Talk:Berkshire Hathaway/Archive 1

Archive 1

Comments

The annual meeting of Berkshire Hathaway and the baseball College World Series are said to be the two largest events held annually in Omaha and two major keys to its economy.

This article could use some de-overlap work between information about Warren Buffett and information about the company. Gazpacho 02:43, 6 November 2005 (UTC)

Editing

It is good to see that there is a lot of information contained here but I feel that some of these should be written on Warren Buffett's page instead of this page. I have edited the contents of Berkshire's 2004 annual report and I post it here for reference, as well as to seek help how to incorporate the article into the existing ones.

This is it:

Operation Descriptions

Berkshire Hathaway Inc. is a holding company owning subsidiaries engaged in a number of diverse business activities. The most important of these is the property and casualty insurance business conducted on both a direct and reinsurance basis through a number of subsidiaries. Included in this group of subsidiaries is GEICO, one of the five largest auto insurers in the United States, General Re, one of the four largest reinsurers in the world, and the Berkshire Hathaway Reinsurance Group.

Numerous business activities are conducted through non-insurance subsidiaries. Included in the non-insurance subsidiaries are several large manufacturing businesses. Shaw Industries is the world’s largest manufacturer of tufted broadloom carpet. Benjamin Moore is a formulator, manufacturer and retailer of architectural and industrial coatings. Johns Manville is a leading manufacturer of insulation and building products. Acme Building Brands is a manufacturer of face brick and concrete masonry products. MiTek Inc. produces steel connector products and engineering software for the building components market. Fruit of the Loom, Garan, Fechheimer, H.H. Brown, Lowell, Justin Brands and Dexter manufacture, license and distribute apparel and footwear under a variety of brand names. McLane Company is a wholesale distributor of groceries and nonfood items to convenience stores, wholesale clubs, mass merchandisers, quick service restaurants and others.

FlightSafety International provides training of aircraft and ship operators. NetJets provides fractional ownership programs for general aviation aircraft. Nebraska Furniture Mart, R.C. Willey Home Furnishings, Star Furniture and Jordan’s Furniture are retailers of home furnishings. Borsheim’s, Helzberg Diamond Shops and Ben Bridge Jeweler are retailers of fine jewelry. Berkshire’s finance and financial products businesses primarily engage in proprietary investing strategies (BH Finance), commercial and consumer lending (Berkshire Hathaway Credit Corporation and Clayton Homes), transportation equipment and furniture leasing (XTRA and CORT) and risk management activities (General Re Securities).

In addition, Berkshire’s other non-insurance business activities include: Buffalo News, a publisher of a daily and Sunday newspaper; See’s Candies, a manufacturer and seller of boxed chocolates and other confectionery products; Scott Fetzer, a diversified manufacturer and distributor of commercial and industrial products, the principal products are sold under the Kirby and Campbell Hausfeld brand names; Albecca, a designer, manufacturer, and distributor of high-quality picture framing products; CTB International, a manufacturer of equipment for the livestock and agricultural industries; International Dairy Queen, a licensor and service provider to about 6,000 stores that offer prepared dairy treats and food; and The Pampered Chef, the premier direct seller of kitchen tools in the U.S.

Operating decisions for the various Berkshire businesses are made by managers of the business units. Investment decisions and all other capital allocation decisions are made for Berkshire and its subsidiaries by Warren E. Buffett, in consultation with Charles T. Munger. Mr. Buffett is Chairman and Mr. Munger is Vice Chairman of Berkshire’s Board of Directors.

Directors and Officers

Directors

• WARREN E. BUFFETT, Chairman and CEO of Berkshire
• CHARLES T. MUNGER, Vice Chairman of Berkshire
• HOWARD G. BUFFETT, President of Buffett Farms and BioImages, a photography and publishing company.
• MALCOLM G. CHACE, Chairman of the Board of Directors of BankRI, a community bank located in the State of Rhode Island.
• WILLIAM H. GATES III, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Microsoft Corp, a software company.
• DAVID S. GOTTESMAN, Senior Managing Director of First Manhattan Company, an investment advisory firm.
• CHARLOTTE GUYMAN, Chairman of Finance Committee of the Board of Directors of UW Medicine, an academic medical center.
• DONALD R. KEOUGH, Chairman of Allen and Company Incorporated, an investment banking firm.
• THOMAS S. MURPHY, Former Chairman of the Board and CEO of Capital Cities/ABC.
• RONALD L. OLSON, Partner of the law firm of Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP.
• WALTER SCOTT, JR., Chairman of Level 3 Communications, a successor to certain businesses of Peter Kiewit Sons’ Inc. which is engaged in telecommunications and computer outsourcing.

Officers

• WARREN E. BUFFETT, Chairman and CEO
• CHARLES T. MUNGER, Vice Chairman
• MARC D. HAMBURG, Vice President, Treasurer
• DANIEL J. JAKSICH, Controller
• FORREST N. KRUTTER, Secretary
• REBECCA K. AMICK, Director of Internal Auditing
• MARK D. MILLARD, Director of Financial Assets
• JO ELLEN RIECK, Director of Taxes

Operating Companies

Number in the bracket indicates the number of employees hired by the operating company.

• Acme Building Brands (2,909)
• Kansas Bankers Surety Company (17)
• Adalet1 (150)
• Kern River Gas Transmission Company2 (170)
• Altaquip1 (293)
• Kingston1 (276)
• Ben Bridge Jeweler (739)
• Kirby1 (561)
• Benjamin Moore (2,951)
• Larson-Juhl (1,830)
• Berkshire Hathaway Homestate Companies (205)
• McLane Company (15,786)
• Berkshire Hathaway Reinsurance Division (29)
• Meriam Instrument1 (59)
• Borsheim’s Jewelry (240)
• MidAmerican Energy Company2 (3,164)
• The Buffalo News (1,018)
• MidAmerican Energy Holdings Company (714)
• CalEnergy2 (513)
• MiTek Inc. (1,431)
• Campbell Hausfeld1 (913)
• National Indemnity Companies (741)
• Carefree of Colorado1 (269)
• Nebraska Furniture Mart (2,166)
• Central States Indemnity Co. (241)
• NetJets (5,107)
• Clayton Homes, Inc. (11,837)
• Northern Natural Gas2 (1,042)
• Cleveland Wood Products1 (105)
• Northern and Yorkshire Electric2 (2,409)
• CORT Business Services (2,475)
• Northland1 (134)
• CTB International (1,260)
• The Pampered Chef (880)
• Dairy Queen (2,152)
• Precision Steel Warehouse (202)
• Douglas/Quikut1 (88)
• Other Scott Fetzer Companies (139)
• Fechheimer Brothers (1,140)
• See’s Candies (2,300)
• FlightSafety International (3,356)
• Shaw Industries (28,922)
• France1 (173)
• Stahl1 (365)
• Fruit of the Loom (26,000)
• Star Furniture (746)
• Garan (4,855)
• United Consumer Finance Company1 (218)
• GEICO (20,964)
• United States Liability Insurance Group (388)
• General Re Corporation (3,248)
• Wayne Water Systems1 (238)
• H. H. Brown Shoe Group (1,293)
• Wesco Financial Corp. (13)
• Halex1 (165)
• Western Enterprises1 (396)
• Helzberg’s Diamond Shops (2,588)
• Western Plastics1 (136)
• HomeServices of America2 (3,523)
• R. C. Willey Home Furnishings (2,420)
• Johns Manville (8,248)
• World Book1 (211)
• Jordan’s Furniture (1,412)
• XTRA (721)
• Justin Brands (905)

Operating Companies total: 180,159

• Corporate Office (17)

Total number of employees: 180,176

1 A Scott Fetzer Company
2 A MidAmerican Energy Holdings Company

Cheng 09:18, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

Is this article about Berkshire Hathaway or Warren Buffet?

Is this article about Berkshire Hathaway or Warren Buffet? Maybe it should be merged with Warren Buffett. Ewlyahoocom 09:23, 16 January 2006 (UTC)

Advertising for the "intrinsic value" site

Intrinsic value is an opinion. A lot of sites claim to calculate IV, and Wikipedia should not focus on just one. The opinion is not verifiable. I'm tagging it as opinion and advertisement. I don't think it needs to be in there at all; it is not WP's job to determine if a stock is a good buy or not. Jaysbro 01:46, 1 April 2007 (UTC)

Re:Is this article about Berkshire Hathaway or Warren Buffet?

Basing on a quick scan (note: I had previously read this article in full) of the current version of the article, I don't think there are too much Warren Buffett as a person in this article. I think the two should remain separate articles. Just my 2 cents. – Kempton "Ideas are the currency of the future." - a quote by Kevin Roberts 21:46, 1 April 2007 (UTC)

Re: Advertising for the "intrinsic value" site

I think Jaysbro has a point. In fact, I will go further and vote against linking to any ".com" sites that claim to "calculate" an authoritative "Intrinsic value" figure. I feel strong enough about this and have gone ahead to remove the paragraph. Just my (strong) 2 cents. Of course, I might be wrong and am very willing to further discuss this. – Kempton "Ideas are the currency of the future." - a quote by Kevin Roberts 21:46, 1 April 2007 (UTC)

just for the sake of argument, it's the way you calculate the IV, not the number itself. Alice Schroeder did it in her report on the company[1] (once available online, now broken link). the intrinsivaluator site is not an ad [2], but it's the assumptions behind the spreadsheet that tell the tale. it would be useful in a section that explains the investment methodology, i.e. the present value of the future cash flows from the business versus the price. Intrinsic value (finance) pohick (talk) 21:01, 21 February 2009 (UTC)

Removal of Medical Protective in Common stock holdings

According to page 36 &54 of the 2006 Annual report, the Medical Protective Corporation was acquired by Berkshire on June 30, 2005. It probably shouldn't be listed as part of Berkshire's Common stock holdings. I might be wrong as this is just my 2 cents and my reading of the AR. – Kempton "Ideas are the currency of the future." - a quote by Kevin Roberts 05:18, 5 April 2007 (UTC)

Section of operations NPOV

The paragraph in the history section of the article that says "One of the best-run subsidiaries of Berkshire Hathaway is the Oakriver Insurance Co..." is blatantly biased and reads like a whole paragraph of marketing/PR spin on that company. It is not neutral at all. Maybe provide some statistics showing that it's the highest-earning, or something along those lines. Kevinlipe 16:29, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

Removing the paragraph on Oak River. Besides the POV nature of the entry, the company is immaterial to the operations of Berkshire, having 2006 written premium of $23,290,000. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Dougz1 (talk • contribs) 17:47, 10 September 2007 (UTC)

History

What is the NPOV problem with History? Superm401 - Talk 05:40, 26 December 2007 (UTC)

CEO pay

I think it's a little misleading calling the salery of the CEO $100,000 considering buffet s worth $50-60 billion. Any ideas on how to make this clearer.JakeH07 (talk) 03:22, 10 October 2008 (UTC)

It's not misleading at all because that is his salary. He doesn't receive any other compensation, either. His net worth is from his BRK stock issued long ago. Hondo77 (talk) 05:24, 10 October 2008 (UTC)

yes but - check the 10k - he gets directors fees as well: 2007 = $75,000; he reimbursed the company $50,000 for postage, phones, and personal (presumably plane), (but never stock options). he purchased the stock, with money he earned on his paper route, and pin ball machines, compounded in the investment partnership (in the 50's and 60's) it's all in snowball.pohick (talk) 20:49, 21 February 2009 (UTC)

I agree that this tacked-on statement regarding his compensation lacks broader context. While not directly misleading it comes off as a financial statistic or company PR item and not comprehensive. A more comprehensive expansion should include the details of Warren buffets's stake in the company. The Berkshire Hathaway entry generally focuses on narrow financial details and does not provide broader cultural, social and critical entries on this significant institution. This small detail would be a step in expanding the entry to being more and comprehensive and useful to a general and non-specialised reader. Buddyzapfa (talk) 10:52, 1 April 2024 (UTC)

Investments in Wrigley, Goldman Sachs and GE

The article states the following:

Recently, Berkshire has purchased preferred stock in Wrigley, Goldman Sachs, and GE totaling $14.5 billion.[16]

The 2008 annual report actually states this:

On the plus side last year, we made purchases totaling $14.5 billion in fixed-income securities issued by Wrigley, Goldman Sachs and General Electric. We very much like these commitments, which carry high current yields that, in themselves, make the investments more than satisfactory. But in each of these three purchases, we also acquired a substantial equity participation as a bonus.

My comment is that the reader of the article could think that the $14.5 billion refers completely to equity positions in these stocks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Pauli muc (talk • contribs) 09:18, 21 June 2009 (UTC)

I agree with that, In the article it definitely sounds like they acquired $14.5B in equity, I don't know whether that's correct though. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 93.41.20.160 (talk) 17:51, 19 July 2010 (UTC)

Class B Split

Class B shares are going to be splitting 50 to 1. Ignignot (talk) 20:04, 3 November 2009 (UTC)

Investment policy

I'm British, and therefore clueless about business and finance. Doesn't BH have a general policy of investing for value and of maintaining holdings for a long time? If this is correct could anyone add a note to that effect, giving a proper source?

Regards to all, Notreallydavid (talk) 21:07, 20 June 2011 (UTC)

Early years under Buffett's management

Hi, I'm still British, and still clueless about business and finance (see subheading above). Shouldn't it be made explicit (if I have this correct) that Buffett closed the remaining textile plants (they didn't just 'close'), resulting in considerable job losses?

Regards to all again, Notreallydavid (talk) 21:13, 20 June 2011 (UTC)

Corporate affairs - Out of Date

I have tagged the Corporate affairs section of this article as out of date, as it discusses share prices of $140,000 as of January, and notes that they 'closed at an all-time high of $150,000 on December 13, 2007.' As of the time of tagging, shares were higher than that, at approximately $166,000. As I am unfamiliar with the policies for updating changing information, I figured I would tag it and let a veteran editor make a call instead of editing it myself. 75.159.77.50 (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 07:51, 26 May 2013 (UTC)

fold in hundredfold

The word "fold" is often used instead of "times". I doubt the correctness of the statement: "... those investments would have paid off several hundredfold."

If it is, there may not be sufficient money, on earth, to account for such a growth. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 50.10.243.197 (talk) 20:56, 21 January 2015 (UTC)

"Warren Buffet (current Illuminati leader)" ?

Who added this parenthesis in the article? Even assuming it is true (which seems far-fetched) doesn't it require attribution and source? Kmf-mit (talk) 19:24, 28 February 2015 (UTC)

Now removed--good catch. Kmf-mit (talk) 19:27, 28 February 2015 (UTC)

Berkshire Hathaway - MIssworded

The name Berkshire Hathaway is incorrectly worded in the topic of article, it needs an revised back to Berkshire Hathaway instead of the current Berkshire Hathaway (sligthly) incorrectly worded. The word seems to have changed in half of the article and needs to be changed back, the words of names / sections / words seems to be off in a few other parts of the article and could be properly adjusted they seems to have changed since earlier and they need an adjustment / be changed back to properly modified words with proper naming.

Example:

Bar - Poweraid bar Bar - Local bar where you buy ale Bar - Name

The concuccrent problem is the wording. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Cwittler (talk • contribs) 23:18, 28 October 2019 (UTC)

board changes

see sec filing NOTICE OF ANNUAL MEETING OF SHAREHOLDERS Upon the recommendation of the Governance Committee and Mr. Buffett, the Board of Directors has nominated for election 13 of the 14 current directors of the Corporation and Mr. Kenneth I. Chenault.

Mr. William H. Gates III who has served as a director since 2004 will be retiring from the Board of Directors. Certain information with respect to nominees for election as directors follows: — Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.246.9.22 (talk) 11:33, 14 March 2020 (UTC)

The removal of the paragraph on BH investment in real estate

@Kuru: you removed the paragraph about the investment by Berkshire Hathaway in real estate, citing a "deprecated source". However, I couldn't find International Business Times in Wikipedia's list of deprecated sources. Could you please explain why do you call it a deprecated source? Thank you! Vgbyp (talk) 10:22, 24 December 2021 (UTC)

Class B Shares

Hello Wikipedians!

I've included hyperlinks to a new page that I have worked on regarding Class B shares! Hopefully, the explanation will be clearer with the link  :)) Let me know if I can improve on it as well! Thank youuu Cosette Michaela Koon (talk) 06:39, 25 May 2022 (UTC)

the board of directors section is very out of date

Don Keough, for instance, has been deceased since 2015.

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1067983/000119312522073447/d208624ddef14a.htm

This is a link to the latest DEF 14A SEC filing, if any wiki editors care to update it.

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1067983/000119312522308039/d435103dex991.htm

More recently still, Thomas Murphy Jr. replaced Gottesman, who just recently passed. 24.176.1.136 (talk) 16:36, 30 December 2022 (UTC)

Thank you! I've updated the section. Vgbyp (talk) 17:40, 30 December 2022 (UTC)

As Charlie Munger already passed away, the governance sub section of the corporate affairs section should be updated so that Charlie Munger would not be on the board of directors and vice chairman. Please also check whether the rest of the list of people on the board of director is still up to date. Riavt Okgan (talk) 07:25, 5 December 2023 (UTC)

This article is unprotected. Feel free to implement these changes. Vgbyp (talk) 09:44, 5 December 2023 (UTC)

Archive 1