In December 1998, Berkshire acquired Gen Re, headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, for $22 billion. NetJets is the world’s largest provider of fractional ownership programs for general aviation aircraft. In July 1998, Berkshire Hathaway acquired NetJets, formerly Executive Jet Aviation, for $725 million in cash.

• By the end of June 2016, this stake had increased to 15.2 million shares (0.3% of Apple).
• In January 1986, Berkshire acquired Fechheimer Brothers, owner of Flying Cross, which manufactures public safety uniforms, and Vertx, a civilian tactical clothing company.
• Newbury is home to the world headquarters of the mobile network operator Vodafone, which is the town’s largest employer with over 6,000 people.

Financials

Buffett also receives approximately $300,000 worth of home security services from the company annually. The increased market liquidity resulted in the company’s inclusion in the S&P 500. Buffett was reluctant to create the class B shares but did so to thwart the creation of unit investment trusts that would have marketed themselves as Berkshire look-alikes.

Horse racing

Warren E. Buffett first took control of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., a small textile company, in April of 1965. 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. Abel’s official title is CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Energy and vice chair in charge of noninsurance operations. 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%.

Understanding Berkshire Hathaway: Market Cap, Ownership, and More

Aside from its subsidiaries, Berkshire manages a portfolio of non-controlling stock investments into which its insurance companies invest policy premiums. In the first quarter of 2022, Berkshire acquired 121 million shares of HP Inc. valued at more than $4.2 billion; the shares were sold in 2023 and 2024. In June 2017, Berkshire invested $377 million in Store Capital, a Scottsdale-based real estate investment trust that owned more than 1,750 properties in 48 states; the company was sold to private equity firms in 2022. In October 2022, Berkshire Hathaway acquired insurance company Alleghany Corporation for $11.6 billion. Its class A shares have the highest per-share price of any public company in the world, reaching $700,000 in August 2024, because the board of directors has historically been opposed to stock splits. Browse the world’s largest eBookstore and start reading today on the web, tablet, phone, or ereader.

Investment strategy

• As of 2025, Berkshire Hathaway had a market capitalization of over $1.05 trillion, making it one of the largest publicly traded companies worldwide.
• Helzberg Diamonds, a chain of jewelry stores based in Kansas City that began in 1915, was acquired by Berkshire in 1995 after a chance run in between Buffett and Barnett Helzberg on a street in New York City.
• Newbury Racecourse is in the civil parish of Greenham, adjoining the town of Newbury.
• In 2012, Berkshire acquired Oriental Trading Company, a direct marketing company for novelty items, small toys, and party items for around $500 million.
• These companies have been swallowed by other groups, but their descendants, Fujitsu and Hewlett-Packard respectively, still have local operations.

In October 1997, Berkshire acquired Dairy Queen, based in Edina, Minnesota, for $585 million. In February 1997, Berkshire acquired FlightSafety International (FSI), a pilot training company founded in 1951 by Albert Lee Ueltschi and headquartered at LaGuardia Airport in Flushing, New York. In January 1996, Berkshire acquired full ownership of GEICO, acquiring the 49% of the company that it did not then own for $2.3 billion. In January 1986, Berkshire acquired Fechheimer Brothers, owner of Flying Cross, which manufactures public safety uniforms, and Vertx, a civilian tactical clothing company. In 2014, Graham Holdings Company sold its Miami television station, ABC affiliate WPLG to BH Media in a cash and stock deal. In 2013, the company bought the Tulsa World, the Greensboro, North Carolina-based News & Record, Virginia’s Roanoke Times, and Press of Atlantic City.

Abingdon Abbey once had dairy-based granges in the south-east of the county,citation needed Red Windsor cheese was developed with red marbling. In March 1967, Berkshire acquired National Indemnity Company, based in Omaha, Nebraska, for $8.6 million in the first acquisition by the company under Buffett’s control and the company’s entrance into the insurance business. The company’s vast market capitalization, over $1.05 trillion, makes it one of the largest public companies globally. What is now Berkshire Hathaway started as a textile company and evolved into one of the largest companies in the world by market cap.

Who Is Warren Buffett?

Greg Abel now oversees most of the company’s investments and has been named as Buffett’s successor. Originally a textile manufacturer, the company transitioned into a conglomerate starting in 1965 under the management of chairman and CEO Warren Buffett and vice chairman Charlie Munger (from 1978 to 2023). Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (/ˈbɜːrkʃər/) is an American multinational conglomerate holding company headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska.

In the first quarter of 2016, Berkshire began investing in Apple Inc., with a purchase of 9.8 million shares (0.2% of Apple) worth $1 billion. By 2017, this position had yielded a profit of about $12 billion excluding the annual interest earned from the preferred stock. The shares yielded 6%, earning Berkshire $300 million in annual interest.

In February 2010, the remaining portion that it did not already own was acquired for $26 billion. In April 2007, Berkshire acquired 10.9% of BNSF Railway for $3.23 billion. Headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, TTI is the largest distributor specialist of passive, interconnect, and electromechanical components.

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In 1976, Berkshire first invested in GEICO, at a time when it was facing financial difficulty and had a very low stock price. In 2012, National Indemnity acquired workers’ compensation insurer GUARD for $221 million. In 1963, Franklin Otis Booth Jr. invested $1 million in the company (equivalent to $10,300,000 in 2024), and in 1968 David Gottesman also invested in the company. As of the end of 2024, the company had only 27 employees at that corporate headquarters. He has estimated that had he invested the same money directly in insurance businesses instead of indirectly via Berkshire Hathaway (due to what he perceived as a slight by an individual), it would have paid off several hundredfold.

Acquisitions

In 2007, the company was named by Barron’s as the most respected company in the world based on a survey of American money managers. In January 2010, as part of the acquisition of BNSF Railway, Berkshire completed a 50-to-1 stock split of its class B shares. Berkshire Hathaway has never undergone a stock split of its Class A shares because of management’s desire to attract long-term investors as opposed to short-term speculation.

Berkshire Hathaway reduced its Apple stake by nearly 50%, selling $75.5 billion worth of stock in the second quarter of 2024, increasing its cash reserves to a record $276.9 billion. By December 31, 2017, Berkshire owned 166 million shares (3.3% of Apple). By the end of June 2016, this stake had increased to 15.2 million shares (0.3% of Apple).

Ice hockey

Buffett has described buying the Berkshire Hathaway textile company as the biggest investment mistake he had ever made, denying him compounded investment returns of about $200 billion over the subsequent 45 years. Berkshire is one of the ten largest components of the S&P 500 and is on the list of largest employers in the United States. Berkshire Hathaway is ranked 5th on the Fortune 500 rankings of the largest United States corporations by total revenue and 9th on the Fortune Global 500. In August 2024, Berkshire Hathaway became the eighth U.S. public company and the first non-technology company to be valued at over $1 trillion on the list of public corporations by market capitalization. From 1965 to 2023, the stock price had negative performance in only eleven years.

Towns and villages

Also in December 2007, when stresses that led to the 2008 financial crisis were forming, Berkshire created a government bond insurance company to insure municipal bonds, starting with New York State bonds. In July 2005, Berkshire Hathaway acquired Forest River, the world’s largest seller of recreational vehicles, from Pete Liegl for $800 million. The company later acquired Professional Datasolutions and Salado Sales. In October 2002, Berkshire acquired The Pampered Chef, the largest direct seller of kitchen tools in the United States. In January 2001, Berkshire acquired 87% of Dalton, Georgia-based Shaw Industries. In June 2000, the company acquired Justin Brands, the parent company of Justin Boots, Acme Boots, and Acme Brick for $600 million in cash.

This area of West Berkshire is the largest centre of racehorse training in the UK after Newmarket, and is known as the ‘Valley of the Racecourse’. Newbury Racecourse is in the civil parish of Greenham, adjoining the town of Newbury. Berkshire hosts more Group 1 flat horse races than any other county. The county’s local radio stations are BBC Radio Berkshire, Heart South and Greatest Hits Radio Berkshire & North Hampshire. London Heathrow Airport, in the neighbouring London Borough of Hillingdon, is a major contributor to the economy of Slough in east Berkshire. Since 2019, it has merged with a Swiss company called Biosynth AG to form a key global organisation within the fine chemical industry and operates under name Biosynth Carbosynth®.

The overall return of Berkshire Hathaway’s stock from 1965 to 2021. 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. He focused on selecting stocks that would be held for the long term. Early in his career, Buffett came across the novel idea of using the float from his insurance subsidiaries to invest elsewhere.

It uses flight simulators and is the largest provider of professional aviation training services. The company is known for its advertising characters including a gecko and the GEICO Cavemen. GEICO, headquartered in Chevy Chase, Maryland, primarily offers private passenger automobile insurance marketed directly to individual consumers in the United States. It included Kirby Company, which was sold in 2021, Wayne Water Systems, and Campbell Hausfeld products. In 1986, Berkshire acquired Scott Fetzer Company, a diversified group of 32 brands that manufactures and distributes products for residential, industrial, and institutional use, including Ginsu knives and World Book Encyclopedia. In 2020, Lee Enterprises acquired BH Media Group’s publications and The Buffalo News for $140 million in cash, retaining WPLG.

Holders of class A stock are allowed to convert their stock to Class berkshire hathaway letters to shareholders B, though not vice versa. With some exceptions, the company also usually does not invest in real property due to precise pricing, lack of competitive advantage, complex management, and corporation tax disadvantages. These holdings are broadly disclosed in its Form 13F filings, although the company sometimes obtains permission to keep active trades confidential.