As yet another birthday approaches, Buffett stays put

As yet another birthday approaches, Buffett stays put

Warren Buffett will be 93 years old when he celebrates his birthday next Wednesday, but he shows no signs of being ready to give up his title as the oldest CEO of a Fortune 500 company.

It’s a long-running theme for him.

Back in 1998, when he was just 67, he joked with shareholders that at his previous birthday somebody asked him how old he was:

“And I said, ‘Well, why don’t you just count the candles on the cake?’ And he said he was driven back by the heat…

“But we’re not going to leave willingly.”

Warren Buffett attends the annual Allen and Co. Sun Valley Media Conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, July 8, 2022. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

In the “risk factors” section of Berkshire’s 2022 annual report, the company warns that “if for any reason the services of our key personnel, particularly Mr. Buffett, were to become unavailable, there could be a material adverse effect on our operations.”

It goes on to say that Berkshire’s board has agreed that Vice Chairman for Non-Insurance Operations Greg Abel should become CEO if a replacement for Buffett is “needed currently,” but the board could change its mind in the future.

Buffett and Munger have been saying for years that the strength of the managers at the subsidiaries will allow Berkshire to continue to prosper if either of them were to suddenly become incapacitated or die.

BUFFETT AROUND THE INTERNET

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• Business Insider: Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway owns $1 trillion of assets – more than Microsoft, Alphabet and Meta combined

• Reuters: Berkshire’s Johns Manville unit to face revived antitrust lawsuit

• TipRanks on Yahoo Finance: Raymond James Says These New Warren Buffett Stock Picks Have Double-Digit Upside Potential

HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE ARCHIVE

When the people running the company are old, you should be able to see them in person (2022)

Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger open the first in-person Berkshire Hathaway shareholders meeting since 2019 with some thoughts on why a company’s owners should be able to see its elderly managers.

BERKSHIRE STOCK WATCH

BERKSHIRE’S TOP U.S. STOCK HOLDINGS – Aug. 25, 2023

Berkshire’s top holdings of disclosed publicly-traded stocks in the U.S., Japan, and Hong Kong, by market value, based on today’s closing prices.

Holdings are as of June 30, 2023 as reported in Berkshire Hathaway’s 13F filing on August 14, 2023, except for:

• Mitsubishi and Mitsui, which are as of June 12, 2023. Tokyo Stock Exchange prices are converted to U.S. dollars from Japanese yen.

The full list of holdings and current market values is available from CNBC.com’s Berkshire Hathaway Portfolio Tracker.

QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS

Please send any questions or comments about the newsletter to me at [email protected]?subject=Buffett newsletter feedback”>[email protected]. (Sorry, but we don’t forward questions or comments to Buffett himself.)

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Also, Buffett’s annual letters to shareholders are highly-recommended reading. There are collected here on Berkshire’s website.