Bet you didn't know Hon Hai Chairman Terry Guo's personal hero is Genghis Khan. Thus, it's no surprise he lashed out with the cunning ruthlessness of the old Mongolian warlord in a lambasting of Warren Buffet yesterday. Last year, The Oracle spent $230mn for a 10% stake in BYD, a Shenzhen-based car maker and electronics ODM that Guo accused of stealing secrets from a Hon Hai subsidiary. So Genghis Guo taunted the Oracle, asking him why would he support a thief and a cheap maker of autos? This could get ugly.

For more about the smackdown session, see this Chinese report. Basically, Guo asks Buffett three questions.

1) Why invest in a company that steals trade secrets?

Background: At the time, Buffett said he saw potential in the battery technology BYD develops, which was not at issue in the lawsuit between BYD and Hon Hai's Hong Kong-listed subsidiary Foxconn International Holdings, the world's largest subcontractor for mobile phones. Foxconn accused BYD of obtaining confidential information from its former employees, which was put to use in the cell phone division at BYD's business.

2) Would you dare drive a BYD car to work?

Ouch! That's a cheap shot. Or, if you give Guo the benefit of the doubt, he may be asking Buffett if he really believes in BYD cars, maybe he should drive one everyday to promote them.

3) What method did you use to judge BYD's capability?

Guo is mightly curious as to how BYD can make such rapid progress, when the likes of Toyota, Honda and Ford have spent a lot of time and money before they could start to profit from electric cars?

This is only the beginning. Guo said if he doesn't get answers, he'll buy a few shares in Berkshire and fly to Omaha next year for the general shareholder's meeting. (I'd like to see that.) Meanwhile, BYD has been laying the groundwork for a challenge to the ODM/EMS machine in Taiwan.

That's it from Shanghai.

mc

PS: Here's the Morningstar take on the Buffett/Munger press conference on Sunday.

PPS: The New York Times excerpted a Q&A with Buffett/Munger, including a bit on BYD:

Q: BYD appears to be more like a venture capital investment than a value investment. Would you both explain that investment, your logic behind it, and your expectations for it?

A: Munger disputed the notion that BYD was an untested start-up or that the deal resembled a venture capital investment. BYD is a major player in the battery business that is now going after the automotive market, he said, adding, “It is a small company, but its ambitions are big.”