Berkshire Hathaway Inc. is an American multinational conglomerate holding company headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, United States, that oversees and manages a number of subsidiary companies. The company wholly owns GEICO, BNSF, Lubrizol, Dairy Queen, Fruit of the Loom, Helzberg Diamonds and NetJets, owns half of Heinz, owns an undisclosed percentage of Mars, Incorporated and has significant minority holdings in American Express, The Coca-Cola Company, Wells Fargo, and IBM. Berkshire Hathaway averaged an annual growth in book value of 19.7% to its shareholders for the last 48 years (compared to 9.4% from S&P; 500 with dividends included for the same period), while employing large amounts of capital, and minimal debt. Berkshire Hathaway stock produced a total return of 76% from 2000--2010 versus a negative 11.3% return for the S&P; 500. The company is known for its control by investor Warren Buffett, who is the company's chairman, president and CEO. Buffett has used the "float" provided by Berkshire Hathaway's insurance operations (paid premiums which are not held in reserves for reported claims and may be invested) to finance his investments. In the early part of his career at Berkshire, he focused on long-term investments in publicly quoted stocks, but more recently he has turned to buying 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; as well as several regional electric and gas utilities. According to the Forbes Global 2000 list and formula Berkshire Hathaway is the ninth largest public company in the world. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berkshire_Hathaway Front running is the illegal practice of a stockbroker executing orders on a security for its own account while taking advantage of advance knowledge of pending orders from its customers. When orders previously submitted by its customers will predictably affect the price of the security, purchasing first for its own account gives the broker an unfair advantage, since it can expect to close out its position at a profit based on the new price level. The front running broker either buys for his own account (before filling customer buy orders that drive up the price), or sells (where the broker sells for its own account, before filling customer sell orders that drive down the price). Allegations of front running occasionally arise in stock and commodity exchanges, in scandals concerning floor brokers and exchange specialists. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Front_running David L. Sokol (born 1956) was a Chairman, President and CEO of NetJets along with Chairman of MidAmerican Energy Holdings Company, of which Berkshire Hathaway holds a 100% and 89.8% stake respectively. He resigned March 28, 2011. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Sokol

• published: 10 Nov 2013
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