Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, one of America’s largest companies with a market value of around $1 trillion, maintains a website that appears frozen in time. The site’s design harkens back to the early days of the internet, with a stark white background and a simple list of hyperlinks. This barebones approach stands in stark contrast to the company’s financial might and Buffett’s own $144 billion net worth.
The homepage of Berkshire Hathaway, which ranks as the seventh-largest public company in the United States, features little more than the company’s name and address, a text advertisement for Geico insurance, and an invitation for feedback via traditional mail. The site warns visitors that due to limited staffing, they shouldn’t expect a written response.
Despite its outdated appearance, the website is not entirely neglected. It receives quarterly updates with new earnings reports and occasional additions when Buffett deems information important enough to warrant a new link on the homepage. For instance, in 2021, he added a clarification regarding Berkshire’s investment in Activision Blizzard.
The deliberate simplicity of Berkshire’s online presence is believed to be a reflection of Buffett’s personal philosophy and the company’s corporate culture. Lawrence Cunningham, director of the University of Delaware’s Weinberg Center on Corporate Governance and author of several books on Buffett and Berkshire, suggests that the website embodies Buffett’s principles of frugality and decentralization. With a small team based in Omaha, the focus is on efficiency rather than extravagance.
Buffett’s reputation for thriftiness is well-documented. The 94-year-old billionaire is known for his modest lifestyle choices, including eating breakfast at McDonald’s, maintaining a relatively low salary of $100,000 for over four decades without bonuses or stock awards, and residing in the same house he purchased in the 1950s.
Berkshire Hathaway’s corporate structure, a vast network of
autonomously operated businesses including Geico, See’s Candies, Fruit of the Loom, and BNSF Railway, is overseen by Buffett and a small team at headquarters. Their primary focus is on managing the profits generated by these subsidiaries and allocating resources within and outside the company.
Longtime Berkshire shareholders and financial experts view the website’s simplicity as an asset rather than a liability. Chris Bloomstran, president of Semper Augustus Investments, praises the site for providing easy access to decades of financial reports, shareholder letters, news releases, and subsidiary websites in one centralized location. He sees it as a reflection of Berkshire’s minimalist approach to corporate overhead and bureaucracy.
Darren Pollock, a portfolio manager at Cheviot Value Management, believes the website aligns with Buffett’s perception of Berkshire shareholders as individuals who prioritize hard data over flashy presentations and substance over style. In Pollock’s view, these investors appreciate management’s focus on cost-efficiency rather than unnecessary expenditures on website upgrades.
David Kass, a finance professor at the University of Maryland who has followed Buffett’s career for nearly four decades, describes the website as investor-oriented, efficient, and user-friendly. He sees it as a demonstration of Buffett’s commitment to minimizing costs at Berkshire, noting that the billionaire’s car license plate in Nebraska once read “THRIFTY.”
In essence, Berkshire Hathaway’s antiquated website serves as a digital embodiment of Warren Buffett’s business philosophy,
emphasizing simplicity, efficiency, and frugality. While it may appear outdated to casual observers, for Berkshire investors and followers of Buffett, the site represents a deliberate choice that aligns with the company’s core values and operational approach.