Warren Buffett has been trying to lose $1 million for nearly a decade. This year, he finally succeeded. The head of Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) will offer seven identical salaries to a lucky employee, who managed to predict 31 results in 32 NCAA’s initial NCAA tournaments.
The award is part of Berkshire Hathaway’s annual March Madness Bracket Competition, which is open to nearly 400,000 employees working in conglomerates and subsidiaries such as Geico and Geico and See Candies. Officially running since 2016, the grand prize of the competition is a lifetime payment for any winner of the first 48 matches. However, tired of waiting for the winner, Buffett decided to adjust the rules earlier this month.
If they submit results for at least 30 of the first rounds of at least 30 in at least 30 first rounds in March 20 and March 21, participants this year are also eligible for a one-time payment of $1 million this year. The inspiration of the amendment is that the fact that at the age of 94, Buffett was not young. “I want to give someone a million dollars when I’m still chairman,” the billionaire investor told the Wall Street Journal earlier this month.
The holding company announced today (March 24) that it is an employee of FlightSafety International, an aviation training company acquired by Berkshire Hathaway, a company acquired by Berkshire Hathaway, which is fulfilling Buffett’s dream. After correctly predicting all the NCAA’s first round games, the crew will be brought home $1 million unless a match between Xavier Musketeers and Illinois Fighting Illini.
While the staff was one of a dozen Berkshire Hathaway workers who filled out 31 brackets in the first round, the winners received the prize because they had the most consecutive forecasts after the initial 29 games. Don’t feel bad for the remaining 11 contestants – they will all be second for $100,000 each. Berkshire Hathaway said that over the weekend, FlightSafety employees had “further polished the certificate”.
Like the past nine years, Buffett’s original jackpot won $1 million a year, as participants will be unclaimed for the rest of their lives. But that’s not surprising, as only one person has predicted the results of the first 48 games in the history of the NCAA-tracked brackets. Buffett was once an Omaha loyalist, and for a long time if the Creton Blue Jays or the Omaha Mavericks (both from his hometown hail in Nebraska) would boil it down to the final round.
Buffett’s initial dabbling in NCAA brackets made it more difficult for Berkshire Hathaway workers. In 2014, his company worked with mortgage lender Quicken Loans and promised to offer $1 billion to those who filed perfect brackets to predict the winner of the entire race. This task is nearly impossible, and the NCAA estimates the chances of perfect brackets may be as low as 9,223,372,036,854,775,808 (920 million).
Over the years, Berkshire Hathaway’s March Madness Award winners have spanned the holding company’s lineup of more than 60 subsidiaries. For example, in 2018, a group of Berkshire Hathaway’s $100,000 comfort tanks included workers at the insurer General Reinsurance, rail operator BNSF Railroad and Home Furniture Store Nebraska Furniture Fair. “We like to do this because we often act as independent companies, which brings us together,” Buffett told ESPN.
