I have a Google News Alert set for Berkshire Hathaway. 95% of the "news" is old or dreck but every once in a while a gem pops up:
Russell Athletic chief, who inked Falcons deal, is ousted | ajc.com
Russell Athletics was bought by Berkshire Hathaway a year or so ago and appears to have been put under Fruit of the Loom. Berkshire repeatedly says that they'll only buy companies with management in place ("we can't supply it") but presumably the old CEO left after the sale and the new guy was expected to work out.
But he hasn't. The FOTL CEO has also taken over the Russell Pres/CEO jobs, although most of the old CEO's duties have been parceled out among VPs.
Off the top of my head I can't remember any other CEOs who've left a Berkshire company except through retirement/death. The departure of Russell's CEO is rare but it may even be unique. (Ferguson of Gen Re had already retired and was under a consulting contract but he was fired when he refused to discuss their dealings with AIG.) Buffett praises the successful CEOs to the skies but I don't remember Buffett writing anything about Russell's former CEO... and I doubt we ever will.
Anyone else remember any instances of Berkshire firing a CEO?
BTW a couple weeks ago we finished selling off a third of our Berkshire shares in our ER portfolio (rebalancing) and all the Berkshire shares in the kid's college fund. We sold at an average of $4700/share and BRK closed Mon 10 Mar at $4363, a total of 7% off our sale price. It's nice to "win" one in a while...