And here I thought the price for one share of Google stock was expensive...

[Printer Bandit]

Yours for $100K: a Berkshire Hathaway share

 

[SVT Cobra]

I think there is a thread on this every week.

 

[FoBoT]

glad to see people learning

Next question: Why are Berkshire shares so expensive? It's not because the company is highly valuable. After all, plenty of companies are even more valuable but have lower-priced shares. The reason is that Buffett refuses to split Berkshire shares?that is, to issue shareholders, say, 1,000 shares worth $100 apiece in place of one worth $100,000.

Buffett says he likes the stock price to be high because it makes trading difficult and encourages long-term holdings. Here's what he wrote in a 1983 letter to shareholders:

"We want [shareholders] who think of themselves as business owners and invest in companies with the intention of staying a long time?. Were we to split the stock or take other actions focusing on stock price rather than business value, we would attract an entering class of buyers inferior to the exiting class of sellers."

When Buffett wrote that, Berkshire was around $10,000 a share. And he's sticking to his message now, with the stock nearly 10 times as high?telling Charlie Rose of PBS earlier this year that "we don't want to encourage the kind of buyer who is excited by stock splits."

Buffett has certainly achieved that goal. Berkshire's shareholders, far from demanding more trading liquidity, are happy to worship uncomplainingly at the feet of the Oracle of Omaha. Which is fine. Just don't expect to see Berkshire in the Dow industrials.

http://www.businessweek.com/investor/co...top+news+index_businessweek+exclusives

 

[Syringer]

He made a joke once about how his annual salary is what the stock price currentl is, so if he were to split the stock he'd take a big pay cut.