company 1839 1955 type public traded as class a nyse brk.a class b nyse brk.b s & p 500 component brk.b industry conglomerate founded 1839 ; 177 years ago 1839 cumberland rhode island united states founder oliver chace headquarters kiewit plaza omaha nebraska united states area served worldwide key people warren buffett chairman president & ceo charlie munger vice chairman marc hamburg cfo and senior vp bill gates director 1 products diversified investments property and casualty insurance utilities restaurant food processing aerospace media toys automotive sporting goods consumer products internet revenue us 210.82 billion 2015 2 operating income us 34.94 billion 2015 2 net income us 24.08 billion 2015 2 total assets us 552.25 billion 2015 2 total equity us 255.55 billion 2015 2 owner warren buffett 37.4 % number of employees 331 000 2015 2 subsidiaries list of subsidiaries website berkshirehathaway.com berkshire hathaway inc. is an american multinational conglomerate holding company headquartered in omaha nebraska united states . the company wholly owns geico bnsf lubrizol dairy queen fruit of the loom helzberg diamonds flightsafety international and netjets and also owns 26 % of the kraft heinz company 3 3 an undisclosed percentage of mars incorporated and significant minority holdings in american express the coca cola company wells fargo ibm and restaurant brands international . berkshire hathaway averaged an annual growth in book value of 19.7 % to its shareholders for the last 49 years compared to 9.8 % from the s & p 500 with dividends included for the same period while employing large amounts of capital and minimal debt . 4 the company is known for its control and leadership by warren buffett who is the company s chairman of the board president and chief executive officer and charlie munger the company s vice chairman of the board of directors . in the early part of buffett s career at berkshire he focused on long term investments in publicly traded companies but more recently he more frequently bought whole companies . berkshire now owns a diverse range of businesses including confectionery retail railroad home furnishings encyclopedias manufacturers of vacuum cleaners jewelry sales newspaper publishing manufacture and distribution of uniforms and several regional electric and gas utilities . according to the forbes global 2000 list and formula berkshire hathaway is the fourth largest public company in the world . 5 6 contents 1 history 2 corporate affairs 2.1 governance 2.2 succession plans 3 businesses and investments 3.1 insurance group 3.2 utilities and energy group 3.3 manufacturing service and retailing 3.3.1 clothing 3.3.2 building products 3.3.3 flight services 3.3.4 retail 3.3.5 media 3.3.6 other non insurance 3.4 finance and financial products 3.5 investments 3.5.1 subsidiaries and equity holdings 3.5.2 other 4 assets 5 see also 6 notes 7 external links history edit berkshire cotton mills adams mass . hathaway mills new bedford mass . berkshire hathaway traces its roots to a textile manufacturing company established by oliver chace in 1839 as the valley falls company in valley falls rhode island . chace had previously worked for samuel slater the founder of the first successful textile mill in america . chace founded his first textile mill in 1806 . in 1929 the valley falls company merged with the berkshire cotton manufacturing company established in 1889 in adams massachusetts . the combined company was known as berkshire fine spinning associates . 7 in 1955 berkshire fine spinning associates merged with the hathaway manufacturing company which had been founded in 1888 in new bedford massachusetts by horatio hathaway with profits from whaling and the china trade . 8 hathaway had been successful in its first decades but it suffered during a general decline in the textile industry after world war i. at this time hathaway was run by seabury stanton whose investment efforts were rewarded with renewed profitability after the depression . 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 decade accompanied by large layoffs . in 1962 warren buffett began buying stock in berkshire hathaway after noticing a pattern in the price direction of its stock whenever the company closed a mill . eventually buffett acknowledged that the textile business was waning and the company s financial situation was not going to improve . in 1964 stanton made an oral tender offer of 11 1 2 per share for the company to buy back buffett s shares . buffett agreed to the deal . a few weeks later warren buffett received the tender offer in writing but the tender offer was for only 11 3 8 . buffett later admitted that this lower undercutting offer made him angry . 9 instead of selling at the slightly lower price buffett decided to buy more of the stock to take control of the company and fire stanton which he did . however this put buffett in a situation where he was now majority owner of a textile business that was failing . buffett initially maintained berkshire s core business of textiles but by 1967 he was expanding into the insurance industry and other investments . berkshire first ventured into the insurance business with the purchase of national indemnity company . in the late 1970s berkshire acquired an equity stake in the government employees insurance company geico which forms the core of its insurance operations today and is a major source of capital for berkshire hathaway s other investments . in 1985 the last textile operations hathaway s historic core were shut down . in 2010 buffett claimed that purchasing berkshire hathaway was the biggest investment mistake he had ever made and claimed that it had denied him compounded investment returns of about 200 billion over the subsequent 45 years . 9 buffett claimed that had he invested that money directly in insurance businesses instead of buying out berkshire hathaway due to what he perceived as a slight by an individual those investments would have paid off several hundredfold . corporate affairs edit kiewit tower the location of berkshire s corporate offices in omaha nebraska berkshire s class a shares sold for 212 501 as of july 7 2016 update making them the highest priced shares on the new york stock exchange in part because they have never had a stock split and have only paid a dividend once since warren buffett took over retaining corporate earnings on its balance sheet in a manner that is impermissible for mutual funds . shares closed over 100 000 for the first time on october 23 2006 . despite its size berkshire had for many years not been included in broad stock market indices such as the s & p 500 due to the lack of liquidity in its shares ; however following a 50 to 1 split of berkshire s class b shares in january 2010 and berkshire s announcement that it would acquire the burlington northern santa fe corporation parent of bnsf railway berkshire replaced bnsf in the s & p 500 on february 16 2010 . 10 11 berkshire ceo warren buffett s annual letters are widely read and quoted . barron s magazine named berkshire the most respected company in the world in 2007 based on a survey of american money managers . 12 in 2008 berkshire invested in preferred stock of goldman sachs as part of a recapitalization of the investment bank . 13 buffett defended lloyd blankfein s decisions as ceo of goldman sachs . 14 15 16 as of july 1 2010 update buffett owned 32.4 % aggregate voting power of berkshire s shares outstanding and 23.3 % of the economic value of those shares . 17 berkshire s vice chairman charlie munger also holds a stake big enough to make him a billionaire and early investments in berkshire by david gottesman and franklin otis booth jr. resulted in their becoming billionaires as well . bill gates cascade investment llc is the second largest shareholder of berkshire and owns more than 5 % of class b shares . berkshire hathaway has never split its class a shares because of management s desire to attract long term investors as opposed to short term speculators . however berkshire hathaway created a class b stock with a per share value originally kept by specific management rules close to 1 30 of that of the original shares now class a and 1 200 of the per share voting rights and after the january 2010 split at 1 1 500 the price and 1 10 000 the voting rights of the class a shares . holders of class a stock are allowed to convert their stock to class b though not vice versa . buffett was reluctant to create the class b shares but did so to thwart the creation of unit trusts that would have marketed themselves as berkshire look alikes . as buffett said in his 1995 shareholder letter the unit trusts that have recently surfaced fly in the face of these goals . they would be sold by brokers working for big commissions would impose other burdensome costs on their shareholders and would be marketed en masse to unsophisticated buyers apt to be seduced by our past record and beguiled by the publicity berkshire and i have received in recent years . the sure outcome a multitude of investors destined to be disappointed . berkshire s annual shareholders meetings taking place in the centurylink center in omaha nebraska are routinely visited by 20 000 people . 18 the 2007 meeting had an attendance of approximately 27 000 . the meetings nicknamed woodstock for capitalists are considered omaha s largest annual event along with the baseball college world series . 19 known for their humor and light heartedness the meetings typically start with a movie made for berkshire shareholders . the 2004 movie featured arnold schwarzenegger in the role of the warrenator who travels through time to stop buffett and munger s attempt to save the world from a mega corporation formed by microsoft starbucks wal mart . schwarzenegger is later shown arguing in a gym with buffett regarding proposition 13 . 20 the 2006 movie depicted actresses jamie lee curtis and nicollette sheridan lusting after munger . 21 the meeting scheduled to last six hours is an opportunity for investors to ask buffett questions . the salary for the ceo is 100 000 per year with no stock options which is among the lowest salaries 22 for ceos of large companies in the united states . 23 governance edit the current members of the board of directors of berkshire hathaway are warren buffett ceo charlie munger walter scott jr. thomas s. murphy howard graham buffett warren s son ronald olson charlotte guyman david gottesman bill gates steve burke susan decker and meryl witmer . 24 succession plans edit in may 2010 buffett months away from his 80th birthday said he would be succeeded at berkshire hathaway by a team consisting of a ceo and three or four investment managers ; each of the latter would be responsible for a significant portion of berkshire s investment portfolio . 25 five months later berkshire announced that todd combs manager of the hedge fund castle point capital would join them as an investment manager . 26 on september 12 2011 berkshire hathaway announced that 50 year old ted weschler founder of peninsula capital advisors will join berkshire in early 2012 as a second investment manager . 27 28 in berkshire hathaway s annual shareholder letter dated february 25 2012 buffett said that his successor as ceo had been chosen internally but not named publicly . while the intent of this message was to bolster confidence in the leadership of a buffett less berkshire critics have noted that this strategy of choosing a successor without a concrete exit strategy for the sitting ceo often leaves an organization