Webcasting the Meeting

it's so obvious that the meeting should be webcast that this goes without saying. So why is the meeting not webcast?

> Warren wants people to come to Omaha. Not just to shop, but because it matters to him personally that people care enough to spend money on plane tickets and hotel rooms to come hear him talk.

> He is holding out for CNBC. If you ever wondered why Warren does so many 3 hour marathons on CNBC, here is at least part of the reason. Showing CNBC that it can generate high ratings by having Warren Buffett on the air for many hours at a stretch obviously might prompt the idea that the shareholder meeting, at which he also talks for many hours at a stretch accompanied by other forms of entertainment, might generate high ratings too. It may never happen, and probably won't, but if the meeting is ever to be broadcast, Warren would want that to happen be because it is *somebody else's idea* that Berkshire annual meeting is such an important event that it should be brought to the masses through the medium of television.

> Note that last year's requirement that questions be about Berkshire Hathaway has disappeared. This is so even though most people seemed to feel that the restriction improved the quality of the meeting. Buffett is already on television all the time talking about the economy and other subjects unrelated to Berkshire, making these questions redundant or at least less pressing. The stated reason for last year's format hasn't changed. Nonetheless, this year only questions about what stocks Buffett is buying or selling are forbidden. "Any other subject is fair game." Why? The reason for the change was not given (which is telling in and of itself) and some other "official" reason may be given later, but interestingly this does seem to do away with or at least minimize the perennial question of whether the meeting *must* be webcast in order to comply with Reg. FD. Unlikely that this is a coincidence.