what is berkshire hathaway 
berkshire hathaway is a holding company for a multitude of businesses including geico and fruit of the loom it s run by chair and ceo warren buffett berkshire hathaway is headquartered in omaha nebraska originally it was a company comprised of a group of textile milling plants buffett assumed control of the struggling new england company in 1965 since that time berkshire has grown to be one of the largest companies in the world based on market capitalization today it is one of the world s largest companies by market capitalization understanding berkshire hathawaywarren buffett became the controlling shareholder of berkshire hathaway in the mid 1960s and began a progressive strategy of diverting cash flows from the core business into other investments as of may 2023 berkshire hathaway had a market capitalization of over 715 billion making it one of the largest publicly traded companies worldwide 1berkshire hathaway has a long history of operating success and smart investments the company is the sixth largest public company in the world in terms of market capitalization as of may 2023 1 berkshire s stock trades on the new york stock exchange in two classes a shares and b shares class a shares have never split and closed above 500 00 per share in may of 2023 its class b shares traded at a more modest 325 on the same date 2insurance subsidiaries represent a large part of berkshire hathaway s holdings however the company also manages hundreds of diverse businesses all over the world these include duracell international dairy queen pampered chef fruit of the loom netjets and geico among others 3 in addition to owning private companies berkshire also has a large investment portfolio of stocks in major public companies such as apple aapl bank of america bac and united parcel service ups 4 as of december 31 2022 berkshire s public market equity portfolio was valued at more than 346 billion 5early in his career buffett came across the novel idea to use the float from his insurance subsidiaries to invest elsewhere he focused on selecting stocks that would be held for the long term buffett has long eschewed a diversified stock portfolio in favor of trusted investments that would be over weighted in order to leverage the anticipated return over time buffett s investing prowess became so renowned that berkshire hathaway s annual shareholder meetings are now a mecca for value investing proponents they re also the target of intense media scrutiny the overall return of berkshire hathaway s stock from 1965 to 2021 during this same period the s p 500 returned 30 209 6 in annualized terms berkshire s stock generated an average yearly return of 20 1 over that period while the s p 500 s annualized gain was 10 5 6succession and controlsuccession has always been a hot topic for berkshire the big question is whether buffett s replacement can continue the streak of outperforming the market this becomes even more pressing when you consider that buffett turned 91 years old in august of 2021 in 2010 buffett announced that he would be succeeded at berkshire hathaway by a team comprised of one ceo and two to four investment managers in 2011 it was announced that hedge fund managers todd combs and ted weschler would be two of those managers in 2018 the company put ajit jain in charge of all of the insurance operations and made greg abel the manager of all other noninsurance operations both men seemed likely candidates for buffett s heir apparent buffet has not announced any retirement plans still it s good that the question of succession has been answered considering the advanced age of the oracle of omaha on may 1 2021 vice chair of berkshire hathaway charlie munger unofficially announced that warren buffett would be succeeded as ceo by greg abel when buffett eventually steps down abel s official title is ceo of berkshire hathaway energy and vice chair in charge of noninsurance operations who is warren buffett warren buffett is a world famous business owner and investor he s renowned not only for the jaw dropping success of berkshire hathaway the holding company of which he s been in charge since 1964 buffett is also celebrated for his winning approach to investing which has created great wealth for many shareholders his frugal lifestyle despite being one of the world s wealthiest individuals and his easy going manner have earned him fans across the globe 