Buffett has pledged to gradually give 85% of his Berkshire stock to five foundations. A dominant five-sixths of the shares will go to the world's largest philanthropic organization, the $30 billion Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Yes, that Warren Buffet – the world’s second richest man. The market value of that 85% is about $37 billion! Fortune Magazine has the story and interview, also see the NYTimes. An announcement that will have repercussion far beyond just development finance. I didn’t see this coming, at least not for a few more years. Let’s see how the markets react.
Of course, this come just a week after Bill Gates, a close friend of Buffet, made his announcement that in two years he will shift his attention to his Foundation full-time.
Update: Here is a press conference. The NYTimes also has two good stories. Also see the Charlie Rose Show, during which Buffet says: "A market system has not worked in terms of poor people". And it seems that this is the report that Buffet gave to Gates back in the 1990s that planted the seed that would become the Gates Foundation.
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