BNSF Logistics of Springdale is part of a deal announced Tuesday in which its parent company, Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. of Fort Worth, will be sold to Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway of Omaha, Neb.
Berkshire Hathaway announced an agreement to acquire Burlington Northern (NYSE: BNI) for $100 per share in cash and stock. The deal is worth $34 billion and is part of a plan for 50-for-1 Class B Common Stock split, if approved by shareholders.
BNSF Logistics is a wholly owned subsidiary of Burlington Northern, as is BNSF Railway. An official of BNSF Logistics declined to comment, but a spokesman for BNSF Corp. confirmed the Springdale company would be part of the transaction.
BNSF Corp. is primarily in the rail transportation business, hauling consumer products from motor vehicles to bulk foods such as soybeans and corn. In 1989, BNSF and J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc. of Lowell began a partnership to provide intermodal shipping in one of the first joint ventures between rail and truckload carriers. J.B. Hunt stock (Nasdaq: JBHT) was up about 4 percent in Tuesday morning trading.
BNFS Logistics is a third-party logistics company that provides services for many trucking companies and retailers with transportation divisions. The company does not make a specific client list available, but in 2008 Lowe's Companies Inc. selected BNSF Logistics as its "new store van carrier of the year" and it was also recognized as the "2008 Fixture / Construction Carrier of the Year" by Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
According to BNSF, the railway business has about 40,000 employees, 6,700 locomotives and 222,000 freight cars that operate 32,000 route miles.
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