Warren Buffett CNBC Interview May 6th 2013 [VIDEO]

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comes around. and it comes around in the jet business. bill miller made the argument, at least in the question. becky asked during the meeting about airlines. given all the consolidation, whether you would be interested in those. do you think about net jets in that context at all in terms of a competitor tryino come in? you know, one of the reasons i think you said during the meeting you wouldn’t want to buy an airline is there is always a new competitor. is there a moat around net jets? yeah. there have been dozens of companies in fractional ownership arena. and i believe — i think we have over 60% of the market in the united states. so people do come in one way or the other. but they really can’t match, you know, the breadth of our operation, the service the safety precautions that we follow. so it’s not like the airline business. there will be nobody come in, in my view, in the fractional ownership business and hosni kind of success. in fact, people have been going out of it for some time. and like i say, our market shares held steady. it’s in the low 60s, i believe. that’s right. we have steady market share for some time. unlike the airline industry, we have been differentiating quite a bit. the two behind us are signature series. completely different than anything you can get anywhere else. it’s not life line for delta, united. you start taking deliveries — sorry, beck. go ahead, joe. you go and then i’ll ask. i have a totally separate question. let me ask real quickly, let’s talk about the signature series behind us. you started taking delivery of these in december of last year. how many do you have right now? eight on the fleet, two to provide the core. six fractionally. and how many more deliveries? another eight this year. up to 120 we can take over time. and this is part of that initial deal you got to help design. that’s exactly right. the global 6000 completed with heavy input from the folks at net jets. they have the big one behind them, the global 6000. and the phenom holds seven. it holds seven. this holds 13. that’s correct. and the distance. 2200, 2300 miles, in the phnom. 6000 for the global. is it luck of the draw? i’ve been trying to talk warren into it a little while. if he ever takes that plunge he will get fit even more. he’s check anything credit. hey, joe, what was your question? the air taxi business. i wonder whether it’s viable. maybe not jets wouldn’t play. they’re in the low end. you buy honda jet that doesn’t even have a bathroom. but there are people that want to operate between cities that are 80, 100, 200 miles away. and, you know, there’s capacity but there’s a way of booking these flights. i guess net jets doesn’t play there. will that be a business some day? net jets has not played in that arena. a lot of people have tried. it’s very difficult place to operate. we have not looked at it in some time. i don’t know if it’s possible to do that. was it the small one, that one that holds seven. that’s right. that’s the smallest one. phenom will be the new one for us. it will replace everything we have had in that category before. it will be the smallest jet we offer in the fleet. jordan, when you look around, the biggest difficulty you face right now is what? i think waiting for the economy to come full stream. we are seeing it pick up in the united states. we have been working very hard. the team has done a terrific job getting ourselves in strong position to compete force. ly. and i think we’re starting to see that in the united states already. you are hitting record numbers. we talked before how these are record numbers. does that mean you’re 100% back from the down turn? no. we are still working our way back. we are starting to see the early turns. some of our performances are at record levels. one of the things we talked about with housing, how it is up 20% case-shiller. where are you with the peak? roughly 20% down. in the industry is over that. 30% down or so. so we’re in better shape on a comparative basis. the contracts are generally for five years. and so we have a huge amount sold in 2007. and they matured in 2012. there was quite a bit in 2008 before the crash hit. so you had people that made a lot of money, financial types particularly. and they might be in the frame of mind the same as in 2007. thank you for joining us this morning. we really riesch your time. thank you. jordanhansell.

Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway, chairman & CEO, discusses changes in Berkshire Hathaway’s board, and possible candidates to
succeed him. Also, Buffett explains the problem many airlines face making money, and explains why he favors productive assets over fixed dollar investments.

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