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Buffett welcomes Gates to Berkshire Hathaway's board

Investment wizard Warren Buffett said on Sunday that adding fellow billionaire Bill Gates to the board of Berkshire Hathaway Inc will help ensure Berkshire's success, even after Buffett is gone.

"With Bill you've got one of the best minds in the world. He's got a good business mind, and he is interested in things beyond business," Buffett said, the 74-year-old chairman and chief executive of Berkshire.

Gates, the 49-year-old founder and chairman of Microsoft Corp, the world's largest software company, and Buffett are both worth more than US$40 billion each and are the two richest people in the world. They have been friends since 1991.

Buffett said Gates understands Berkshire's corporate culture, which includes making long-term investments and buying businesses to help them grow.

"You've got a person who wants very much to help during my life and beyond my life," Buffett said.

It is similar to making Gates a trustee of a will, Buffett said. "There's nothing more important to me than that Berkshire" continues as a strong company, Buffett said.

Shareholders voted Gates onto Berkshire's board at the company's annual meeting on Saturday. He had been appointed to the board in December to fill the vacancy left by the July death of Buffett's wife, Susan.

One day after taking questions for nearly six hours at Berkshire's annual meeting, Buffett and Berkshire vice chairman Charlie Munger held a nearly three-hour news conference on subjects that ranged from investment strategies to the newspaper industry.

Asked about California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's handling of that state's difficult financial situation, Buffett said Schwarzenegger was doing as well as could be expected after being dealt a tough hand.

Buffett had served as a financial adviser to the actor during Schwarzenegger's 2003 campaign.

"He has provided leadership," Buffett said. "He has given people the idea that California, which has tremendous economic potential, can realize more of that potential than they knew."

Berkshire Hathaway, based in Omaha, is a holding company with stakes in many different companies.

Federal regulators are investigating a reinsurance transaction between insurance company American International Group Inc and Berkshire subsidiary General Re that appeared to boost AIG's reserves when markets were uneasy about the company's outstanding liabilities. AIG has acknowledged that its accounting for the transaction with General Re was improper.

Asked about the newspaper industry, Buffett and Munger said readership and the ability of newspapers to make money have declined over the years because of television and the Internet dispersing news and advertising.

"Newspapers used to generate huge amounts of cash," Buffett said, but those days may be over.
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