There was very little in the way of news in the annual letter to Berkshire Hathaway Inc. shareholders that Warren Buffett released Saturday morning. Buffett did mention that “Berkshire had a good year in 2022,” with operating earnings of $30.8 billion, and disclosed that subsidiary See’s Candies sold $400,309, or 11 tons, of its peanut brittle and chocolates at last year’s annual meeting in Omaha. But the main thing that stood out about the letter was its brevity — at 4,455 words, it was the shortest Buffett shareholder letter in 44 years.
Yes, I began assembling this data before the new letter came out — I suspected there might not be a lot else to discuss. The trajectory was already giving the unmistakable signal that the Berkshire chairman is winding things down. And, well, of course he is: Buffett is 92; his longtime business partner, Berkshire Vice Chairman Charles Munger, is 99.