Warren Buffett Turns to the State to Protect His Press Release Business

NyPo reports:

Warren Buffett doesn’t like to lose money — especially when he feels Uncle Sam is helping pick his pocket.

A unit of Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway complained yesterday about the Securities and Exchange Commission’s move to allow companies to use Twitter and other social media to post financial information.

Berkshire’s Business Wire — which makes money by disseminating corporate financial information and could lose business if companies choose instead to spread the word on Twitter — said investors could get hurt by the move toward social media.

The SEC move “poses a disservice to the investment community, threatening increased fragmentation of price sensitive information,” Business Wire, which the Oracle of Omaha bought in 2006, said in a statement.

Earlier this week, the SEC said companies could use Face­book, Twitter and other social media to make their corporate announcements, as long as they alert investors.[...]

Business Wire charges $735 for a 400-word national news release and $195 for each additional 100 words. Add a photo, and you’re on the hook for another $425.

Thomas Beckhold, Business Wire’s senior vice president of global marketing, argued that social media should be “part of the communications mosaic,” but not a replacement for “full, fair and simultanous distribution of news achieved through Business Wire.”