As reported in this Wall
Street Journal article (subscriber link):
Mr. Buffett, 75 years old, will give away about 85% of his
Berkshire Hathaway stock, currently valued at about $44 billion, to five
foundations beginning in July.About five-sixths of the allocated Berkshire B-class shares will go to
the $30 billion Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, headed by Microsoft Corp.
Chairman Bill Gates and his wife, Melinda.[...]The Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, which has $270 million in assets,
will receive one million B shares. The foundation has focused on
reproductive health, family planning and pro-choice causes. It has also
focused preventing the spread of nuclear weapons, an issue of great concern
to Mr. Buffett.The rest — 1.05 million shares — will be divided equally among three
foundations headed by each of Mr. Buffett’s three children, Susie, 52,
Howard, 51, and Peter, 48.
I’ve respected Warren for a very long time. And, while I’ve been aware of
his philanthropic interests for a while…this is just pretty darned
impressive.
I would speculate on what this means for Warren’s continued involvement at
Berkshire, but I can’t help but recall that it’s A shares that really
command power within the BRK corporation.
Update: The Journal filled in a missing detail. Uncle Warren does own only A shares, but part of the deal to transfer his wealth to charity involves converting A-shares (which hold most of the voting power) to B-shares.