Posted on 03/20/2002 2:26:16 PM PST by GeneD
NEW YORK, March 20 (Reuters) - Warren Buffett, the canny billionaire known as the "Oracle of Omaha", took home just $100,000 in pay last year and once again spurned the idea of stock options and other popular CEO incentives, as he has for many years.
The 71 year-old investor, second only to friend and bridge partner Bill Gates on the world's rich list, paid himself $100,000 for running his Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (nyse: BRKa - news - people) conglomerate, which made $795 million profit last year.
The modest U.S. Midwesterner, worth about $35 billion, is a long-standing enemy of stock option accounting -- which he says dilutes value for shareholders -- and recently hit out at corporate greed in the modern era of worthless technology stocks and Enron-like accounting trickery.
"Charlie and I are disgusted by the situation," he said in his annual report earlier this month, referring to his long-time business partner Charlie Munger. "Shareholders have suffered billions in losses while the CEOs, promoters, and other higher-ups who fathered these disasters have walked away with extraordinary wealth."
On top of his $100,000 salary from Berkshire, Buffett also got $256,400 from his side jobs as a director at firms he holds a large stake in, including Coca-Cola Co. (nyse: KO - news - people), Gillette Co. (nyse: KO - news - people) and Washington Post Co. (nyse: KO - news - people), according to a filing with U.S. securities regulators.
Buffett, who lives simply in Omaha, Nebraska -- walking to the newspaper shop and dining on steak and soda -- has never paid himself more than $100,000 in his 37 years running Berkshire, which now has a market value of $112 billion.
He has made millionaires of many shareholders, pushing Berkshire's stock to $73,000 each on the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday, from around $12 when he took over in 1965.
Berkshire, which gets its money from insurance and long-term investments, has never paid dividends and does not give out stock options or grants to employees.
Buffett himself has never sold a share of Berkshire stock, and still owns about 31 percent of the firm's shares, worth nearly $35 billion.
Munger did sell 400 class A shares last year, worth about $30 million.
Separately, Berkshire said it intended to reappoint auditors Deloitte & Touche LLP, which it paid about $7 million last year -- $2.8 million for audit fees plus $4.2 million in tax and audit consulting fees.
Copyright 2002, Reuters News Service
Real men create wealth, leaches take it.
After using it for a few years, especially in the heat of takeover battles and the like, he renamed it "The Semi-Defensible".
Characteristically - and I think this is a big reason he's so wealthy - he spotted the "Indefensible" as a business opportunity. Since he doesn't use his jet 24/7, most of the time it's parked on the ground. He figured out pretty quick that he could let other people use it while he didn't need it. That led to him buying out Executive Jet, a bizjet timesharing firm, which I believe is now a solidly profitable part of his little empire.
So he made a nice profit out of his one indulgence. Gotta admire him for that.
D
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