People familiar with the matter said Bill and Melinda Gates (Bill and Melinda Gates) announced their divorce at a time to avoid creating problems for Warren Buffett, the “stock god. Buffett is a close friend of the Gateses and a partner in the Gates Foundation. For Buffett, the most important day on his calendar: Berkshire Hathaway’s annual meeting of shareholders. At the meeting, Buffett will answer a series of questions, and “headlines” are a given.
The Gateses announced their divorce on May 3, two days after Berkshire Hathaway’s 2021 AGM. A leading media report said this was to avoid Warren Buffett answering any Gates-related questions at the AGM.
“They avoided ‘Buffett having to deal with this,’ which would have been to wait until after the annual shareholder meeting to announce the divorce,” the report said, citing reliable sources with knowledge of the matter.
Buffett and Gates, who have been friends for 30 years, are the sixth richest person in the world, according to Forbes, while Gates ranks fourth.
They first met in July 1991 at a party organized by Gates’ mother, Mary Maxwell Gates. Initially, both billionaires were hesitant to attend the party, but later made the same decision.
Gates served on the Berkshire Hathaway board for 16 years, leaving last year to focus on his foundation.
In 2006, Buffett announced plans to give most of his then-$44 billion fortune to the Gates Foundation, of which he is now the third trustee.
As of last July, Buffett had given a total of $37.4 billion to charities, with about 80 percent going to the Gates Foundation and the rest to organizations run by his children or to the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, named after his late wife.
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