Berkshire Hathaway American company
American holding company based in Omaha, Nebraska, that serves as an investment vehicle for Warren Buffett. In the early 21st century it was one of the largest corporations, measured by revenues, in the United States.
Dhanalakshmi Vijayan
American holding company based in Omaha, Nebraska, that serves as an investment vehicle for Warren Buffett. In the early 21st century it was one of the largest corporations, measured by revenues, in the United States. The company was also notable for the high price of its stock (some $350,000 for one Class A share in 2020) and the small size of its headquarters staff (about 25 people).
Berkshire Hathaway traces its history back to two Massachusetts textile firms: Hathaway Manufacturing Company (incorporated 1888) and Berkshire Cotton Manufacturing Company (incorporated 1889). Berkshire Cotton became Berkshire Fine Spinning Associates in 1929 and merged with Hathaway to form Berkshire Hathaway, Inc., in 1955. An investment group led by Buffett took full control of the company in 1965. Berkshire Hathaway liquidated its textile operations in 1985, by which time it was well-established as a holding company for Buffett’s other investments and corporate acquisitions.
Buffett built up Berkshire Hathaway by buying stock in undervalued companies, acquiring many of those businesses, and then allowing considerable autonomy to the managers of the subsidiaries. From the early days of his tenure, insurance companies formed a large part of the Berkshire Hathaway portfolio. National Indemnity Company and National Fire & Marine Insurance Company (now a part of National Indemnity) were both purchased in 1967, followed by GEICO in 1996 and General Reinsurance in 1998. However, the company’s acquisitions have always been quite diversified, including, for example, Scott Fetzer Company (1986), owner of reference and educational publisher World Book; Benjamin Moore (2000), maker of paint; and Fruit of the Loom (2002), manufacturer of underclothing. The purchase of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation (2010), owner of BNSF Railway, for about $44 billion in all was a bigger deal than any the company had made previously. However varied, Berkshire Hathaway subsidiaries have nearly always been drawn from established industries rather than emerging industries.
Berkshire Hathaway also has significant shareholdings in companies it does not control. For example, since 1989 it has owned between 6 and 10 percent of the Coca Cola Company, and by 2021 it had acquired more than 5 percent of Apple Inc. stock.
