Warren Buffett discusses whether his opinion of Wal-Mart has changed amid the bribery allegations. “You can’t have 270,000 people without someone doing something wrong,” he tells CNBC’s Becky Quick.
Transcript:
and that is berkshire’s 7th largest holding. sounds about right. so walmart has had its own issue. there was a report alleging bribery in mexico. has that changed your opinion about the stock? not really. we have 270,000 people working at berkshire. i will guarantee you during the rest of the day, some people will be doing something wrong. it scares the dickens out of me because you can’t have 270,000 people without somebody doing something wrong. this is different, though. well,what’s particularly different in this is they handled it once it came to their attention. that’s the problem. the question is does it undermine your faith in the board given that it does team to have risen to potentially that level or at least management back here in the u.s. i don’t necessarily think — i’ve not read anything that it got to the board, b i have read things that it got to the management. and if story as reported in the new york timess certainly imply that had it got to the higher levels of management and then got brushed aside and did not get reported, you know, that’s a big mistake. would you have second thoughts about the company at that point is this. it wouldn’t be the same individuals running it. there may be things that happen to certain individuals because of this, but i don’t think it changed how i viewed all 8,000 people when solomon did it. it did mean they needed to make changes. andrew, i’ll send it back
