Geico

This weekend marks the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting, often called "Woodstock for Capitalists." But what do the tens of thousands of investors making the pilgrimage to Omaha, Neb., get for their trouble?

For most of the past decade, buying Oreos or Trident gum for your kids meant sending money to the Marlboro Man. Those brands have gone their separate ways, but there are still many odd matches in the wild world of conglomerates, where companies own siblings that don't really look like one another.

Wall Street's endless parade of buyouts and mergers, divisions and revisions has created a tangled landscape in which companies that are famous for one thing often own brands that are completely different -- or even diametrically opposed. Here are seven of our favorite mismatches.

There are plenty of old geezers who wish they could rock out like Axl Rose just once in this lifetime, but Warren Buffett has made it a reality. Sizzling up the Internet right now is a new ad for Geico that has the normally unassuming tycoon, champion stock-picker and philanthropist joining in an...

Berkshire Hathaway delivered 20% gains for shareholders, despite a few key missteps. The results were good enough for billionaire CEO Warren Buffett to express optimism about the future in his widely read annual letter to investors.

The head of Allstate's (ALL) auto insurance unit thinks he made Warren Buffett blink. Bloomberg News reports that Allstate is bragging because Buffett's GEICO -- the third largest auto insurer (behind Allstate) which sells over the Internet and telephone -- has decided it needs to open storefronts...

For many toddlers, the Wiggles are the Beatles, the Stones and the Who rolled up into one. Now Australia's richest entertainers are about to tackle their biggest challenge yet --- U.S. cable TV. Starting next week, the smiling quartet with the colorful T-shirts will host The Wiggly Waffle, a block...

Update. More advertisers have pulled their ads from Fox News Channel's Glenn Beck Program. Ally Bank, Allergan, Broadview Security, CVS, Best Buy, Travelocity, Re-Bath, and Wal-Mart Stores have followed a dozen other companies including Geico, which said last week it was pulling its financial...

Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) CEO and uber-investor Warren Buffett took responsibility for his company's worst performance since he took over 44 years ago, admitting he "did some dumb things in investments" in 2008. The recession and financial crisis swatted Berkshire and the markets alike, Buffett...

My husband was washing the dishes last week, and something bad always happens when he does housework. The cops knocked on the door and asked him to come with them. It turns out that a Jeep had lost control going down the street and rammed ours into a parking sign, crushing it from both sides....