Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.B) (NYSE: BRK.A) is not just an investment icon, it's also something of a cultural phenomenon. The company's annual meeting draws thousands of people to Omaha just to hear CEO Warren Buffett speak. This year was notably different than past years, however, and that might be enough to keep some investors on the sidelines.

While Berkshire Hathaway is a company with publicly traded stock, it is actually kind of hard to pin down what it does. It has a large insurance business, notably including the GEICO brand. But it also owns a railroad, a number of different utility operations, and pipelines that all get broken out into a separate operating group in the company's financials. But lumped in with Berkshire's insurance operations are "other" investments, which include clothing makers, a paint manufacturer, specialty parts companies, and retailers, among a long and broad list of business categories.

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Source Fool.com