Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, and JPMorgan Chase are creating a new business designed to lower healthcare costs for US-based employees in a move that could shake up the managed-care industry.
The companies were not specific about what kind of enterprise they aim to create, noting only that they wanted to improve employee satisfaction while reducing costs, according to a joint release. Still, the news was enough to send shares of managed-care providers lower. [...]
Berkshire Hathaway Utility Unit Shuffles Top Executives
Berkshire Hathaway is shuffling the executives in charge of its utility unit after promoting Greg Abel to oversee all of Berkshire's non-insurance businesses.
Abel's promotion to vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway was announced Wednesday. Following that move, Berkshire promoted MidAmerican Energy CEO William Fehrman to replace Abel at Berkshire Hathaway Energy. [...]
Berkshire Hathaway Energy includes MidAmerican, PacifiCorp, NV Energy and several other utilities.
With Fehrman moving up to oversee Berkshire Hathaway Energy, Des Moines, Iowa-based MidAmerican promoted Adam Wright to be its new CEO. [...]
Ajit Jain Reports $109 Million Stake in Berkshire Hathaway
One of Warren Buffett’s top deputies has amassed a stake in Berkshire Hathaway Inc. valued at more than $100 million.
Ajit Jain, the insurance executive who was named a vice chairman of Buffett’s conglomerate earlier this month, disclosed the holdings in a regulatory filing on Thursday. A large portion of the stake is held by a foundation and trusts in his family’s name, and his wife also owns some of the shares. Jain directly controls about $22 million of the stock. [...]
Potential Buffett Heir Reveals What May Be Just the Start of His Berkshire Stake
[...] A regulatory filing on Friday shows Abel indirectly holds about $2.1 million of stock in the Omaha, Nebraska-based company. But a separate disclosure last year noted an agreement that could catapult his holdings higher. That filing showed he could convert a stake in Berkshire’s energy business into more than $400 million of stock in the conglomerate.
The new filing was triggered by his promotion last week to vice chairman for non-insurance operations at Berkshire, a position that will put him in charge of businesses ranging from BNSF Railway to Dairy Queen. [...]
Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway had an amazing 2017. 2018 isn’t looking too bad, either.
[...] The Jain and Abel ascension followed a momentous 2017 for Berkshire Hathaway that saw the company’s “A” shares break $300,000 per share. It closed at $320,000 on Thursday, but you can still buy the Berkshire “baby B” shares for $213.
Also last year, Berkshire’s cash-on-hand surpassed $100 billion as Buffett/Munger scurried to find new investments. The Republican tax plan that became law late last month gifted a one-time, $37 billion windfall to Berkshire shareholders, which helped raise the stock price.
Not least of all, Buffett won a $1 million, decade-old bet with a hedge-fund bigwig. Buffett said he could do better than a portfolio of hedge funds by investing in boring, index fund over 10 years. Buffett gave the money to Girls Inc., one of his favorite charities.
So where does Berkshire Hathaway go from here? [...]
Iscar Wants to Expand Galilee Factory, but It Can’t Find Workers
Iscar, the Israeli maker of machine tools owned by U.S. billionaire investor Warren Buffett, wanted to build an additional plant at its headquarters in the Galilee town of Tefen. Eli Cohen, the minister of economy and industry, was there to help with an offer of a 50-dunam (12.5-acre) site at no cost.
Cohen wanted to ensure that as Iscar grows, it grows in Israel, rather than just overseas. But it doesn’t look like the plant will be built after all, and that’s because there aren’t enough skilled workers to hire, sources close to the company told TheMarker. [...]
New headquaters, expanding workforce at Guard
Berkshire Hathaway Guard Insurance, having moved its headquarters to downtown Wilkes-Barre’s Public Square, is now in the process of filling about 170 jobs it says have been made possible by the move.
The project, which began late last year, is well underway with many departments having moved to the building at 39 Public Square, which Westguard Insurance Co. purchased for just over $5 million in November, according to Guard officials. [...]
GUARD’s annual sales have grown sixfold to approximately $1.2 billion since 2007, and the insurer had run out of space for its more than 675 employees, most of them working in five different spots in the downtown.
Wilkes-Barre, wanting to retain the company, facilitated a $1 million Local Share Account grant to help the project. The state added another $855,000 grant. [...]
Your Next Running Shoes Will Be Custom-Built for You
[...] biomechanical assessment, part of a service and philosophy that Brooks calls Run Signature, has long been in use by the company to help guide its customers to the best-fitting shoe in its arsenal. But the options so far have been limited to what Brooks can sell off the shelf.
Now Brooks, the top brand in specialty running with 25% of the shoe market, according to the NPD Group, wants to take that a step further. The company is working with tech stalwart HP to marry a runner’s gait information with a three-dimensional foot scan generated by HP’s new FitStation device. HP’s technology can measure pressure along the foot as it lands in each stride. The data help Brooks determine how much polyurethane to inject in a shoe’s sole to achieve the right density for as many as 30 zones of your foot.
At a time when Adidas, Nike, and other sportswear companies limit footwear customization to color and material, Berkshire Hathaway–owned Brooks seeks to create running shoes with customized performance elements as well as build data-rich digital customer profiles. [...]
Philanthropist Susie Buffett to help launch Navy's newest littoral combat ship into fleet
The Navy's newest Independence-class littoral combat ship will join the nation's fleet Saturday with a commissioning ceremony in San Diego, and the future USS Omaha has close ties to the family of Berkshire Hathaway Chairman and CEO Warren Buffett.
Susie Buffett, an Omaha philanthropist and the billionaire's daughter, is serving as the ship's sponsor. [...]
Warren Buffett is expected to attend along with other prominent leaders from Nebraska. [...]
Back in 2015, she formally christened the future USS Omaha at the Austal USA shipyard in Mobile, Alabama, with a bottle of bubbly. [...]
