Warren Buffett steps back this week as Berkshire Hathaway enters a new era

LEADERSHIP

Greg Abel faces the challenge of taking over Berkshire Hathaway from the legendary Warren Buffett later this week. Many regard Buffett as the world’s greatest investor after he grew Berkshire from a struggling New England textile mill that he started buying up for $7.60 a share in 1962, to the massive conglomerate it is today with shares that go for more than $750,000 a pop. Buffett’s personal fortune of Berkshire stock is worth roughly $150 billion even after giving more than $60 billion away over the past 20 years. Berkshire for decades has routinely outpaced the S&P 500 as Buffett bought up insurance companies like Geico and National Indemnity, manufacturers like Iscar Metalworking, retail brands like Dairy Queen, major utilities, and even one of the nation’s biggest railroads, BNSF. Along the way, Buffett bought and sold hundreds of billions of dollars of stocks and profited handsomely from his famously long-term bets on companies like American Express, Coca-Cola, and Apple. Berkshire has struggled to keep that pace in recent years because it has grown so huge and has also struggled to find new and significant acquisitions. Even this fall’s $9.7 billion acquisition of OxyChem probably isn’t big enough to make a difference in Berkshire’s profits. Investors will be watching closely to see what changes Abel might make in Berkshire’s trajectory, but don’t expect any seismic shifts. Buffett isn’t going anywhere, and Abel has already been managing all of Berkshire’s noninsurance businesses since 2018. Buffett will remain chairman and plans to continue coming into the office each day to help spot new investments and offer Abel any advice he asks for. — ASSOCIATED PRESS

GOVERNMENT

The standard mileage rate for the business use of a car, truck, van, or other vehicle will increase by 2.5 cents in 2026. The IRS announced Monday that beginning Jan. 1, the standard mileage rate for a qualifying vehicle will be 72.5 cents per mile, up 2.5 cents from 2025. The rate will be 20.5 cents per mile driven for medical purposes, down a half cent from 2025, and will be 20.5 cents per mile driven for moving purposes for certain active-duty members of the Armed Forces and certain members of the intelligence community, which is reduced by a half cent from last year. The change, meant to reflect updated cost data and annual inflation adjustments, applies to fully electric and hybrid automobiles, and gas and diesel-powered vehicles. Use of the standard mileage rates is optional. People who use their car for work may instead choose to calculate the actual costs of using their vehicle. — ASSOCIATED PRESS

DEALS

Meta is buying artificial intelligence startup Manus, as the owner of Facebook and Instagram continues an aggressive push to amp up AI offerings across its platforms. The California tech giant declined to disclose financial details of the acquisition. But The Wall Street Journal reported that Meta closed the deal at more than $2 billion. Manus, a Singapore-based platform with some Chinese roots, launched its first “general-purpose” AI agent earlier this year. The platform offers paid subscriptions for customers to use this technology for research, coding, and other tasks. “Manus is already serving the daily needs of millions of users and businesses worldwide,” Meta said in a Monday announcement, adding that it plans to scale this service, as Manus will “deliver general-purpose agents across our consumer and business products, including in Meta AI.” Xiao Hong, chief executive of Manus, added that joining Meta will allow the platform to “build on a stronger, more sustainable foundation without changing how Manus works or how decisions are made.” Manus confirmed that it would continue to sell and operate subscriptions through its own app and website. The platform has grown rapidly over the past year. Earlier this month, Manus announced that it had crossed the $100 million mark in annual recurring revenue, just eight months after launching. — ASSOCIATED PRESS

FEDERAL RESERVE

Some Federal Reserve officials who supported cutting a key interest rate earlier this month could have instead backed keeping the rate unchanged, minutes released Tuesday show, underscoring the divisions and uncertainty permeating the central bank. At their Dec. 9-10 meeting, Fed officials agreed to cut their key interest rate by a quarter point for the third time this year, to about 3.6 percent, the lowest in nearly three years. Yet the move was approved by a 9-3 vote, an unusual level of dissent for a committee that typically works by consensus. Two Fed officials supported keeping the rate unchanged, while one wanted a larger, half-point reduction. The minutes underscored the deep split on the 19-member policymaking committee over what constitutes the biggest threat to the economy: weak hiring or stubbornly elevated inflation. If a sluggish job market is the biggest threat, then the Fed would typically cut rates more. But if still-high inflation is the bigger problem, then the Fed would keep rates elevated, or even raise them. Just 12 of the 19 members vote on rate decisions, though all participate in discussions. The minutes showed that even some Fed officials who supported the rate cut did so with reservations. Some Fed officials wanted to wait for more economic data before making any further moves, the minutes said. Key economic data on jobs, inflation, and growth were delayed by the six-week government shutdown, leaving Fed officials with only outdated information at their meeting earlier this month. — ASSOCIATED PRESS

ENTERTAINMENT

The domestic box office delivered tepid growth in 2025, with cinemas struggling to return to prepandemic sales. US and Canadian theaters took in $8.76 billion this year through Dec. 28, an increase of 1.6 percent from 2024, according to researcher Comscore Inc. The full-year record of $11.9 billion was set in 2018. Two Walt Disney Co. films — “Avatar: Fire and Ash” and “Zootopia 2″ — led in the final days of the year. The top 10 pictures of 2025 were once again dominated by sequels from existing franchises. Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. delivered the two exceptions: “A Minecraft Movie” finished No. 1 in domestic ticket sales, and “Sinners,” an original horror film from director Ryan Coogler, came in seventh. Shares of AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc., the largest US theater chain, have declined almost 60 percent this year. It now trades below $2 after going as high as $450 in June 2021 during the meme-stock frenzy. The future of theaters has been in hot debate as Paramount Skydance Corp. seeks to acquire Warner Bros., which has accepted a competing offer for its studios and streaming business from Netflix Inc. Paramount has argued its merger would be better for cinemas, since Netflix has historically released just a fraction of its films for limited theatrical runs. The streaming leader has promised to continue to release Warner Bros. films in theaters if it prevails. “Our attention will be laser-focused on one issue and one issue only,” AMC chief executive Adam Aron said in November on a call with investors. “And that is the count of movie releases that’s coming out from studios.” In a special promotion, Netflix is putting the final episode of its TV show “Stranger Things” in theaters for two days starting Wednesday. The seats are free, but attendees must purchase concessions in advance. The price varies by theater chain. More than 1.1 million fans had reserved spots, according to Ross Duffer, one of the show’s creators, as of Monday. The promotion was put in place before Warner Bros. accepted Netflix’s offer. — BLOOMBERG NEWS