had a stock split and have only paid a dividend once since Warren Buffett took over, retaining corporate earnings on its balance sheet in a manner that is impermissible for mutual funds. Shares closed over $100,000 for the first time on October 23, 2006. Despite its size, Berkshire had for many years not been included in broad stock market indices such as the S&P 500 due to the lack of liquidity in its shares; however, following a 50-to-1 split of Berkshire's Class B Shares in January 2010, and Berkshire's announcement that it would acquire the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation, parent of BNSF Railway, Berkshire replaced BNSF in the S&P 500 on February 16, 2010. Buffett's letters to shareholders are published annually. Barron's said Berkshire was the most respected company in the world in 2007, based on a survey of American money managers. In 2008, Berkshire invested in preferred stock of Goldman Sachs as part of a recapitalization of the investment bank. Buffett defended Lloyd Blankfein's decisions as CEO of Goldman Sachs. , Buffett owned 31.7% aggregate voting power of Berkshire's shares outstanding and 18.0% of the economic value of those shares. Berkshire's vice-chairman, Charlie Munger, also holds a stake big enough to make him a billionaire, and early investments in Berkshire by David Gottesman and Franklin Otis Booth Jr. resulted in their becoming billionaires as well. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is a large shareholder of Berkshire, owning 4.0% of Class B Shares. Berkshire Hathaway has never split its Class A shares because of management's desire to attract long-term investors as opposed to short-term speculators. However, Berkshire Hathaway created a Class B stock, with a per-share value originally kept (by specific management rules) close to of that of the original shares (now Class A) and of the per-share voting rights, and after the January 2010 split, at the price and the voting rights of the Class-A shares. Holders of class A stock are allowed to convert their stock to Class B, though not vice versa. Buffett was reluctant to create the class B shares but did so to thwart the creation of unit trusts that would have marketed themselves as Berkshire look-alikes. As Buffett said in his 1995 shareholder letter: "The unit trusts that have recently surfaced fly in the face of these goals. They would be sold by brokers working for big commissions, would impose other burdensome