Berkshire Hathaway is the Omaha-based investment company led for decades by Warren Buffett.
Berkshire Hathaway began as a textile manufacturer, but Warren Buffett and his investment partners transformed it into a diversified holding company. It now owns operating businesses and holds major investments in publicly traded companies.
Its subsidiaries have included GEICO, BNSF Railway, Berkshire Hathaway Energy, and a large collection of manufacturing, service, and consumer businesses. This structure differs from a conventional mutual fund because Berkshire directly owns many operating companies as well as marketable securities.
Berkshire is famous for not paying a regular dividend to shareholders. Instead, management has generally retained earnings when it believed those funds could be invested productively. The company’s unusual share price and long-term record make its market capitalization an especially watched measure.