Berkshire Hathaway Inc. () is an American multinational conglomerate holding company headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska. Originally a textile manufacturer, the company transitioned into a conglomerate starting in 1965 under the management of chairman and CEO Warren Buffett (from 1970 to 2025) and vice chairman Charlie Munger (from 1978 to 2023). Greg Abel succeeded Buffett as CEO at the beginning of 2026. Buffett personally owns 38.4% of the Class A voting shares of Berkshire Hathaway, representing a 15.1% overall economic interest in the company.
The company is often compared to an investment fund; between 1965, when Buffett gained control of the company, and 2023, the company's shareholder returns amounted to a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 19.8% compared to a 10.2% CAGR for the S&P 500. From 1965 to 2023, the stock price had negative performance in only eleven years. In August 2024, Berkshire Hathaway became the eighth largest U.S. public company and the first non-technology company to be valued at over $1 trillion.
Berkshire Hathaway is ranked 5th on the Fortune 500 and 9th on the Fortune Global 500. In surveys taken in the 2000s and 2010s by Barron's, Berkshire was named among the "Most Respected" companies by professional investors. 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. 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.
History Berkshire Hathaway originated as a textile manufacturer formed in 1955 from the merger of Hathaway Manufacturing Company and Berkshire Fine Spinning Associates. Berkshire Associates took its name from Berkshire County, Massachusetts, where it was based, and Hathaway Manufacturing was named for its founder, Horatio Hathaway. After the merger, Berkshire Hathaway had 15 plants employing over 12,000 workers with over $120 million in revenue, and was headquartered in New Bedford. However, seven of those locations were closed by the end of the 1950s, accompanied by large layoffs.
In 1962, Warren Buffett began buying Berkshire Hathaway stock for his investment fund, Buffett Partnership Ltd., at $7.50 per share, anticipating that as the company liquidated textile mills there would come a tender offer when he could sell the shares at a profit. A year later, Buffett's fund owned 7% of the company. In 1964, Buffett offered to sell his shares back to the company for $11.50 each. Seabury Stanton, the manager of Berkshire Hathaway, told Buffett orally that he had a deal. A few weeks later, Warren Buffett received the tender offer in writing, but the tender offer was for only $11.375 per share. Buffett later admitted that this lower, undercutting offer made him angry. Instead of selling at the slightly lower price, Buffett bought more of the stock at an even higher price to take control of the company and fire Stanton; Stanton and his son resigned in 1965. However, this left Buffett's fund with a major interest in a declining textile business.
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. 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. In 1985, the company's last textile operations were shut down.
Also in 1962, Warren Buffett set up his office in Omaha, Nebraska, at the current Berkshire Hathaway headquarters located at Blackstone Plaza (formerly named Kiewit Plaza). As of the end of 2024, the company had only 27 employees at that corporate headquarters. In 1963, Franklin Otis Booth Jr. invested $1 million in the company (), and in 1968 David Gottesman also invested in the company. The investments eventually made both men billionaires.
Acquisitions
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. National Indemnity was founded in 1940 by Jack Dabney Ringwalt. In 2012, National Indemnity acquired workers' compensation insurer GUARD for $221 million.
Berkshire acquired See's Candies in 1972 for $25 million. It produces boxed chocolates and other confectionery products in two large kitchens in California. See's revenues are highly seasonal, with approximately 50% of total annual revenue earned in the months of November and December. By 2019, the $25 million investment had returned over $2 billion, or an 8000% return, to Berkshire.
In 1976, Berkshire first invested in GEICO, at a time when it was facing financial difficulty and had a very low stock price.
In 1977, Berkshire bought the Buffalo Evening News and resumed publication of a Sunday edition of the paper that had ceased in 1914. After the morning newspaper Buffalo Courier-Express ceased operation in 1982, the Buffalo Evening News changed its name to The Buffalo News and began to print morning and evening editions. It now prints only a morning edition. Berkshire formed BH Media Group with a purchase of the Omaha World-Herald in December 2011, which included six other daily newspapers and several weeklies across Nebraska and southwest Iowa. In June 2012, Berkshire bought 63 newspapers from Media General, including the Richmond Times-Dispatch and Winston-Salem Journal, for $142 million in cash. In 2012, Berkshire Hathaway bought Texas dailies The Bryan-College Station Eagle and the Waco Tribune-Herald. In 2013, the company bought the Tulsa World, the Greensboro, North Carolina-based News & Record, Virginia's Roanoke Times, and Press of Atlantic City. In 2014, Graham Holdings Company sold its Miami television station, ABC affiliate WPLG to BH Media in a cash and stock deal. In June 2018, Lee Enterprises and Berkshire Hathaway reached a five-year agreement to allow Lee Enterprises to manage Berkshire Hathaway's newspaper and digital operations. In 2020, Lee Enterprises acquired BH Media Group's publications and The Buffalo News for $140 million in cash, retaining WPLG, which later ended its ABC affiliation and became an independent station in August 2025. In conjunction with the sale, Berkshire lent $576 million to Lee.
In 1983, Berkshire acquired Nebraska Furniture Mart for $60 million. In 2000, Nebraska Furniture Mart bought Homemakers Furniture.
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. It included Kirby Company, which was sold in 2021, Wayne Water Systems, and Campbell Hausfeld products. Campbell Hausfeld was transferred to Marmon, also a Berkshire subsidiary, in 2015.
In January 1986, Berkshire acquired Fechheimer Brothers, owner of Flying Cross, which manufactures public safety uniforms, and Vertx, a civilian tactical clothing company.
In 1991, Berkshire acquired H.H. Brown Shoe Group.
In May 1995, Berkshire acquired RC Willey Home Furnishings. In June 1997, Berkshire acquired Star Furniture.
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. GEICO, headquartered in Chevy Chase, Maryland, primarily offers private passenger automobile insurance marketed directly to individual consumers in the United States. The company is known for its advertising characters including a gecko and the GEICO Cavemen.
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. It uses flight simulators and is the largest provider of professional aviation training services.
In October 1997, Berkshire acquired Dairy Queen, based in Edina, Minnesota, for $585 million. It franchises approximately 6,000 stores operating under the names Dairy Queen, Orange Julius, and Karmelkorn that sell dairy desserts, beverages, prepared foods, blended fruit drinks, popcorn, and other snack foods.
In July 1998, Berkshire Hathaway acquired NetJets, formerly Executive Jet Aviation, for $725 million in cash. NetJets is the world's largest provider of fractional ownership programs for general aviation aircraft. In 1986, NetJets created the fractional ownership of aircraft concept and introduced its NetJets program in the United States with one aircraft type. In 2019, the NetJets program operated more than 10 aircraft types with a fleet size of greater than 750.
In December 1998, Berkshire acquired Gen Re, headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, for $22 billion. Berkshire paid for the acquisition with Class A shares valued at $58,400 each; Buffett later said he overpaid, despite strong performance by General Re.
In 1999, Berkshire acquired MidAmerican Energy Holdings. 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. It owns Northern Powergrid, which operates in the UK. In 2005, it acquired PacifiCorp for $5.1 billion in cash, and assumed $4.3 billion in PacificCorp debt and preferred stock. MidAmerican was rebranded as Berkshire Hathaway Energy (BHE) in April 2014. The division owns a residential real estate brokerage business, which, in March 2013, was rebranded as HomeServices of America, a division of Berkshire Hathaway Energy. In addition to brokerage services, it provides mortgage loan originations, title insurance and closing services, home warranty, property insurance and casualty insurance and other related services. The company has acquired several residential real estate brokerages including Long & Foster, acquired in September 2017.
In October 1999, Berkshire acquired Jordan's Furniture for an estimated $200 million to $300 million.
CORT Business Services Corporation was acquired in February 2000 by Wesco Financial Corporation, an 80.1% owned subsidiary of Berkshire and is the largest US provider of rental furniture, accessories and related services in the "rent-to-rent" segment of the furniture rental industry.
In May 2000, Berkshire acquired Ben Bridge Jeweler, a chain of jewelry stores established in 1912 with locations primarily in the western United States. 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 June 2000, the company acquired Justin Brands, the parent company of Justin Boots, Acme Boots, and Acme Brick for $600 million in cash. Headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, Acme manufactures and distributes clay bricks (Acme Brick), concrete block (Featherlite), and cut limestone (Texas Quarries). Justin Brands also owns Chippewa Boots, Nocona Boots, and Tony Lama Boots.
In December 2000, Berkshire acquired Benjamin Moore & Co., headquartered in Montvale, New Jersey. Moore formulates, manufactures, and sells architectural coatings that are available primarily in the United States and Canada. Buffett agreed not to sell the products through major retail chains.