At the annual Berkshire Hathaway shareholders meeting earlier this month, chairman Warren Buffett heaped praise on the success of Amazon and the smarts of CEO Jeff Bezos. On Tuesday, Bezos returned the favor, telling shareholders at his own meeting how much it meant to be complimented by the fellow billionaire.
Buffett — who is currently No. 3 behind Bezos on Forbes’ real time list of richest Americans — said at the time that he was impressed by Bezos early on and what he went after with Amazon. He said it’s remarkable what Bezos is doing simultaneously in shaking up the worlds of retail and IT.
“I’ve never seen any person develop two really important industries at the same time,” Buffett said. He called Bezos “the most remarkable business person of our age.”
An Amazon shareholder who was asking Bezos a question on Tuesday, about how he comes up with ideas for new businesses, made mention of Buffett’s praise.
“First of all, on Warren’s remarks, which I did read about, that’s very meaningful to me because he’s been my hero for a long time,” Bezos said. “He’s somebody that, I read what he writes, I pay attention to what he does, he’s somebody that I think very highly of, not just in a business context but kind of as somebody who has a lot of wisdom that he brings to life. And so to have him say something like that is very meaningful to me.”
