Category Archives: howard buffett

The shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway may have been seeing glimpses into the future without Buffett for some time now. Most of the deals that Berkshire Hathaway made last year were not directly involving the 82-year-old billionaire investor. They either started with one of the two investment managers Buffett recently hired over the last few years, or they started with one of the subsidiaries. No matter what way you look at it, Berkshire Hathaway did quite well during 2012.

Buffett will release his annual letter to shareholders this Friday afternoon, which is later on today.

The author of Warren Buffett’s Successor: Who It Is and Why It Matters, Jeff Matthews, tells us that last year’s deals are very comforting because they show how Berkshire Hathaway could work once Buffett is no longer there.

“It’s very reassuring. This didn’t used to happen,” said Matthews.

The main thing shareholders will miss most about Warren Buffett is his fantastic judgment and excellent connections. Take the 23.3 billion dollar deal to purchase a portion of H.J. Heinz, a Pittsburgh-based company.

No matter what kind of deal is being made by Berkshire Hathaway, the annual letter written by Warren Buffett is possibly the best read document throughout the entire business world. This is all because of his incredible record of accomplishment and his excellent ability to explain complicated matters in plain English.

There’s no question that shareholders are wondering about the future of the former textile manufacturer known as Berkshire Hathaway. Buffett is getting up there in years. He also recently suffered from prostate cancer, although it wasn’t life-threatening and he seems to have gotten through it quite nicely.

Some of the biggest dollar value deals Berkshire Hathaway made last year are:

Repurchasing $1.2 billion worth of Berkshire Hathaway Class A shares and purchasing $1.5 billion in mortgage loans from Residential Capital.

They also made a $4 billion deal to cover CIGNA Corp.’s insurance losses, and received a $2.2 billion premium in exchange.

Other deals were made but the terms have not been disclosed. Analysts tell us that the Oriental Trading Co. acquisition, as well as the Prudential real estate network will not likely be a major boost to Berkshire Hathaway’s bottom line by themselves.

The only Berkshire Hathaway deals that Warren Buffett likely initiated are the share repurchase acquirement, the acquisition of Oriental Trading Co. and potentially the deal with CIGNA. The rest of the deals started elsewhere. But there’s no question that Warren Buffett signed off on each and every one of them.

Buffett seems to enjoy all of the speculation revolved around who will eventually run the company. Meyer Shields, KBW analyst, said that Buffett probably won’t help narrow down the competition because of his enjoyment of the speculation.

If you follow the company as an investor, you might look upon these four people as the strongest potential candidates: Greg Abel, CEO and President of MidAmerican; Burlington Northern Santa Fe CEO Matt Rose; Ajit Jain, head of the Berkshire Hathaway reinsurance division; and CEO of Geico, Tony Nicely.

Buffett told us that his son Howard, also a member of the Berkshire Hathaway board, is ideally suited as the company chairman.

Berkshire Hathaway also hired two hedge fund managers, Ted Weschler and Todd Combs, who will eventually be able to run the entire Berkshire Hathaway portfolio. They each manage portfolios worth around $4 billion. Buffett continues to make the majority of the investments on behalf of Berkshire Hathaway as he searches for large acquisitions.

As Howard Buffett looked over a room of 700 people in Des Moines, Iowa, all there to hear him speak about the fight against world hunger, he gave the room a dose of constructive criticism.

When Buffett addressed the crowd of government officials, foreign aid association representatives and nonprofit leaders all there to help end world hunger, he said “the solution is not setting goals and campaigns, the solution is changing our mindsets.”

Howard Buffett – philanthropist, farmer, photographer, businessman and the oldest son of Warren Buffett – was the person delegated to give the keynote speech at the Iowa Hunger Summit this week. It took place at the World Food Prize event in Des Moines, Iowa.

Howard Buffett has spent many years of his life documenting the way that world hunger affects citizens of the United States of America, and all over the world. He has filmed certain situations, and written about them as well. You can learn about this information through some of the foundations that he supports and the nonprofit organizations that he runs. One such organization is known as Invest an Acre, and they encourage farmers to put aside 1 acre of land to donate the crops to their local food bank.

During his speech, Howard Buffett showed the audience a wide array of photographs. There were images of poverty, skulls, pestilence, war, emaciation, old people, young people, and dead and dying people, all to the tune of U2′s “Where the Streets Have No Name” as it played in the background.

“When I started, I thought if we could produce more, we could feed more people. I was wrong,” said Buffett, while he noted that there were lots of reasons why hunger still existed. Some of the issues were related to climate, transportation, and politics. All of these issues prevent people from getting the food that they need to survive.

Buffett also reminded us that there is need for a number of groups to start working on all of the problems previously mentioned. Many of the philanthropic organizations today started a long time ago, and their missions were “written before cellphones, before the Internet.”

Another issue with nonprofits is that they are actually afraid to solve the problem that they set out to fix. Why you ask? Because they know solving the problem will actually put a lot of people out of jobs.

“It’s not an indictment of you,” he said. “It’s an indictment of the system.”

During his speech, he recommends that foundations and nonprofit organizations issue a date of destruction of 40 years. He learned this deadline as a young farmer when he was taught that farmers have about 40 chances to get it right.

“What if every NGO (nongovernmental organization) set themselves up for 40 years? If we are really as good as we want to be, this approach will change our thinking and policy.”

Also during the Iowa Hunger Summit, AARP Foundation Director JoAnn Jenkins gave a speech about the challenge of food insecurity for the elderly in the United States.

To put it simply, food insecurity is not knowing whether or not you will have food available to you within a 24-hour period.

Jenkins also mentioned that it’s a “time of great anxiety and uncertainty” for the part of the population that is aging in the United States. For people 50 years of age or older, the unemployment rate has doubled, and the average Social Security payment is only $1200 per month.

Jenkins also said that older Americans are facing issues with isolation, unemployment and housing right now. She strongly encouraged the people in the audience to reach out to those older Americans, and let them know about certain resources such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, which helps the American people put more food on their table.

“It is a sad irony that even as the world becomes more interconnected, people 50-plus feel more disconnected,” said Jenkins.