Omaha, Nebraska and Montvale, New Jersey, July 23, 1998 -- Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK) and Executive Jet, Inc. announced today that they have executed a definitive merger agreement pursuant to which Executive Jet will be acquired by Berkshire. In the merger, Executive Jet shareholders will receive total consideration valued at approximately $725 million. Each Executive Jet shareholder has the option of electing to receive the consideration in cash or shares of either Berkshire Class A or Class B Common Stock, subject to a limitation that the amount of cash to be issued in the merger will not exceed 50% of the total value of the consideration. Executive Jet shareholders have preliminarily elected to receive approximately 48% of the total consideration in cash with the balance to be received in a combination of Class A and Class B Berkshire shares.

Executive Jet is the world's leading provider of fractional ownership programs for general aviation aircraft. Executive Jet currently operates its NetJetsŪ fractional ownership programs in the United States and Europe. In addition, Executive Jet is pursuing other International activities. Richard Santulli, Chairman and CEO of Executive Jet, invented the fractional ownership concept in 1986. Since then the NetJets program has grown to include nine aircraft types with plans to introduce several more models in the next two years.

From 1.6 customer-owned aircraft at the end of 1988, Executive Jet has expanded into a fleet of 132 aircraft. During 1997 the company's sales of corporate jet aircraft accounted for 9% of all worldwide deliveries and it placed orders for 129 aircraft, or 31% of all corporate jets ordered in 1997. Executive Jet is the single largest non-military customer of four of the five leading corporate jet manufacturers, with a total of $2.6 billion of aircraft on order.

Berkshire is a holding company owning subsidiaries engaged in a number of diverse businesses. The most important of these is the property and casualty insurance business conducted on both a direct and reinsurance basis through a number of subsidiaries.