Charlie Munger, the billionaire business partner of Warren Buffett and the Vice Chairman of Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, died on Tuesday Nov. 28 at the age of 99.
Berkshire Hathaway announced his death in a statement released at 3:57 PM EST. They relayed a message from Munger’s family that he passed away peacefully that morning in a California hospital.
Charles Thomas Munger was born on Jan. 1, 1924, in Omaha, Nebraska. He served in the Army during WWII and went on to attend Harvard Law School. After graduating with honors in 1948, he moved to Southern California to practice real estate law. He met Warren Buffett in 1959 when he was back in his hometown for his father’s funeral. The two hit off and formed a friendship that lasted six decades.
Charlie Munger, the longtime vice chairman and second-in-command to Warren Buffett at Berkshire Hathaway, died at a California hospital at the age of 99 https://t.co/T8JeOQXW8z pic.twitter.com/9lcrsNO1Wr
— Reuters (@Reuters) November 29, 2023
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Munger joined Berkshire Hathaway as Vice Chairman in 1978, offering sober advice on investment strategy. “If people weren’t so often wrong, we wouldn’t be so rich,” Munger said during a 2015 shareholder meeting.
“Berkshire Hathaway could not have been built to its present status without Charlie’s inspiration, wisdom and participation,” Buffett said regarding the news. He once said of Munger, “We think so much alike that it’s spooky.”
Buffett credited Munger with keeping him focused on big investments rather than small ones. Munger advocated for purchasing companies that would be difficult but rewarding to acquire rather than underwhelming companies for quick profits. “All intelligent investing is value investing—acquiring more than you are paying for,” Munger once said. “You must value the business in order to value the stock.”
Buffett claimed Munger and he had never gotten into an argument in the 60 years that they knew each other. “Charlie has given me the ultimate gift that a person can give to somebody else. He’s made me a better person than I would have otherwise been,” Buffet said of Munger in 2018, “He’s given me a lot of good advice over time. I’ve lived a better life because of Charlie.”
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