Talk:Berkshire Hathaway/Archive 1

Archive 1

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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)