NEW YORK (Standard&Poor's) April 5, 2011--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services today said that the ratings on Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK; AA+/Stable/A-1+) and its insurance subsidiaries are unaffected by the unexpected departure of David Sokol, chairman and CEO of BRK's NetJets Inc. subsidiary and chairman and former CEO of MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co. MidAmerican Energy is one of BRK's largest businesses. Mr. Sokol was widely considered to be one of the four internal candidates that the company's board had identified as a potential successor to Warren Buffett as the CEO of BRK. Still, this leaves the company with at least three other viable internal candidates, and we still see substantial strength in BRK's senior management team. On March 14,
