Berkshire Hathaway News

Florida Jury: NICO Did Not Act in Bad Faith in Keys Crash that Killed 4 Women from Spain

Six months after a federal appeals court upheld a $12 million verdict against a waste-hauling company in a crash that killed four Spanish women in the Florida keys, a jury has found that the firm’s insurer did not act in …

Berkshire Unit Added to Lawsuit Over Inflated Real Estate Commissions

A unit of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway was added on Monday to a lawsuit accusing the National Association of Realtors and several brokerages of conspiring to keep real estate commissions artificially high nationwide. The complaint filed in a Kansas City, …

GEICO’s ‘Eye-Popping’ 2023 Insurance Profits, Falling Employee Counts

Even though Berkshire Hathaway’s latest annual report featured Warren Buffett’s forecast that the days of “eye-popping performance” for the giant conglomerate are over, readers focused on property/casualty insurance saw numbers that jumped off the pages. Among them were: A 2023 …

Berkshire Shows Unusual Risk Appetite in Wildfire Court Fight

Berkshire Hathaway Energy Co.’s PacifiCorp has been battered in an unprecedented court fight over the utility’s failure to prevent massive wildfire destruction in Oregon. The largest grid operator in the western US faces the risk that it will have to …

Berkshire Hathaway’s Buffett Talks Nuclear Risk and Tribalism

Shareholders attending Berkshire Hathaway’s annual meeting on Saturday had questions about what will happen to the conglomerate when Chairman Warren Buffett is no longer around to lead it. They also wanted to know how external problems of the world would …

Berkshire’s $11.6B Alleghany Deal Expands Insurance Business

Warren Buffett, who started the year bemoaning the lack of potential acquisitions for his conglomerate, Berkshire Hathaway, announced Monday that it would acquire the insurance company Alleghany for $11.6 billion. The scarcity of investment targets over the past several years …

Montana Court Upholds Most Points in Ruling That Cost Insurer $98M for Libby Mine Claims

The Montana Supreme Court upheld all but one point in a ruling that requires Berkshire Hathaway’s National Indemnity Co. to reimburse the state nearly $98 million for the cost of asbestos litigation tied to the Libby Mine. In a 6-1 …

Chemical Fire Draws Illinois National Guard; Locals Evacuate

A massive fire at a chemical plant in northern Illinois spurred the governor to deploy the National Guard to the area as local residents were evacuated. No injuries have been reported. The industrial fire broke out early Monday morning at …

Warren Buffett’s Duracell Sues Energizer Over Battery Life Claims

NEW YORK — Duracell, the battery unit of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc, sued the maker of Energizer batteries on Tuesday, accusing it falsely advertising that its Energizer MAX batteries last up to 50% longer than other alkaline batteries. The …

Auto Claims Climbed with Summer Reopenings, but Dropping Again as Virus Rages

The sharp reduction in personal auto claims that followed COVID-19 shutdown orders began to fade away after the Memorial Day weekend, but frequency appears to dropping again in reaction to a resurgence of the disease. Andy Cohen, chief operating officer …