Yahoo Finance Why Warren Buffett feels worse about missing Google than Amazon
Warren Buffett and his righthand man Charlie Munger regret not investing in Google (GOOG, GOOGL).
"I don't mind not having caught Amazon (AMZN) early," Munger said at Berkshire Hathaway’s (BRK-A, BRK-B) annual shareholders meeting.
Munger characterized Amazon founder Jeff Bezos as a "miracle worker” who evolved his business in ways no one could foresee.
The missed gains on Google is a different story.
"I feel like a horse's ass for not identifying Google,” Munger said. “I think Warren feels the same way. We screwed up."
"Yeah, he's saying, 'We blew it,'" Buffett quipped.
They both noted that they had insight into Google because they were using the advertising at Berkshire-owned insurance company GEICO.
"We could see in our own operations how well that Google advertising was working and we just sat there sucking our thumbs, so we are ashamed. We're trying to atone,” Munger said. “Maybe Apple (AAPL) was atonement.”
At least they can have a sense of humor about it.
"When he says, ‘sucking our thumbs,’ I'm just glad he didn't use some other example," Buffett joked.
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Julia La Roche is a finance reporter at Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter.
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