Berkshire Hathaway shares fall 5% as board OKs Warren Buffetts replacement

Shares in Berkshire Hathaway slipped Monday morning after the board approved Greg Abel to take over as president on Jan.1, 2026, following legendary investor Warren Buffett’s shocking announcement over the weekend that he plans to step down after 60 years at the helm.Along with approving Abel, 62, as successor, the board unanimously voted for Buffett, 94, to remain as chairman, the company said.

The longtime chairman has a net worth of $168.2 billion, according to Forbes.Berkshire Hathaway Class A shares, the company’s original stock offering, and Class B shares, first issued in 1996 and trading at a more moderate price, each fell about 5.5% by approximately 10 a.m.ET.Buffett waited until the last minute on Saturday at his annual shareholder meeting – dubbed the “Woodstock for Capitalists,” drawing around 20,000 attendees this year – to make the surprise announcement.“I think the time has arrived where Greg should become the chief executive officer of the company at year end,” he said.Buffett hand-picked Abel, a Canadian businessman who helped build the corporation’s energy unit into a major US power provider, in 2021 to take the reins at the $1.16 trillion conglomerate.

He currently serves as vice chairman.“I would still hang around and could conceivably be useful in a few cases.But the final word would be what Greg said, in operations, in capital deployment, whatever it might be,” Buffett added.Investors are concerned that Abel won’t be able to match the legacy and investing genius of Buffett, who bought his first stock at 11 years old in 1942.Buffett studied from the infamous economist Benjamin Graham, known as the “father of value investing” and author of “The Intelligent Investor,” at Columbia Business School.And he was born in the right place and time – making sizable railway investments and betting big on small firms, starting his career before trillions of dollars had been funneled into the stock market.These early invest...