business, investing and the economy. It also would give Mr. Buffett a way to reach a wider audience without the filter of the media.

Mr. Buffett declined to comment. It is unclear if a final decision has been made to webcast the event, and the company could change its plans.

Berkshire's annual meetings typically open with a movie about the company followed by six hours of questions and answers with Messrs. Buffett and Munger. The webcast likely will cover only the Q&A, during which the Berkshire chief executive and his vice chairman field questions from shareholders as well as from a panel of analysts and journalists.

Berkshire enforces strict rules for the meeting. Attendees aren't allowed to tape or film the Q&A or take photographs. That means fans who aren't shareholders have to rely on accounts in the media or uploads of notes from attendees to learn what was said.

Analysts and other attendees sometimes complain that the media coverage of the event tends to focus on a few, usually contentious, topics that account for only a fraction of the entire session.

The event has been dubbed the "Woodstock for capitalists" and drew roughly 40,000 people last year.

The faithful have gone global. While only a few hundred people showed up in the 1980s, around 200 turned up last year from China alone to help Berkshire celebrate its 50th anniversary under Mr. Buffett's control.

The Berkshire meeting is Omaha's second-biggest tourism event each year, behind college baseball's World Series.

Hotel occupancy rates shoot up during the weekend of the meeting, which this year is being held on April 30.

Some devotees even buy a Berkshire share or two just so they can attend the meeting, held at the CenturyLink Center auditorium in downtown Omaha. The auditorium has webcast other events and doesn't expect major modifications in the format, a spokeswoman for the center said.

The Q&A is a highlight of the event. A webcast would let viewers see Messrs. Buffett and Munger's distinct delivery styles in action. Widely celebrated for his plain talk, Mr. Buffett usually takes the first stab at a question and tries to make his answers educational and expansive. He then turns to Mr. Munger, who injects his own dry humor with a deadpan delivery.

"If people weren't wrong so often," Mr. Munger said at one year's meeting, "we wouldn't be so rich."

Shareholders come not just to listen to Mr. Buffett speak, but also to shop. Many of Berkshire's 80 subsidiaries, including Fruit of the Loom, Brooks Running, Quikut knives and Borsheims jewelry, offer shareholders big discounts. Mr. Buffett never fails to tout how much stuff Berkshire shareholders buy at the meeting.

In 2014, shareholders bought 7,276 pairs of Wells Lamont work gloves and 10,000 bottles of Heinz ketchup, according to his last annual letter. Berkshire owns just over a quarter of Kraft Heinz Co.

 

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 30, 2016 02:47 ET (07:47 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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