Prediction: Greg Abel Announces Another Whole-Company Acquisition Before Year-End

Any prediction about any company's future acquisitions should be taken with a big grain of salt. This one is no different. Nobody truly knows what the future holds.

There are certainly reasonable, well-supported guesses about what's likely to transpire, though.

Missed Nvidia in 2009? This Rare Signal Is Flashing Again. In 2009, a "Double Down" signal flashed for a little-known chipmaker called Nvidia. For the first time in years, that same "Total Conviction" signal is flashing for a company 1/100th the size of Nvidia. Continue »

Enter Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRKA) (NYSE: BRKB).

Although you may know it best for its portfolio of stocks handpicked by iconic investor Warren Buffett, that's not all Berkshire is. The conglomerate wholly owns a few dozen businesses, including GEICO Insurance, Duracell batteries, Shaw flooring, Pilot travel centers, Clayton Homes, and more. It also recently completed its acquisition of homebuilder Taylor Morrison, and in January closed on the purchase of OxyChem from previous owner Occidental Petroleum .

And the timing of these two recent outright purchases is telling. While it's certainly not unheard of for Berkshire to take a publicly traded company private, it is relatively rare. Now it's happened twice in less than a year, a period in which Buffett, as well as current Chief Executive Officer Greg Abel, have indicated there just aren't many stocks out there worth their price. (The one clear exception has been Alphabet , which is now Berkshire Hathaway's third-biggest stock holding.)

In light of how little has changed in equity markets in the meantime, it's a reasonably good bet that Abel is considering more acquisitions of undervalued companies rather than new positions in publicly traded ones. In fact, it's possible that at least one more could be announced before the end of 2026.

Private is making more and more sense compared to public

Outside of its insurance and energy businesses (where adopting a new name is relatively easy), the last major whole acquisition Berkshire made was its 2016 purchase of the aforementioned Duracell battery brand from Procter & Gamble . So again, outright acquisitions are relatively rare for Berkshire Hathaway.

One of Berkshire Hathaway's more compelling investment attributes, however, is its flexibility. It can focus on picking stocks when it makes sense. When it doesn't make sense, though, the conglomerate can change tack and opt for complete ownership.

And it's recently done so, and for good reason. On an inflation-adjusted basis, the market as a whole is very expensive right now . It would also be naïve to overlook that nearly every sliver of the market is at least somewhat affected by the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution that could live up to every lofty expectations, collapse, or end up somewhere in between these two extremes. The danger to investors is simply not knowing how any AI upheaval might shake out.