Date: 2025-07-04 Page is: DBtxt003.php txt00028473
IMPRESSIVE PEOPLE
WARREN BUFFETT
Berkshire Hathaway’s Warren Buffett has announced he’ll retire by year-end.
WARREN BUFFETT
Berkshire Hathaway’s Warren Buffett has announced he’ll retire by year-end.
It’s the end of an era as Berkshire Hathaway’s Warren Buffett has
announced he’ll retire by year-end. Nati Harnik/Associated Press
Peter Burgess COMMENTARY
I have been an observer of Warren Buffett for most of my adult life ... essentially since I was in my 20s 60 years ago.
I remember the news commentary when he took over a failed textile company ... Berkshie Hathaway ... and started the process of repositioning the company to be an investment holding company.
I remember becoming aware that Warren Buffett did an order of magnitude more research before committing his funds to an investment than most of his peers. His investment success was deliberate, not accidental!
In most every way ... Warren Buffett is a class act!
Peter Burgess
Andrew Ross Sorkin
Mon, May 5, 2025 8:13 AM
DealBook
Good morning. The day that investors the world over knew was coming finally arrived on Saturday: Warren Buffett said that he planned to step down as Berkshire Hathaway’s C.E.O. I was on the ground when it happened — read my take below. (Was this newsletter forwarded to you? Sign up here.)
A conscience of capitalism prepares to step off the stage
It was closing in on 1 p.m. when Warren Buffett, seated onstage before a rapt audience of about 40,000 at the CHI Health Center in Omaha, said that he was getting a “5-minute warning.”
To most of those there for the annual meeting of Berkshire Hathaway, his company, it was simply a signal that the gathering — known as Woodstock for capitalists — was drawing to a close. No one knew that something historic was about to happen.
After 60 years of running the company he has called his painting, the 94-year-old Buffett said that he planned to step down as chief executive at year end. (Proving how much freedom he has always exercised at Berkshire, he surprised his own board and Greg Abel, his handpicked successor: “I want to spring that on the directors,” he said with a smile.)
People in the crowd, many of whom were in tears, rose from their seats in a standing ovation for a singular figure in the business world.
Buffett is often described as a symbol of American capitalism. The truth is that he has always been an outlier. He is more the conscience of capitalism, willing to speak uncomfortable truths about the system’s ills while others remained silent. (His public comments on issues like tariffs over the weekend are a prime example.)
The billionaire always comes across as a gentleman, and in an age of distrust he became someone people could trust. Fellow business moguls and government officials admired him because of his success, yes — Berkshire reported $89 billion in net profit last year, and it is one of the biggest buyers of U.S. Treasury bonds — but also because he didn’t appear to have changed despite his wealth. He lives in a modest house in Omaha, and for years drove his own car, including to the drive-through at McDonald’s.
Buffett isn’t perfect, something he often acknowledges, and he has urged his followers to stay humble as he discussed his own investing mistakes and misses. But that also got to one of his biggest accomplishments, using his annual Berkshire letters and marathon Q. and A. sessions with shareholders to educate generations about business, investing and life itself.
After the announcement, I was struck by a social media post from someone I wouldn’t have normally considered to be a Berkshire watcher, who perfectly encapsulated the importance of Buffett and his longtime business partner, the late Charlie Munger. “They were the good investors, dealers in reality, patient,” wrote Nick Denton, the founder of Gawker. “When the history of the rise and fall of America is written, one of the chapters will begin in Omaha, with their departure.”
As Buffett prepares to depart, the big question is: What will happen to his masterpiece once it passes to Abel?
It has been apparent for several years now that on a day-to-day basis, Abel is already running large swaths of Berkshire’s operations, so the shift likely won’t be dramatic. But the scrutiny of “Abel’s Berkshire” will undoubtedly increase: The company wasn’t built just as a collection of disparate businesses, but as the vision of one man.
Abel has said he will seek to maintain the culture that his boss meticulously built. But things will inevitably become different. Berkshire’s board gave Buffett an unparalleled degree of autonomy to operate as he saw fit, often learning about significant deals he had struck only after the fact.
Abel will have to work hard to earn even some of that latitude, and under him Berkshire is likely to operate with more guardrails. But there is speculation that Buffett will remain chairman for some period, which could afford Abel more freedom as he grows into the top job.
Nevertheless, Buffett’s success, and the company he built, were exceptional. What investors gathered in Omaha this weekend, and the world over, want to know is what comes next.