Warren Buffett Is Tech-Wary

What’s the Latest Development?

Web stocks are generating huge sums of money as their companies go public. Should Facebook offer shares to the public, some estimate the company will have an initial value of $100 billion. That’s a lot of cash, but long-term investment guru Warren Buffett says he’s not going there. “‘It’s not my game,’ he said in an interview with DealBook. ‘The world is changing, and I’m lagging behind.’ Mr. Buffett said he was not exactly sure what to make of the multibillion-dollar valuations of Facebook, Groupon, Zynga, LinkedIn and the like. ‘A few of them will be worth enormous amounts,’ he said. But ‘I don’t know which ones.'”

What’s the Big Idea?

Famous for not investing in companies he doesn’t understand, Buffett has been extremely successful over the course of his career, not only earning billions of dollars but advising government policymakers and devoting his fortune to charity. He humbly describes his investment strategy: “‘Most companies I don’t know how to value, there’s a few that I think I know how to value and every now and then one of those are a price number that falls within my valuation range.’ Despite his bullish outlook on India and China, he’s not rushing to put Berkshire’s capital in Asia.”