FOX Business host Charles Payne reflects on Warren Buffett’s legacy on his last day as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway ‘To Make Money.’
Berkshire Hathaway shares fell on Friday, a day after CEO Warren Buffett left after a 60-year run.
The 95-year-old officially stepped down on Thursday, and his successor Greg Abel, who started at Berkshire in 2000 and served as vice chairman of its board of directors, took over on Friday.
In Friday afternoon trading, Berkshire Hathaway’s Class A shares were down 1.5% at 3 pm ET.
In Warren’s last year as CEO, the conglomerate gained 10.9%, according to CNBC.
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Berkshire Hathaway shares fell on Friday, a day after CEO Warren Buffett stepped down after a 60-year run. (Daniel Zuchnik/WireImage/Getty Images)
“Berkshire has the least chance of a catastrophic disaster of any business I know,” Buffett wrote in a farewell letter to shareholders in November. “Also, Berkshire has management and a board that is more aware of shareholders than most anywhere a company I am familiar with (and have seen a lot of).
“Berkshire will always be managed in a way that will make its presence an asset in the United States and avoid activities that could lead it to be a petitioner. Over time, our managers should grow very rich – they have important responsibilities – but they have no desire for power wealth or look to me.”
In a personal letter, at the end of his long book, he advises, “Greatness does not it happens through the accumulation of large sums of money, large amounts of advertising or large amounts of power in the government. If you help someone in any of the myriad ways, you help the world. Kindness is inexpensive but also priceless. Whether you believe it or not, it’s hard to beat the Golden Rule as a moral guideline.”
Buffett also praised Abel.
“Greg Abel is more than the big reach I expected from him when I first thought he should be the next CEO of Berkshire,” he wrote. “He understands many of our businesses and employees better than I do now, and he’s a very quick learner about many things senior management doesn’t even think about.
Greg Abel officially became Berkshire Hathaway CEO on Friday. (Dan Brouillette/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
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“I can’t think of a CEO, management consultant, academic, member of government – you name it – that I would choose over Greg to manage your savings and mine.”
Buffett plans to stay on as chairman.
Buffett has been grooming Abel to be his successor for years, telling CNBC in 2021, “The directors agreed that if something happens to me tonight, it will be Greg who takes over tomorrow morning.”
Shareholders attend the annual meeting of shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway Inc, in Omaha, Neb., May 3, 2025. (Reuters/Brendan McDermid)
He announced that he would step down at the end of the year in May, telling the crowd at his annual shareholder meeting, “I think the time has come when Greg should be the CEO of the company at the end of the year.”
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The 95-year-old took over Berkshire in 1965 with his late business partner Charlie Munger, then a failing textile company.
The conglomerate is now worth more than $1 trillion, and Buffett is worth more than $168 billion, even though he still lives in the small Nebraska home he bought for $31,500 in 1958.
