PhotoBlog - bill-gates

May

2012

6:38pm, EDT

Heavy hitters: Gates, Buffett play oversize game of table tennis

Steven Branscombe / Zuma Press

Bill Gates, a Berkshire Hathaway board member, tries using an oversized paddle to return a serve during a brief exhibition table tennis match in front of shareholders at the Regency Court in Omaha, Neb., while board chairman Warren Buffett looks on.

"I don't think that every deal that I made would necessarily be makeable by a successor, but they'll bring other talents," including skills to be an effective chief risk officer, Buffett said. "We're not going to have an arts major in charge of Berkshire."

Charlie Munger, who is Berkshire's 88-year-old vice chairman and sat beside Buffett, quipped: "I rather resent all this sympathy and attention that Warren is getting. I probably have more prostate cancer than he does."

The annual meeting is the centerpiece of a weekend of events that Buffett has dubbed "Woodstock for Capitalism." Close to 40,000 shareholders were expected to attend this year.

-- Reported by Reuters

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Bill Gates pledges another $750M to fight killer diseases

The Associated Press reports from DAVOS, Switzerland:

Bill Gates rode to the rescue of a beleaguered health fund Thursday by pledging $750 million to fight three of the world's killer diseases.

The Microsoft founder says the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's donation to the Geneva-based Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria comes on top of $650 million it contributed to the fund over the past decade.

"These are tough economic times, but that is no excuse for cutting aid to the world's poorest," Gates said. Read the full story.

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