Berkshire Hathaway

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Sarah Abrams

The recent news that Warren Buffett is stepping down as Berkshire Hathaway’s CEO has drawn the attention of the business pages around the world. But along with Buffett’s move, there have been other CEO-related developments that have attracted the attention of the corporate and securities world, including with respect to Tesla CEO Elon Musk. In the following guest post, Sarah Abrams, Head of Claims Baleen Specialty, a division of Bowhead Specialty, examines these CEO moves and considers their implications . I would like to thank Sarah for allowing me to publish her article as a guest post on this site. I welcome guest post submissions from responsible authors on topics of interest to the blog’s readers. Please contact me directly if you would like to submit a guest post. Here is Sarah’s article.Continue Reading Guest Post: CEOs and Board Liability 

Warren Buffett’s annual letters to Berkshire Hathaway’s shareholders have a huge following. The letters, written in Buffet’s direct and often humorous style, are closely read by investors, journalists, academics, and others seeking insight into the performance and key trends of markets and of the economy. This year’s letter, published on Saturday, February 24, 2024, as part of Berkshire’s 2023 annual report, is distinguished by its opening tribute to the company’s late Vice Chairman, Charlie Munger, who died in December 2023 at the age of 99. The letter itself covers a number of topics that will be familiar to students of Buffett’s past letters, but it also includes a few interesting (and arguably even surprising) topics as well, as I discuss below. Full disclosure:  I own BRK.B shares, although not as many as I wish I did.Continue Reading Thinking About Warren Buffett’s Latest Letter to Berkshire Shareholders

The parties in the Kraft Heinz Securities Group securities class action litigation have agreed to settle the case for $450 million, a massive settlement that makes the list of all-time largest settlements. The settlement is subject to court approval. A copy of the parties’ stipulation and agreement of settlement, which was filed with the court on May 5, 2023, can be found here.Continue Reading Kraft Heinz Securities Litigation Settles for $450 Million

Like many others, I look forward to Warren Buffett’s annual letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders, and like many others, I read his annual letter closely, looking for any investment insights I can glean as well for Buffett’s now-famous homespun brand of wisdom and humor. Although Buffett latest letter to Berkshire shareholders – which was published Saturday morning – does offer readers a little under each of these headings, I think many reading Buffet’s latest letter might have come away a little disappointed, as I discuss further below. Buffett’s 2019 letter to Berkshire shareholders, published on February 22, 2020, can be found here. (Full disclosure: I own BRK.B shares, although not as many as I wish I did.)
Continue Reading A Closer Look at Warren Buffett’s Annual Letter to Berkshire Shareholders

Every year, investors from Wall Street to Main Street await Berkshire Hathaway Chairman and CEO Warren Buffett’s annual letter to the company’s shareholders, for his commentary on the current business and economic environment, for his investment insights, and for his occasional folksy and humorous observations. In the run-up to the release of this year’s letter, which took place this past Saturday morning, there was hope that this year’s letter might do a little more – say, explain how Buffett intends to deploy the company’s growing mountain of cash, or comment on recent negative developments at Kraft Heinz. Although this year’s letter contains the usual ration of Buffett’s brand of investment wisdom, those who were looking for more undoubtedly were disappointed.  Buffett’s February 23, 2019 letter can be found here. (Full disclosure: I own BRK.B shares, although not nearly as many as I wish I did.)
Continue Reading A Closer Look at Buffett’s Annual Letter to Berkshire Shareholders     

One of the highlights of the yearly business calendar is the annual meeting of Berkshire Hathaway shareholders. Every spring tens of thousands of the Berkshire faithful make the haj to Omaha, to hear the wisdom of Berkshire’s Chairman, Warren Buffett, and his long-standing side-kick and straight man, Charlie Munger. How did this assembly become such a widely attended and closely watched event, and why do so many people attend year after year? These questions are interestingly examined in a recent book of short essays edited by the wife and husband team of George Washington University Law School Professor Lawrence Cunningham and New York attorney and real estate developer Stephanie Cuba. The book, entitled “The Warren Buffett Shareholder: Stories from Inside the Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting” (here), provides a series of interesting glimpses of what the Berkshire shareholder meeting means to a number of different regular attendees, along the way illustrating how and why the meeting has become the phenomenon that it now is.
Continue Reading Book Review: The Warren Buffett Shareholder

The publication of the annual letter of Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway’s legendary Chairman, to the company’s shareholders is a much-anticipated event. Investors and observers value the letter for its comments about investing, the economy, and Buffet’s own outlook for the future, as well as for his occasional doses of humor and worldly wisdom. The 2017 letter, published on the company’s website on Saturday morning, does not disappoint. This year’s version has much to justify a full reading. The letter also has a long real-life parable for the benefit of ordinary investors hoping to maximize their investment gains. The February 24, 2018 letter can be found here. Full disclosure: I own BRK-B shares, although not nearly as many as I wish I did.
Continue Reading A Closer Look at Warren Buffett’s Latest Letter to Berkshire Shareholders

buffA highly anticipated event in the financial world each year is the release of legendary investor and Berkshire Hathaway Chairman Warren Buffett’s annual letter to the company’s shareholders. Market watchers and other observers value Buffett’s annual letter for its valuable insights about the financial marketplace, as well as for Buffett’s homespun humor and his wise insights about the economy and the world. In this year’s letter (here), which the company released on Saturday morning, Buffett had quite a bit to say about the current prospects of the American economy. Many of Buffett’s remarks about the U.S. economy were expressly intended to counter the relentlessly negative tone of the current U.S. Presidential election campaign. The letter also contains an interesting commentary about both the beneficial and disruptive effects resulting from gains in productivity; the commentary includes a cautionary note about the need to assist those disadvantaged by the rapid changes that often accompany technical innovations. The letter also contains a rather sobering assessment of the risks the world currently faces. (Full disclosure: I own BRK.B shares, though not nearly as many as I wish I did.)
Continue Reading A Closer Look at Buffett’s Annual Letter to Berkshire Shareholders

cunningham buffett 4e coverWarren Buffett’s annual letters to Berkshire shareholders are prized alike by the company’s shareholders and by those who have no connection to the company other than an interest in what Buffett may have to say. Anyone who has followed Buffett’s letters over the years knows that the Berkshire chairman has certain themes to which he returns over and over again. Anyone who wants to assemble a comprehensive view on one of these recurring themes can of course sort through all of the shareholder letters that Buffett has written over the year, from the collection of the letters on the Berkshire website. However, the fact is that sorting through 38 years of letters would be a daunting and difficult task.

Fortunately for anyone interesting in Buffett’s writings and views, there is an excellent resource that organizes essays from over the years into a single volume organized by topic and accompanied by a detailed index. In his book, “The Essays of Warren Buffett: Lessons for Corporate America,” George Washington University Law Professor Lawrence A. Cunningham has done a truly commendable job distilling and organizing the essence of Buffett’s letter to Berkshire shareholders. In conjunction with the 50th anniversary of Berkshire Hathaway under Buffett’s leadership, Cunningham has released an updated Fourth Edition of the book (here), which incorporates selections from Buffett’s most recent shareholder letters into the anthology.
Continue Reading Book Review: Buffett’s Lessons for Corporate America

bbbWhat Warren Buffett has accomplished at the head of Berkshire Hathaway is nothing short of astonishing. Not only has he built a massive company, but he has done it while maintaining an unparalleled reputation for business integrity. The man is an American business icon. He is also mortal. Buffett is now 84 years old. The …