Furthermore, Berkshire does not try to entice visitors or market any services through its website. Its only purpose is shareholder communication, and for that, this website is one step removed from sending those by fax.
At least Warren does it in the CEO's message :) https://www.berkshirehathaway.com/message.html
> Furthermore, Berkshire does not try to entice visitors or market any services through its website. Its only purpose is shareholder communication, and for that, this website is one step removed from sending those by fax.
That's exactly what the post says:
> The official website is built for the shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway. It’s not built to convert customers. It’s not built for you or me. Shareholders are really only concerned with very specific things: news releases, reports and letters from Warren Buffett to name a few.
The insurance business is Berkshire's primary business, and all the cash generated from premiums (the float), which is just theirs to do with what they please until claims come in, is what has allowed it to invest and buy other businesses.
Warren Buffet still appeals to Middle Americans even though his company has been at the heart of just about everything that went wrong in finance and business in the 2010s.
For instance, they bought a number of food-related brands such as Kraft, made changes that damaged the taste of the products, and seemed blindsided when sales fell. They replaced the cheese in Kraft Mac and Cheese with Milk Protein Concentrate from China, which hurt the sensory qualities of the product dramatically. Within a few years, most store brands had made the change to keep up.
Later on I saw Kraft MC ads all over NYC asking you to remember how much you liked it when you were small that don't tell you that it tastes much worse than it did then. They'll sell you a box, sure, but then you'll spit it out and never buy it again.
Jim Cramer has talked about the decline of big food brands on his show many times, but he doesn't say Warren Buffet or Berkshire Hathaway has anything to do with it because he can do no wrong in the eyes of media companies that are swimming in Geico ad cash.
Similarly, CNBC sends Becky Quick out to Omaha as often as they can. The oldsters in the audience really likes Warren Buffet and Warren Buffet thinks Becky Quick is a babe (I sure do) and leers at her more and more as dementia claims his mind. It is in plain view but doesn't get talked about because the media can't get enough of that Gecko.
When I read an article like that I don't think the author got paid off, it's just they see that all the respectable people act as if they'd been paid off so you can look respectable by acting as if you were paid off too. It's like those fake influencers who can't get paid but pretend they do because maybe someday they will be.
Almost all the content is intended for investors, and that's behind the link at the top right.