What is Berkshire Hathaway?

Berkshire Hathaway is a big company with diversified holdings that is headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska. It includes several “main interests” including GEICO, Borsheim’s, and the Berkshire Hathaway Life Insurance Company of Nebraska, two of which deal in insurance. The third, Borsheim’s, deals in luxury goods.

The Berkshire Hathaway company is owned by Warren Buffett. Buffett is a widely recognized investor in the United States, who often appears on television and in other media to offer opinions and commentary on economic and financial matters. His long track record of savvy investing has brought a lot of media attention to the company that he actively runs. To some who follow the financial world, it’s nearly impossible to separate the financial details of Buffett’s actual holdings from his renown as a “financial guru” with a kind of mythic status in the world of investment.

The Berkshire Hathaway company arose from two separate companies, Berkshire Fine Spinning Associates and the Hathaway Manufacturing Company, which focused on spinning and milling, respectively. These two merged to form Berkshire Hathaway, and later this company was acquired by Buffett. As the owner of the company, Buffett can take advantage of its structure to capitalize other investments. Reports indicate that where Buffett used to focus on buying stocks of publicly traded companies, his investment approach now favors the direct acquisition of companies and their assimilation into Berkshire Hathaway.

As part of regular communication to the public, Buffett has outlined the reasons why he believes consumers should utilize the services of all three of the major corporate interests mentioned above. GEICO remains a leader in the greater insurance industry, focusing on auto insurance, but also dealing in homeowner’s and renter’s policies, and even more diverse insurance products. The other two companies, Borsheim’s and the Berkshire Hathaway Life Insurance Company of Nebraska, also play a strong role in their industries, but GEICO is a fixture in the American media, and a very popular firm for economically minded consumers who need to insure their vehicles or property.

To some experts, GEICO symbolizes the most profound and aggressive part of the growth of the Berkshire Hathaway company. Over the past few years, Buffett and company leadership has built this brand into a well known presence in the insurance world, partially through iconic advertisement (chiefly, the cute little gecko that enjoys instant recognition nearly anywhere), and partly through persuading customers that GEICO can really offer lower rates. Others look at the greater strategies of the company and recognize the same shrewd financial philosophies that brought Warren Buffett so much fame as an individual.