Warren Buffett: I was wrong on Google and Amazon, Jeff Bezos achieved a business ‘miracle’
PUBLISHED : Monday, 07 May, 2018, 11:39am
UPDATED : Monday, 07 May, 2018, 11:51am
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Warren Buffett says he made mistakes by not investing in two dominant technology companies, Alphabet and Amazon.
Alphabet is the parent company of search engine Google.
“I made the wrong decisions on Google and Amazon ,” he said at the Berkshire Hathaway 2018 annual shareholder meeting on Saturday. “We’ve looked at it. I made the mistake in not being able to come to a conclusion where I really felt that at the present prices that the prospects were far better than the prices indicated.”
Billionaire Warren Buffett downplays chances of China-US trade war
It took Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates to tell him to stop using Altavista as a search engine and use Google instead, he said. And he should have been more aware because Berkshire subsidiary Geico was paying Google “a lot of money” at the time of its initial public offering.
The Oracle of Omaha also admitted he underestimated Amazon’s ability to disrupt retail and cloud computing at the same time with such a rapid pace.
“I had a very, very, very high opinion of Jeff’s [Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon] ability when I first met him, and I underestimated him,” he added. “I’ve watched Amazon from the start. I think what Jeff Bezos has done is something close to a miracle ... The problem is when I think something will be a miracle, I tend not to bet on it. It would have been far better obviously if I had some insights into certain businesses.”
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![Beijing retaliates with duties on US$60 billion of US goods due to come into effect on Monday]( "Beijing retaliates with duties on US$60 billion of US goods due to come into effect on Monday")
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![The US president’s move to impose 10 per cent tariffs on US$200 billion of Chinese goods was seen as killing any chance of new talks taking place]( "The US president’s move to impose 10 per cent tariffs on US$200 billion of Chinese goods was seen as killing any chance of new talks taking place")
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![Luxury vessels, dinghies and other boats of various sizes were battered while yacht clubs were also seriously damaged]( "Luxury vessels, dinghies and other boats of various sizes were battered while yacht clubs were also seriously damaged")
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![European companies operating in the mainland are seriously worried about the impact of the US-China trade war on their operations. Photo: Reuters]( "European companies operating in the mainland are seriously worried about the impact of the US-China trade war on their operations. Photo: Reuters")
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![Six boats were refused berths at Discovery Bay Marina Club although there was space available, according to owners and a yacht club member]( "Six boats were refused berths at Discovery Bay Marina Club although there was space available, according to owners and a yacht club member")
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![Beijing retaliates with duties on US$60 billion of US goods due to come into effect on Monday]( "Beijing retaliates with duties on US$60 billion of US goods due to come into effect on Monday")
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![The US president’s move to impose 10 per cent tariffs on US$200 billion of Chinese goods was seen as killing any chance of new talks taking place]( "The US president’s move to impose 10 per cent tariffs on US$200 billion of Chinese goods was seen as killing any chance of new talks taking place")
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![European companies operating in the mainland are seriously worried about the impact of the US-China trade war on their operations. Photo: Reuters]( "European companies operating in the mainland are seriously worried about the impact of the US-China trade war on their operations. Photo: Reuters")
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