" The whole thing doesn't make sense, heck, it's worse than distributing a large special dividend and forcing a mostly undesired taxable event for many people (like Microsoft did to so many people 21 years ago)."

I owned msft when they did that, I wish I held on to it! A huge buyback would have been smarter I have no idea WHY they paid that big dividend.

Obviously, you wouldn't buy brkb a week before they spun out the apple aka the ex date you would buy brk ex div AFTER the spin out if you didn't want the apple with a 40$$ cost basis.

The objective was to reduce brkb exposure to one name, apple. Investors who love apple can buy it they don't need to buy brkb with 25 % of its market cap in apple.

brkb had a large taxable event in apple the question was, what's the best way to deal with it. Buffett didn't want to shrink the canvas, again. Several brk partners may have held on to the apple and left it to their grandkids, who knows?

I have to respond to Jim, have a grand day.