what is a class a share 
class a shares of common stock usually give shareholders a greater amount of voting rights than class b and other classes of stock they re often held by a company s executives and some members of management so that those in charge of the company can retain control of it in various situations such as a hostile takeover attempt the bottom lineberkshire hathaway is a holding company run by warren buffett that owns a diverse range of private businesses and significant minority interests in public companies such as apple it has a market capitalization of over 715 billion and is the sixth largest public company in the world berkshire hathaway s success is largely due to buffett s value investing strategy and its annual shareholder meetings have become a mecca for value investing proponents the question of succession has been answered with greg abel named the heir apparent to buffett 