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. “Berkshire Hathaway could not have been built to its present status without Charlie’s inspiration, wisdom and participation,” Buffett said in the statement.
A lawyer by training, Munger (rhymes with “hunger”) helped Buffett, who was seven years his junior, craft a philosophy of investing in companies for the long term. Under their management, Berkshire averaged an annual gain of 20.1% from 1965 through 2021 — almost 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 $2.1 billion as of March 2, 2022. His overall net worth was about $2.5 billion at the start of 2023.
At the company’s annual meetings in Omaha, Nebraska, where he and Buffett had both grown up, Munger was known for his roles as straight man and scold of corporate excesses. As Buffett’s fame and wealth grew — depending on Berkshire’s share price, he was on occasion the world’s richest man — Munger’s value as a reality check increased as well.
“It’s terrific to have a partner who will say, ‘You’re not thinking straight,’” Buffett said of Munger, seated next to him, at Berkshire’s 2002 meeting. (“It doesn’t happen very often,” Munger interjected.) Too many CEOs surround themselves with “a bunch of sycophants” disinclined to challenge their conclusions and biases, Buffett added.
For his part, Munger said Buffett benefited from having “a talking foil who knew something. And I think I’ve been very useful in that regard.”
Beyond Value
Buffett credited Munger with broadening his approach to investing beyond mentor Benjamin Graham’s insistence on buying stocks at a fraction of the value of their underlying assets. With Munger’s help, he began assembling the insurance, railroad, manufacturing and consumer goods conglomerate that posted nearly $24 billion of operating profit in 2019.
“Charlie has always emphasized, ‘Let’s buy truly wonderful businesses,’” Buffett told the Omaha World-Herald in 1999.
That meant businesses with strong brands and pricing power. Munger nudged Buffett into acquiring California confectioner See’s Candies Inc. in 1972. The success of that deal — Buffett came to view See’s as “the prototype of a dream business” — inspired Berkshire’s $1 billion investment in Coca-Cola Co. stock 15 years later.