Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett said he will resign before the end of the year.
Mr. Buffett, 94, turned Berkshire Hathaway, a former textile company, into a powerful business investor and made billions of dollars in the process.
Reflect on some of the decisive moments in his life.
August 30, 1930
“Omaha’s Oracle”
In August 1930, Mr. Buffett was born in Omaha, Leila and Howard Buffett, an investment banker and future Republican Congressman.
At the age of 9, he began to study the stock market.
“I used to draw various inventory, the more the better,” he told The New York Times magazine in 1990.
Before returning to Omaha, he studied at the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Nebraska, and the Columbia Business School.
1959
Meet Charlie T. Munger
In 1959, Mr. Buffett met with Charles T. Munger after introducing each other to each other in Omaha. They started their business together soon after, and worked together for more than 50 years.
In 2015, Mr. Buffett attributed his credit to Mr. Munger, who became Vice Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway in 1978 and created the business structure.
In a letter, Mr. Buffett reviewed the company’s first 50 years.
Mr. Munger passed away in 2023.
1963
See the salad oil as
After the public learned that the company had provided tens of millions of dollars in warehouse receipts, American Express shares spread throughout 1963, and the stock was a warehouse receipt for salad oil that did not exist in the warehouse subsidiary. The inspector was fooled by the bucket with salad oil on it and the receipt was forged.
Mr. Buffett, who was notorious at the time, found an opportunity and put $13 million into American Express because it had strong assets besides the entity involved in the salad oil scandal.
Purchasing was considered one of his earliest investment successes. Berkshire Hathaway is now the largest shareholder in American Express.
1965
Company trades textiles
Mr. Buffett first bought stock in December 1962 at the time of Berkshire Hathaway. He continued to buy stocks for years and formally controlled the business in May 1965, transforming it into a group holding company.
In a letter commemorating the 50th anniversary of the company, Mr. Buffett said he regretted spending a lot of money on Berkshire stock he acquired in the early 1960s. He closed his textile business in 1985.
1993
“Scary” error
Mr. Buffett remained open to his investment mistakes, and in his 50th anniversary letter, he called Berkshire Hathaway the “most terrible” mistake of buying Dexter Shoe in 1993.
Berkshire Hathaway bought Maine-based footwear maker Dexter Shoe for $433 million, and its value quickly dropped to zero.
“As a financial disaster, this disaster deserves a place in the Guinness World Records,” he wrote.
Mr. Buffett is one of the richest people in the world, when he said in 2006 that he planned to donate most of his wealth to the Gates Foundation and four other charities.
Four years later, Mr. Buffett, Bill and Melinda Gates invited other wealthy Americans to make similar commitments.
Mr. Buffett told the Wall Street Journal in 2024 that the foundation will no longer receive his money after his death. The money will go to a charitable trust supervised by his daughter and two sons.
May 3, 2025
Buffett quits
At Berkshire’s annual shareholder meeting on Saturday, Mr. Buffett announced that he was resigning.
Mr. Buffett said he hopes Berkshire’s non-insurance vice-chairman Gregory E. Abel will take over as CEO by the end of the year.
Buffett, the single largest shareholder of Berkshire, will continue to serve as chairman of the company.
