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The Berkshire Hathaway sure can look like that precisely because it’s the website of Berkshire Hathaway, an established and trusted holding company - pretty muc

The Berkshire Hathaway sure can look like that precisely because it’s the website of Berkshire Hathaway, an established and trusted holding company - pretty much the hallmark of blue chip investment. 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.

zaroth 7y ago
Funny enough, they do find space for a Geico ad on the page.
- kenneth 7y ago
  Geico is most important company in the Berkshire Hathaway portfolio, and is wholly owned by Berkshire Hathaway. 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.
- PaulHoule 7y ago
  Also, Berkshire Hathaway is a master at PR, and the "aw shucks" authenticity of Warren Buffet is a centerpiece of it. 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.
kbumsik 7y ago
> Berkshire does not try to entice visitors or market any services through its website At least Warren does it in the CEO's message :) https://www.berkshirehathaway.com/message.html https://www.berkshirehathaway.com/message.html
barkingcat 7y ago
I wouldn't be surprised if one of the reasons the site has remained this way is that people do fax this site to shareholders. In some cases that's a requirement.
davio 7y ago
I thought I typo'd the URL and was getting hacked the first time I went to their site. That was in the 2000s.
gav 7y ago
Another example is Alphabet: https://abc.xyz/ https://abc.xyz/ Almost all the content is intended for investors, and that's behind the link at the top right.
JadeNB 7y ago
> The Berkshire Hathaway sure can look like that precisely because it’s the website of Berkshire Hathaway, an established and trusted holding company - pretty much the hallmark of blue chip investment. > 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.
- flyinglizard 7y ago
  Yes, but even those functions could be filled by something which doesn’t look like a printout of 1994 lynx session. It’s a statement. It’s unfashionably fashionable.
- perl4ever 7y ago
  I'm not sure that theory makes sense. If you want SEC filings, you can get them at sec.gov, which is also kind of retro.
  - JadeNB 7y ago
    I'm not advancing any theory, only pointing out that what flyinglizard said (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22867783 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22867783) is what the article said.

zaroth 7y ago

Funny enough, they do find space for a Geico ad on the page.

kenneth 7y ago
Geico is most important company in the Berkshire Hathaway portfolio, and is wholly owned by Berkshire Hathaway. 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.
PaulHoule 7y ago
Also, Berkshire Hathaway is a master at PR, and the "aw shucks" authenticity of Warren Buffet is a centerpiece of it. 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.

kbumsik 7y ago

> Berkshire does not try to entice visitors or market any services through its website At least Warren does it in the CEO's message :) https://www.berkshirehathaway.com/message.html https://www.berkshirehathaway.com/message.html

barkingcat 7y ago

I wouldn't be surprised if one of the reasons the site has remained this way is that people do fax this site to shareholders. In some cases that's a requirement.

davio 7y ago

I thought I typo'd the URL and was getting hacked the first time I went to their site. That was in the 2000s.

gav 7y ago

Another example is Alphabet: https://abc.xyz/ https://abc.xyz/ Almost all the content is intended for investors, and that's behind the link at the top right.

JadeNB 7y ago

> The Berkshire Hathaway sure can look like that precisely because it’s the website of Berkshire Hathaway, an established and trusted holding company - pretty much the hallmark of blue chip investment. > 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.

flyinglizard 7y ago
Yes, but even those functions could be filled by something which doesn’t look like a printout of 1994 lynx session. It’s a statement. It’s unfashionably fashionable.
perl4ever 7y ago
I'm not sure that theory makes sense. If you want SEC filings, you can get them at sec.gov, which is also kind of retro.
- JadeNB 7y ago
  I'm not advancing any theory, only pointing out that what flyinglizard said (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22867783 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22867783) is what the article said.