Greg Abel rules out Berkshire break-up, stresses continuity with Buffett's legacy at annual meeting

greg abel ran his first berkshire hathaway annual meeting as ceo saturday, and he made one thing clear: no breakup. asked directly if berkshire would ever split up, abel said "absolutely not." he called the conglomerate structure efficient, without bureaucracy or bloated costs. buffett was there too, sitting on the arena floor. a jersey with a big "60" went up to the rafters. buffett said abel is "doing everything i did and then some, and he's doing it better." he also noted berkshire's apple stake — bought for $35 billion about ten years ago — is now worth roughly $185 billion. "i didn't have to do a damned thing," he said. berkshire reported first-quarter operating profit up 18%. insurance underwriting rose more than 28%. the company sold about $24 billion in stocks and bought $16 billion, pushing cash to a record $397.4 billion. abel said that cash "creates a unique opportunity" for investment. berkshire resumed buybacks on march 4, buying about $226 million worth of stock that day. but total march repurchases were just $234 million, and early april data shows no significant buying since.