Berkshire Hathaway used a 50-to-1 split ratio for its Class B shares in January 2010.
The split became effective on January 21, 2010, after shareholders approved it at a special meeting on January 20. Each existing Class B share was exchanged for 50 new Class B shares, while Berkshire’s Class A shares were not split.
The move was closely connected to Berkshire’s acquisition of BNSF Railway. Berkshire expected to issue substantial amounts of stock in the transaction, and a lower-priced Class B share made it easier to accommodate BNSF shareholders with smaller holdings who wanted stock rather than cash.
The split did not change Berkshire’s overall economic value; it changed the number of shares and the price per share proportionally. It also changed the conversion relationship: after the split, one Class A share could be converted into 1,500 Class B shares. A common mistake is to confuse this 2010 split with Berkshire’s original 1996 creation of Class B shares, when one Class A share represented 30 Class B shares.