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WARREN BUFFETT

American businessman and philanthropist
Alternate titles: Warren Edward Buffett
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By The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica | View Edit History

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Warren Buffett
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Born: August 30, 1930 (age 91) Omaha Nebraska ...(Show more) Awards And Honors:
Presidential Medal of Freedom (2011) ...(Show more)
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Warren Buffett, in full Warren Edward Buffett, (born August 30, 1930, Omaha,
Nebraska, U.S.), American businessman and philanthropist, widely considered the
most successful investor of the 20th century, having defied prevailing
investment trends to amass a personal fortune of more than $60 billion.

Known as the “Oracle of Omaha,” Buffett was the son of U.S. Rep. Howard Homan
Buffett from Nebraska. After graduating from the University of Nebraska (B.S.,
1950), he studied with Benjamin Graham at the Columbia University School of
Business (M.S., 1951). In 1956 Buffett returned to Omaha and in 1965 took
majority control of the textile manufacturer Berkshire Hathaway Inc., turning it
into his primary investment vehicle. From the 1960s through the ’90s the major
stock averages rose by roughly 11 percent annually, but Berkshire Hathaway’s
publicly traded shares gained about 28 percent per year. Though Buffett’s
success with Berkshire Hathaway made him one of the world’s wealthiest men, he
eschewed lavish spending and criticized governmental policies and taxation that
favoured the rich over the middle or lower classes.

In June 2006 Buffett announced that he planned to donate more than 80 percent of
his wealth to a handful of private charitable foundations. The main recipient
was the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation—created by Microsoft founder Bill Gates
and his wife—which focused on issues of world health and education. Gates and
Buffett had maintained a close friendship since the early 1990s, and the
foundation was slated to receive Buffett’s funds in increments that would
eventually raise its assets to an estimated $60 billion. The other organizations
receiving donations were those run by Buffett’s three children and the Susan
Thompson Buffett Foundation, named for his late wife, which focused on women’s
reproductive rights and funded college scholarship programs.

During the subprime mortgage crisis of 2007–08, Buffett made a number of deals
that, though questioned at the time, proved highly profitable. In September 2008
he invested $5 billion in the U.S.-based bank holding company Goldman Sachs
Group, Inc., and the following month Berkshire Hathaway purchased $3 billion in
General Electric Company (GE) preferred stock. In November 2009 Buffett
announced that Berkshire was buying the railroad company Burlington Northern
Santa Fe Corporation for about $26 billion; the investment group already owned
approximately 23 percent of the railroad. In 2011 Buffett was awarded the
Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Warren Buffett (left) and U.S. Pres. Barack Obama, 2011.
Pete Souza—Official White House Photo
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This article was most recently revised and updated by Amy Tikkanen.


LEARN MORE IN THESE RELATED BRITANNICA ARTICLES:

 * Omaha: The contemporary city
   …home of investor and philanthropist Warren Buffett, the “Oracle of Omaha,”
   whose firm, Berkshire Hathaway Inc., is a Fortune 500 company. Despite a
   sharp decline in the local meatpacking industry, food processing remains an
   important source of employment, and other agriculture-related activities are
   important to the economy of the metropolitan…
 * Gates Foundation
   …2006, the investor and philanthropist Warren Buffett made a lifetime pledge
   to the foundation of Berkshire Hathaway stock valued at $31 billion. At that
   time the foundation changed its structure, creating a trust (the Bill &
   Melinda Gates Foundation Trust) to manage and invest the endowment assets. In
   July 2008,…
 * Bill Gates
   In June 2006 Warren Buffett announced an ongoing gift to the foundation,
   which would allow its assets to total roughly $60 billion in the next 20
   years. At the beginning of the 21st century, the foundation continued to
   focus on global health and global development, as well as…

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