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Matthias Knab, Opalesque:

Vintage Value Investing publishes on Harvest Exchange:

Warren Buffett is arguably the most famous (and most successful) investor of all time. As chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK.A) (NYSE:BRK.B), Buffett oversees a $150 billion portfolio of common stock investments. Unfortunately, Buffett's tenure with Berkshire Hathaway will come to an end one day as he is currently 86 years old.

In a recent Bloomberg interview, Buffett said that if he were to die tomorrow, Berkshire's board would know "exactly who to put" as CEO and Buffett's son, Howard, would become the company's non-executive chairman.

While a succession plan appears to be in place, there has been much speculation about the future of Berkshire once Buffett is no longer at the helm. One of the possibilities is breaking up the company's various operating units into individual corporate entities.

This post will analyze the possibility of a Berkshire breakup in detail.

Business overview

Berkshire Hathaway is a diversified conglomerate with literally hundreds of operating subsidiaries. For reporting purposes, here is how Berkshire divides the company:

• Insurance: $50.4 billion of 2016 revenues
• BNSF: $19.8 billion of 2016 revenues
• Berkshire Hathaway Energy: $......................

  To view our full article Click here