By Ari Weinberg<\/p>\n
This week, I could fulfill a childhood dream of owning a share of Berkshire Hathaway.<\/p>\n
When the company closes on its purchase of railroad Burlington Northern Santa Fe, Berkshire<\/a> is expected to split its fractional Class B shares<\/a> 50 to 1, for a dollar value so low that even I could buy them (not that I will)!<\/p>\n But how Warren has turned my once-lofty sights so pedestrian.<\/p>\n Spotting the anomaly of Berkshire\u2019s outsize shares in The Wall Street Journal<\/em> tables nearly 25 years ago is my first memory of the stock market. The shares stuck out by trading at low quadruple digits compared to double digit stocks for all other companies. This had the same impact for me as charting the price of the 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle baseball card: it had allure and mystery because it traded for thousands.<\/p>\n Well, now, to accomodate his \u201cbet\u201d on the American recovery, Berkshire Hathaway Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Warren Buffett is believed to be bowing to the gods of tax-efficient mergers<\/a> and gobbling up the rest of Burlington Northern<\/a> with cash and split-shares of Berkshire\u2019s B Class. (And, eek, even a new issuance.)<\/p>\n Yes, the sanctity of the A Class shares will remain, but all of a sudden Berkshire Hathaway will count thousands to millions of new shareholders and may even snag inclusion in the S&P 500.<\/p>\n While I don\u2019t fault this shareholder-friendly transaction, I can\u2019t help think that Uncle Warren is going soft as he continues to plot his legacy as one of America\u2019s greatest creators of wealth