He also did exchanges with Washington Post for local TV stations.

That's right but of course the main thing he swapped for with Graham Holdings / Washington Post was a large block of Berkshire Hathaway shares. The TV station was just put in there to include an "operating company" to satisfy the IRS.

Personally, with no comment on what "should" be done, I would place the bet that Berkshire is not broken up in the next 20 years. My crystal ball is hazy beyond that.

If $1 trillion MC compounds at 8% for 20 years you end up with $4.66 trillion minus whatever effect share repurchases have. Maybe the best thing is a more aggressive share repurchase plan (Tim Cook following Steve Jobs) where the market cap doesn't go up all that much but the price per share continues to do its thing for a few decades.

Berkshire Hathaway FAQ

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