(That is the Warren Buffett Watch publication, information and evaluation on all issues Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway. You may enroll right here to obtain it each Friday night in your inbox.)
Todd Combs’ shock departure from Berkshire Hathaway obtained many of the consideration when it was introduced this week.
There have been additionally, nevertheless, a number of extra personnel adjustments in Monday’s three-page information launch that sign the corporate is transferring towards a extra standard construction as Warren Buffett prepares to switch his CEO title to Greg Abel in lower than three weeks.
Todd Combs in 2014 CNBC interview
Combs goes to JPMorgan Chase subsequent month to move a $10 billion “Strategic Funding Group” for the corporate’s new $1.5 trillion “Safety and Resiliency Initiative” to assist “firms improve their development, spur innovation and speed up manufacturing, primarily in america.”
Combs has been on JPM’s board since 2016 however is leaving that put up as he takes the brand new job.
In its information launch, JPM’s Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon known as Combs “one of many best traders and leaders I’ve recognized.”
In Berkshire’s announcement, Warren Buffett is quoted as saying “JPMorgan, as normally is the case, has made an excellent choice,” praising Combs for making “many nice hires at GEICO.”
Combs, who’s 54 years previous, joined Berkshire in 2010 as a portfolio supervisor.
In 2020, he obtained an extra position as CEO of Geico, Berkshire’s auto insurer, including to hypothesis he would possibly grow to be Buffett’s future successor.
At Might’s annual assembly, insurance coverage Chief Ajit Jain mentioned Combs “has carried out an amazing job for us by way of turning round” Geico’s operations, citing enhancements in “matching fee to threat” and incorporating telematics, the digital monitoring of how policyholders drive, in setting charges.
However Jain added, “I nonetheless assume we have to do extra in know-how.”
The duty of doing extra in know-how at Geico now belongs to its new CEO, Nancy Pierce, who strikes up from chief working officer. She’s been on the insurer since 1986, when she began as a claims affiliate.
The query of who will probably be assuming Combs’ duties as portfolio supervisor, nevertheless, remains to be open.
Altering the ‘Berkshire Means’
Buffett has been saying Abel may have general accountability for the portfolio, nevertheless it’s not clear how a lot of that accountability will probably be delegated to the opposite portfolio supervisor, Ted Weschler.
Berkshire may additionally rent a number of extra portfolio managers and Buffett himself, in his position as chairman, may assist fill the hole left by Combs.
Historically, Berkshire has been opaque about who’s been answerable for the smaller holdings in its portfolio and hasn’t mentioned a lot in regards to the portfolio managers’ monitor data.
In an e mail to Buffett Watch, Hudson Worth Companions’ Christopher Davis urges Berkshire to “grow to be extra clear in regards to the roles and duties of Abel and Wechsler in managing the general public fairness portfolio.
“All of us love the ‘Berkshire method’, however there must be some concessions to the actual fact it’s now a trillion-dollar enterprise present process its first management transition.”
Todd Combs walks to the morning session of the annual Allen and Co. Solar Valley media convention in Solar Valley, Idaho, U.S. July 7, 2021.
Brian Losness | Reuters
A number of aspects of that transition are transferring the corporate away from the famously decentralized “Berkshire method.”
Greg Abel has already been exercising extra administration oversight over the non-insurance working firms than Buffett ever did.
Now a few of them are getting an extra layer of administration.
Adam Johnson, the chairman and CEO of NetJets, has been appointed to the newly created position of “President of the Client Merchandise, Service and Retailing companies of Berkshire Hathaway.”
Calling him an “achieved chief with a confirmed capacity to ship long-term shareholder worth,” Abel says in Monday’s information launch that Johnson will “help the excellent CEOs of our 32 shopper merchandise, service and retailing companies, and uphold Berkshire’s tradition and values.”
The remaining non-insurance subsidiaries, together with BNSF, Berkshire Hathaway Vitality, and Pilot, will nonetheless be reporting on to Abel.
NetJets CEO Adam Johnson. (NetJets.com)
Berkshire can also be getting its first common counsel.
Michael O’Sullivan served in that position at Snap Inc. since 2017 after working towards regulation at Munger, Tolles & Olson for greater than twenty years.
Up till now, Berkshire has turned to exterior regulation companies to deal with its authorized issues.
(I would not be shocked to see Berkshire add investor, media, and authorities relations departments to its notoriously low-overhead Omaha HQ sooner or later subsequent yr.
I do not assume, alternatively, that Berkshire will probably be paying a dividend so long as Buffett continues to return into the workplace.)
Lastly, in a extra conventional transition, Chief Monetary Officer Marc Hamburg will retire subsequent June after 40 years at Berkshire.
Within the information launch, Buffett mentioned Hamburg has been “indispensable” and “has carried out extra for this firm than lots of our shareholders will ever know.”
His successor will probably be Berkshire Hathaway Vitality CFO Charles Chang.
It is quite a lot of change for a corporation that hasn’t modified a lot through the years.
Keefe, Bruyette & Woods analyst Meyer Shields advised the Wall Avenue Journal, “There’s a lot emotional funding within the persistence of Berkshire as a tradition that when you’ve got decent-sized adjustments, that is going to trigger extra fear than jubilation over the corporate’s dynamism. That is not why folks personal Berkshire Hathaway.”
KBW downgraded Berkshire shares to “underperform” earlier this yr, partly as a consequence of Buffett’s impending departure.
Each the A and B shares weathered the storm fairly effectively this week, falling nearly 1%, though they’re nonetheless down greater than 7% from their all-time highs in Might, simply earlier than Buffett revealed he would step down as CEO on the finish of the yr.
BUFFETT AROUND THE INTERNET
Some hyperlinks might require a subscription:
HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE ARCHIVE
What has been your greatest funding? (2005)
AUDIENCE MEMBER: What has been the one greatest funding of your careers?
WARREN BUFFETT: Most likely, by way of what it is carried out already and the place it should go over time, in all probability the one greatest funding was the primary half of GEICO, which we bought for $40 million. Now the second half value us 2 billion. I am glad I did not purchase it in thirds. (Laughter)
However, you already know, that 40 million will — for half the corporate — will prove very effectively.
However GEICO — a few of our companies have development potential, some do not. And we do not require development potential as a part of a enterprise.
If a enterprise makes good cash and we will use it to purchase different companies, one of many benefits of the Berkshire system is we now have a tax environment friendly and type of frictionless method of transferring cash to the most effective alternatives. And GEICO, internally, has nonetheless monumental potentialities for development.
CHARLIE MUNGER: Nicely, however GEICO, in any case, value $2 billion for the second half and —
WARREN BUFFETT: Proper.
CHARLIE MUNGER: — a big variety of tens of hundreds of thousands for the primary half.
Now the search bills that introduced us Ajit Jain, now there was an funding that basically paid a dividend.
I can consider no increased return funding that we have ever made that was higher than that one. (Applause)
And I feel that is an excellent life lesson. In different phrases, getting the fitting folks into your system can incessantly be extra vital than the rest.
BERKSHIRE STOCK WATCH
BRK.A inventory value: $748,887.00
BRK.B inventory value: $499.52
BRK.B P/E (TTM): 15.97
Berkshire market capitalization: $1,077,426,505,703
Berkshire Money as of September 30: $381.7 billion (Up 10.9% from June 30)
Excluding Rail Money and Subtracting T-Payments Payable: $354.3 billion (Up 4.3% from June 30)
No Berkshire inventory repurchases since Might 2024.
(All figures are as of the date of publication, until in any other case indicated)
BERKSHIRE’S TOP EQUITY HOLDINGS – Dec. 12, 2025
Berkshire’s high holdings of disclosed publicly traded shares within the U.S. and Japan, by market worth, based mostly on the newest closing costs.
Holdings are as of September 30, 2025, as reported in Berkshire Hathaway’s 13F submitting on November 14, 2025, aside from:
The complete listing of holdings and present market values is out there from CNBC.com’s Berkshire Hathaway Portfolio Tracker.
QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS
Please ship any questions or feedback in regards to the publication to me at alex.crippen@cnbc.com. (Sorry, however we do not ahead questions or feedback to Buffett himself.)
When you aren’t already subscribed to this article, you may enroll right here.
Additionally, Buffett’s annual letters to shareholders are extremely really helpful studying. There are collected right here on Berkshire’s web site.
— Alex Crippen, Editor, Warren Buffett Watch
(Correction: Fixes misspelling of Combs’ title.)
