25%+Annual Return to its Shareholders for the Last 25 Years
Berkshire Hathaway, Inc.
The company was originally founded in 1839 as Valley Falls Company, a textile manufacturing company. In 1929 the Valley Falls Company merged with Berkshire Fine Spinning Associates, another textile company. The combined company was known as Berkshire Fine Spinning Associates. In 1955 Berkshire Spinning merged with the Hathaway Manufacturing Company and became Berkshire Hathaway.
In 1962, Warren Buffett began buying stock in Berkshire Hathaway. After some clashes with the Stanton family, he bought up enough shares to change the management, and soon controlled the company. Since then, the company has become a holding company for a number of subsidiaries.
Berkshire’s Class A shares, priced at $125,550 per share in February 2011 are the highest-priced shares on the New York Stock Exchange. The Company averaged a phenomenal 25%+ annual return to its shareholders for the last 25 years while employing large amounts of capital and minimal debt.
If you know of a company that started small and is big today, leave a comment.
