<div id="subtitle">Berkshire Hathaway 'B' shares gain after their pending addition to the S&P 500 is announced</div><div><p>News that "Baby Berkshire" will soon join the S&P 500 Index sent shares of the stock higher Wednesday.</p><p>Standard & Poor's said late Tuesday it will add Class B shares of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. to the benchmark stock index and the S&P 100, after the company acquires Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. The investment company will replace the railroad in both indexes after shareholders approve the acquisition next month.</p><p>With the markets down, Berkshire's B shares gained $2.68, or 3.9 percent, to $70.68 in heavy afternoon trading.</p><p>Shareholders last week agreed to split the Class B stock 50-to-1, a move that S&P said gave Berkshire enough liquidity to meet its criteria for including it in the index.</p><p>Omaha, Neb., Berkshire's Class A shares are lightly traded because of their price, the highest in the U.S. markets. They were up $4,199, or 4.1 percent, at $105,950 in afternoon trading.</p><p>S&P said Berkshire is a good company to add to the broad market index because its holdings reflect a cross section of the U.S. economy.</p><p>At a stockholder meeting, Buffett, Berkshire's chairman and CEO, discussed the prospect of Berkshire being added to the indexes. He said it would benefit the company by boosting the pool of potential buyers for the stock to include investment funds tied to the S&P indexes. He noted that index funds are likely to hold onto any shares they buy for the long term.</p><p>The Class B split that took effect last Thursday is a key part of Berkshire's $26.3 billion acquisition of Burlington Northern. Berkshire is paying $100 per share in cash and stock for the 77.4 percent of the railroad's shares it didn't already own. The purchase will be the largest ever for Buffett's company. Burlington shareholders are scheduled to vote on the deal Feb. 11.</p><p>Berkshire owns more than 60 subsidiaries, including clothing, furniture, jewelry and corporate jet firms, but its insurance and utility businesses typically account for more than half of the company's revenue. It also has major investments in such companies as Coca-Cola Co. and Wells Fargo & Co.</p><img src="http://admatch-syndication.mochila.com/images/ad.gif?aid=67909939&bid=informcom" /></div><div id="copyright"><div>

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