Berkshire Hathaway Letters to Shareholders: 1965 2014 Warren Buffett, Max Olson

The global headquarters of Reckitt Benckiser and the UK headquarters of Mars, Incorporated are based in Slough. The financial company ING Direct has its headquarters in Reading, as does the directories company Hibu. These companies have been swallowed by other groups, but their descendants, Fujitsu and Hewlett-Packard respectively, still have local operations. Reading has a historical involvement in the information technology industry, largely as a result of the early presence in the town of sites of International Computers Limited and Digital.

After the Thames broke through the Goring Gap that river and its tributaries the Loddon, Emm Brook, Blackwater and (to some extent) Wey shaped the geography of eastern Berkshire but have not yet eroded away its Eocene cover. The early Eocene London Clay (Thames Group) generally gets thinner as we proceed westwards, though the thickness of beds can vary considerably over short distances. In Berkshire, White Chalk Formation beds tend to be shallower than those further west (Wiltshire) or those in the Chilterns, and often contain layers of chalk rock. To the south, the land crests along the boundary with Hampshire; the highest parts of South-East and Eastern England taken together are here.

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• 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 2014, Graham Holdings Company sold its Miami television station, ABC affiliate WPLG to BH Media in a cash and stock deal.
• In 1976, Berkshire first invested in GEICO, at a time when it was facing financial difficulty and had a very low stock price.

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. In May 2000, Berkshire acquired Ben Bridge Jeweler, a chain of jewelry stores established in 1912 with locations primarily in the western United States. The company has acquired several residential real estate brokerages including Long & Foster, acquired in September 2017. In 2005, it acquired PacifiCorp for $5.1 billion in cash, and assumed $4.3 billion in PacificCorp debt and preferred stock. At the time of purchase, Berkshire’s voting interest was limited to 10% of the company’s shares, but this restriction ended when the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935 was repealed in 2005.

Horse racing

Under the Local Government Act 1888, Berkshire County Council took over functions of the Berkshire Quarter Sessions, covering the administrative county of Berkshire, which excluded the county borough of Reading. Much of the county’s early history is recorded in the Chronicles of the Abingdon Abbey, which at the time of the survey was second only to the crown in the extent and number of its possessions, such as The Abbey, Sutton Courtenay. This wood, perhaps no longer extant, was west of Frilsham, near Newbury. The county has been the site of several battles, particularly during the First English Civil War, when Reading and Wallingford were besieged two battles took place at Newbury, in 1643 and 1644. The Thames then forms Berkshire’s northern border, flowing past Maidenhead, before entering the county and flowing past Slough and Windsor.

Investment strategy

In January 2025, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau filed a lawsuit against Vanderbilt Mortgage and Finance, a Berkshire Hathaway subsidiary, alleging the company steered borrowers into unaffordable loans. Abel was appointed vice chairman for non-insurance business operations, and Jain became vice chairman of insurance operations. Charlie Munger served as vice chairman of the company from 1978 until his death on November 28, 2023. Berkshire’s annual shareholders’ meetings, nicknamed “Woodstock for Capitalists”, take place at the CHI Health Center Omaha in Omaha, Nebraska.

Local

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 berkshire hathaway letters to shareholders $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.

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.

Berkshire Hathaway sold its stake in Ulta Beauty in the fourth quarter of 2024, just two quarters after acquiring the shares. In the third quarter of 2022, Berkshire bought 60 million shares in TSMC valued at $4.1 billion; the shares were sold in late 2022 and 2023 in part due to geopolitical tensions. However, at an annual meeting on May 4, 2024, Buffett stated that he had sold all of his shares in Paramount at a substantial loss, blaming himself for deciding to invest. In the second quarter of 2020, Berkshire added a position of more than 20 million shares in Barrick Gold; the shares were sold in 2021. In June 2017, Berkshire acquired a 38.4% stake in Home Capital Group for $400 million, giving a lifeline to the Toronto-based embattled mortgage lender. In April 2020, Berkshire sold all shares in the airlines due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on commercial air transport.

In the third quarter of 2020, the company agreed to buy Dominion Energy’s natural gas transmission and storage operations. By April 2023, Berkshire increased its stake in each of those companies to 7.4%. Berkshire began investing in common shares of Occidental beginning in 2022 and has increased its position since. In 2019, by buying warrants and preferred stock, Berkshire provided $10 billion in financing to Occidental Petroleum as part of its acquisition of Anadarko Petroleum. Buffett himself has described this as a “call on the industry” rather than a choice in an individual company. Buffett had made an investment in US Airways in 1989 which, although he sold for a profit, almost lost Berkshire a substantial sum of money.

In 2017, Berkshire was the largest shareholder in United Airlines and Delta Air Lines and a top 3 shareholder in Southwest Airlines and American Airlines. While Buffett generally does not invest in tech stocks, he has said that Apple is a consumer products company and that he understands consumer products businesses. Aggressive stock purchases continued and by March 31, 2017, Berkshire had amassed a stake of 129 million shares (2.5% of Apple). In 2013, Berkshire owned 1.74 million shares of Gannett; however, it sold its shares in the second quarter of 2013. Alongside the preferred stock investment, Berkshire obtained warrants allowing Berkshire to buy 700 million common shares at $7.14 per share, which were exercised.

Analyzing Berkshire Hathaway’s Investment Approach

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.

What Is a Class A Share?

Two main tributaries skirt past Reading, the Loddon and its sub-tributary the Blackwater draining parts of two counties south, and the Kennet draining part of upland Wiltshire in the west. Reading became the new county town in 1867, taking over from Abingdon, which remained in the county. Software development and high-tech industry dominate the economy in the east, but the west remains an agricultural region. The Berkshire Downs, a chalk downland and area of outstanding natural beauty, occupy the west of the county. The historic county included the parts of Oxfordshire south of the River Thames, which formed its northern border, but excluded Caversham and Slough. Despite investments in renewable energy, the company was criticized for its decision to operate these plants until at least 2049, raising public health and environmental concerns.

• 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.
• In February 2016, Berkshire Hathaway acquired Duracell from Procter & Gamble for $4.7 billion in stock in P&G previously owned by Berkshire Hathaway.
• Class A shares have never split and closed above $734,000 per share on October 10th of 2025 (its Class B shares traded at about $489 on the same date).
• 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.
• On August 26, 2011, Berkshire Hathaway bought $5 billion of preferred shares in Bank of America.
• 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’.

In 2020, Buffett said he overpaid for the company and wrote down its value by approximately $10 billion. In January 2016, Berkshire Hathaway acquired Precision Castparts Corp. for $32.1 billion. In 2016, it was the fifth-largest auto dealership group, with ownership of 81 dealerships and revenues of $8 billion. On October 2, 2014, Berkshire Hathaway Automotive, an auto dealership subsidiary, was created through the acquisition of Van Tuyl Group, the largest auto dealer in the nation that was still independently owned up to that date. In March 2011, Berkshire Hathaway made its first foray into the Indian insurance sector with its non-direct subsidiary BerkshireInsurance.com. In September 2011, Berkshire Hathaway acquired Lubrizol for $9 billion in cash.

Holders of class A stock are allowed to convert their stock to Class 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.

Warren Buffett’s Letters To Shareholders

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.