INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Charles Munger, the alter ego, sidekick and foil to Warren Buffett for almost 60 years as they transformed Berkshire Hathaway Inc from a
failing textile maker into an empire, has died
He was 99.He died on Tuesday at a California hospital, the company said in a statement
He was a longtime resident of Los Angeles
twice the pace of the S-P 500 Index
Decades of compounded returns made the pair billionaires and folk heroes to adoring investors.Munger was vice chairman of Berkshire and one
of its biggest shareholders, with stock valued at about $2.2 billion
had both grown up, Munger was known for his roles as straight man and scold of corporate excesses
Buffett told the Omaha World-Herald in 1999.That meant businesses with strong brands and pricing power
Coca-Cola Co stock 15 years later
2002 meeting, Buffett offered a three-minute answer to the question of whether the company might buy a cable company
Munger said he doubted one would be available for an acceptable price
Angeles, Munger spoke frequently by phone with Buffett in Omaha
When Munger missed a special meeting of Berkshire shareholders in 2010, Buffett brought a cardboard cutout of his partner on stage and
Smead Capital Management, a longtime Berkshire investor
two often found common ground on issues like the desirability of universal health care and the need for government oversight of the
financial system.But while Buffett would tour the world urging billionaires to embrace charity, Munger said a private company like Costco
his own donations, Munger promoted abortion rights and education
He served as chairman of Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles
Multimillion-dollar bequests to the University of Michigan and the University of California at Santa Barbara for new housing facilities gave
howls of protest in 2021 because the vast majority of bedrooms were to have no windows
Hosting the annual meetings of Wesco Financial Corp, a Berkshire unit, in Pasadena, California, Munger expounded on his philosophy of life
Russell, who was known as Toody
His father, the son of a federal judge, had earned a law degree at Harvard University before returning to Omaha, where his clients included
mostly because it came so easily
Ross Business School.Nome to HarvardIn 1942, during his sophomore year, he enlisted in the Army Air Corps, soon to become the Air Force
He was sent to the California Institute of Technology to learn meteorology before being posted to Nome, Alaska
It was during this period, in 1945, that he married his first wife, Nancy Huggins.Lacking an undergraduate degree, Munger applied to Harvard
Law School before his Army discharge in 1946
the Scenes with Berkshire Hathaway Billionaire Charlie Munger
Munger worked on the Harvard Law Review and in 1948 was one of 12 in the class of 335 to graduate magna cum laude.With his wife and their
son, Teddy, Munger moved to California to join a Los Angeles law firm
They added two daughters to their family before divorcing in 1953
In 1956, Munger married Nancy Barry Borthwick, a mother of two, and over time they expanded their blended family by having four more
on construction projects and real estate deals
He founded a new law office, Munger, Tolles - Hills, and, in 1962, started an investment partnership, Wheeler, Munger - Co., modeled on the
Lowenstein for Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalist, published in 1995
a 1959 visit home to Omaha
Though the precise venue of their first meeting was the subject of lore, it was clear they hit it off right away
In short order they were talking on the telephone almost daily and investing in the same companies and securities
Buffett took a controlling stake in 1965
discovery was a company called Blue Chip Stamps, which ran popular redemption games offered by grocers and other retailers
Because stores paid for the stamps up front, and prizes were redeemed much later, Blue Chip at any given time was sitting on a stack of
money, much like a bank does
company Munger would lead.In 1975, the US Securities and Exchange Commission alleged that Blue Chip Stamps had manipulated the price of
Wesco because Buffett and Munger had persuaded its management to drop a merger plan
Blue Chip resolved the dispute by agreeing to pay former investors in Wesco a total of about $115,000, with no admission of guilt
The ordeal underscored the risks in Buffett and Munger having such complicated and overlapping financial interests
A years-long effort to simplify matters culminated in 1983 with Blue Chip Stamps merging into Berkshire
Angeles to ask him questions at annual meetings of Daily Journal Corp., a publishing company he led as chairman
depths of the 2008-2009 financial crisis.Munger was for many years more bullish than Buffett when it came to investing in China
Berkshire became the biggest shareholder of Chinese automaker BYD Co, for instance, years after Munger began buying its stock, though
Berkshire began trimming that stake in 2022.Munger started sharing his vice chairman title at Berkshire in 2018 with two next-generation
Buffett subsequently identified Abel as his likely successor.It was Munger who, three years earlier, had signaled the likely promotion of
