Caltech/Zoom
- Warren Buffett's business partner embraced Zoom during the pandemic.
- Charlie Munger, 97, touted the video-conferencing tool's convenience and growth prospects.
- Zoom CEO Eric Yuan thanked Munger this week and offered to provide him with personal tech support.
- See more stories on Insider's business page.
Warren Buffett's 97-year-old business partner, Charlie Munger, surprisingly embraced Zoom during the pandemic. Eric Yuan, the founder and CEO of the video-conferencing platform, celebrated the veteran investor's endorsement of his product on an earnings call this week.
"I have fallen in love with Zoom," Munger, the vice-chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, said in a CNBC interview filmed at Berkshire's annual shareholder meeting in May. "Zoom is here to stay. It just adds so much convenience."
Munger added that he struck a deal in Australia using the communications tool. He trumpeted its prospects at Daily Journal's annual meeting in February as well.
"When the pandemic is over, I don't think we're going back to just the way things were," the newspaper publisher's chairman said. "We're going to do a lot less travel and a lot more Zooming."
Yuan thanked Munger for his vote of confidence in a tweet in late June. He tipped his hat again during Zoom's second-quarter earnings call on Monday, and offered to troubleshoot any issues the investor runs into.
"I'd like to thank Charlie Munger of Berkshire Hathaway for his remarks about how Zoom has added so much convenience to his life," he said.
"We are so delighted to count Charlie as a happy user," Yuan continued. "And I nominate myself to be Charlie's personal Zoom tech support if he ever needs it."
Yuan may have Munger firmly in his corner, but Buffett is far more skeptical. "I'm just not a Zoom guy," he told CNBC in May. "I don't see any plus to it, particularly," he continued, noting that a computer screen filled with people's faces added nothing to his experience.
"I'd rather have my feet on the desk, and I find the telephone a very satisfactory instrument," Buffett added.
Zoom's stock price has more than quintupled since the start of 2020, fueled by surging demand for video calls and virtual meetings during the pandemic. Its revenue surged 54% year-on-year to over $1 billion last quarter, driving net income up 71% to $317 million.
However, the stock fell as much as 12% in premarket trading on Tuesday after the company forecasted around $1 billion of revenue in both the third and fourth quarters of this year.