Buffett to Leave Board of Coca-Cola After 17 Years

Coca-Cola Co. said billionaire investor Warren Buffett, the soft-drink maker’s largest shareholder, would leave the board after 17 years.

Buffett wants to spend more time managing holding company Berkshire Hathaway Inc., Atlanta-based Coca-Cola said Tuesday. Berkshire holds an 8.4% stake, worth about $8 billion, and will continue as a shareholder. Buffett joined the board in 1989, and his term expires April 19.

Coca-Cola has been a poor investment for Buffett in the last decade, with the stock now trading below its value at the end of 1996. The shares, which rose for 10 years after Buffett bought them in 1989, suffered as Coca-Cola failed to expand into noncarbonated drinks. Buffett also led the board in rejecting the $14-billion purchase of Gatorade.

“He’s been a very huge influence on Coke’s board,” said Walter Todd, a money manager with Greenwood Capital Inc. in Greenwood, S.C., which owns 275,000 shares of Coca-Cola. “Coke might have gotten Gatorade if Buffett wasn’t on the board. It was definitely a mistake -- maybe the biggest one in Coke’s history.”

Buffett, who has been on the boards of Washington Post Co., Gillette Co. and Salomon Inc., is a member of Coca-Cola’s influential executive board committee. He also is on the audit and finance committees.

In 2004, Buffett played an instrumental role in bringing in E. Neville Isdell as chief executive to replace Douglas Daft, investors said at the time.

Buffett in 2000 urged Coca-Cola’s board to reject Daft’s proposal to spend $14 billion to buy Gatorade’s parent company, Quaker Oats Co. Rival PepsiCo later bought Gatorade, and sales of the sports drink have risen at double-digit rates each year. Gatorade is the top-selling sports drink worldwide, with 80% of the market.

Coca-Cola shares closed Tuesday at $41.34, up 60 cents.