MARCH 1, 2010, 9:42 A.M. ET
Investor Warren Buffett offered his backing for Coca-Cola Co.’s deal to acquire its largest bottler, said his eventual successor as head of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. should hold the position for an extended time and said he favors a more aggressive cost-cutting approach to health-care reform, even though he would support Congress’s legislation in its current form.
In a wide-ranging interview on CNBC from his home base of Omaha, Neb., Mr. Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway’s chairman, also observed that stocks in general are “far less attractive” than they were a year ago. He also said the company’s aviation unit, NetJets Inc., isn’t for sale.
As for the U.S. economy, Mr. Buffett said “it’s going slightly our way at the present time” and that “it’s getting better but at a very, very slow rate.” He cautioned that, due to the of the recession, traditional year-over-year comparisons should instead be extended to two years ago for a more accurate read on economic health.
Asked about Coke’s $12 billion offer to buy the North American operations of Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc., Mr. Buffett said: “I think on balance I like it.” But he cautioned that “there’s a lot of execution problems in doing anything like that.”
As for his eventual successor as chairman and chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway, a conglomerate that sells everything from ice cream to machine tools to house paint, Mr. Buffett reiterated that the company’s board has three candidates to choose from. Mr. Buffett didn’t name the three, and while he said it is a different list from 10 years ago, it “doesn’t change very fast.” He did offer that age is a factor in choosing his replacement. “If I’m running this place at 100–which I won’t be–but obviously there would be a different three around at that time.
“Anybody that takes over after me should have a long run,” he said. “You don’t want someone to come in and run it for five years and hand it off.”
As for health care, Mr. Buffett said he favors a focus on reducing costs of such a large and growing share of the nation’s economy, but he said he would back the legislation as currently crafted.
Mr. Buffett’s appearance on CNBC came two days after he published his annual letter to shareholders, in which he said Berkshire Hathaway last year had one of the strongest growth spurts in its history.
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