Berkshire Hathaway plans to purchase Burlington Northern Santa Fe for approximately $26 billion in cash and stock for the shares it does not already own. The transaction is pending shareholder approval. We believe that the railroad acquisition will reduce what historically has been extremely strong capital adequacy and liquidity, and that investment risk with sizable concentrations remains very high. The group's risk tolerances are, in our opinion, not clearly defined at the enterprise level and are a concern as the group's profile becomes more complex. We are lowering our ratings on Berkshire and various affiliates. We are removing the ratings from CreditWatch, where they were placed with negative implications on Nov. 4, 2009. The outlook is stable. NEW YORK (Standard
