Overview

Berkshire Hathaway is a conglomerate assembled by renowned investor Warren Buffett. The company markets everything from Duracell and Dairy Queen to Geico insurance and Ginsu knives.

Berkshire Hathaway’s headquarters is in Omaha, Nebraska.

See Berkshire Hathaway’s holdings

Read more about Berkshire Hathaway

The company’s annual regulatory filing explained its structure:

“Berkshire Hathaway … is a holding company owning subsidiaries engaged in numerous diverse business activities.

“The most important of these are insurance businesses conducted on both a primary basis and a reinsurance basis, a freight rail transportation business and a group of utility and energy generation and distribution businesses.

“Berkshire also owns and operates numerous other businesses engaged in a variety of manufacturing, services, retailing and other activities. …

“Berkshire’s operating businesses are managed on an unusually decentralized basis. There are few centralized or integrated business functions. Berkshire’s senior management team participates in and is ultimately responsible for significant capital allocation decisions, investment activities and the selection of the Chief Executive to head each of the operating businesses.”

Worldwide ad spending:
Total worldwide advertising spending shown in the Ad Age World’s Largest Advertisers report is Ad Age Datacenter’s estimate of total U.S. ad spending for Berkshire Hathaway. Berkshire’s operations and revenue are heavily U.S.-centric.

U.S. ad spending:
Total U.S. advertising spending shown in the Ad Age Leading National Advertisers report is Ad Age Datacenter’s estimate of total U.S. ad spending for Berkshire Hathaway. Figures include estimated systemwide ad spending for Dairy Queen (including ad money contributed by franchisees).

Ad Age Datacenter changed its spending model for Berkshire Hathaway’s total U.S. ad spending effective with the June 2023 Leading National Advertisers report.

Berkshire Hathaway appears in Ad Age’s Leading National Advertisers ranking based mainly on Geico ad spending.

Geico ad spending:
Geico advertising spending has fallen sharply in recent years.

Geico ad spending is captured in Berkshire Hathaway’s regulatory filings for National Indemnity Co. and its affiliates. Those filings show the following ad spending for National Indemnity (primarily advertising for the Geico brand):

2023: $558.6 million
2022: $771.5 million
2021: $1.145 billion
2020: $1.131 billion
2019: $999.3 million
2018: $885.1 million

In its annual filing for calendar 2023, Berkshire Hathaway said Geico’s “underwriting expenses declined $752 million (16.5%) in 2023 compared to 2022. Geico’s expense ratio (underwriting expense to premiums earned) was 9.7% in 2023, a decrease of 2.0 percentage points compared to 2022, attributable to reduced advertising expenses and improved operating leverage.” 

Links to Ad Age’s advertiser rankings

Latest rankings: U.S.

The Ad Age Leading National Advertisers 2024 ranking was released Oct. 28, 2024.

Past rankings: U.S.

Ad Age Leading National Advertisers 2023
Ad Age Leading National Advertisers 2022

Latest rankings: worldwide

The Ad Age World’s Largest Advertisers 2024 ranking was released Dec. 9, 2024.

Past rankings: worldwide

Ad Age World’s Largest Advertisers 2023
Ad Age World’s Largest Advertisers 2022

Financial results

See more: Berkshire Hathaway financial results

See more: Berkshire Hathaway press releases and regulatory disclosures

Read Berkshire Hathaway’s annual filing

Selected deals

2022:
Berkshire Hathaway in October 2022 bought Alleghany Corp. for about $11.5 billion. Alleghany holdings included insurance and a mix of non-financial businesses including Jazwares, a toy marketer.

2020:
Berkshire Hathaway in March 2020 sold its newspaper operations (BH Media Group; Buffalo News) to Lee Enterprises.

2016: 
Procter & Gamble Co. in February 2016 sold battery brand Duracell to Berkshire Hathaway. P&G acquired Duracell in P&G’s 2005 purchase of Gillette Co. In the deal announcement, Buffett said: “I have always been impressed by Duracell, as a consumer and as a long-term investor in P&G and Gillette. Duracell is a leading global brand with top quality products, and it will fit well within Berkshire Hathaway.”

2012:
Berkshire Hathaway’s HomeServices of America in October 2012 announced a partnership with Brookfield Asset Management, an investment firm, to launch Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices, a real-estate brokerage franchise brand. HomeServices of America already was a major real-estate brokerage firm owned by Berkshire Hathaway’s MidAmerican Energy Holdings. Under the deal with Brookfield, HomeServices of America bought a majority stake in two Brookfield-owned real-estate franchising businesses, Prudential Real Estate and Real Living Real Estate. The Prudential and Real Living franchise networks rebranded as Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices.

2010:
Berkshire Hathaway in February 2010 bought Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp., a railroad based in Fort Worth, Texas, in a deal valued at $44 billion (including $10 billion of the railroad’s outstanding debt). BNSF was Berkshire Hathaway’s largest-ever acquisition.

2008:
Berkshire Hathaway in April 2007 acquired VF Corp.’s women’s intimate apparel (Vanity Fair, Lily of France, Vassarette, Bestform, Curvation and licensed Ilusion brands) for $350 million cash.

2006:
In August 2006, Berkshire Hathaway bought Russell Corp., a marketer of athletic apparel and sporting goods, for about $600 million.

Management and employees

Warren Buffett has been Berkshire Hathaway’s controlling shareholder since 1965 and its chairman and CEO since 1970.

Buffett was born Aug. 30, 1930, in Omaha, Nebraska, which is Berkshire Hathaway’s headquarters.

See more: Berkshire Hathaway board and management

See more: Geico careers

Stock

Berkshire Hathaway trades on the New York Stock Exchange. Ticker: BRK.B

History

Berkshire Hathaway’s name comes from a now-defunct New England textile business formed by the 1955 merger of Berkshire Fine Spinning Associates and Hathaway Manufacturing Co., two businesses dating to the 1800s.

Buffett began investing in the textile mill in the early 1960s and took control in the mid-’60s. The company’s final textile factory closed in the 1980s.
 
See more: Berkshire Hathaway’s history