As CountZero mention, a "normal" split would be done if the value of a stock is considered "too high" by whatever definition some analyst considers is right.

However, there's such a thing as a "reverse split", where multiple shares are combined into 1. This happens for instance when the value of the share drops below 1 US$. If that happens, you cannot have a listing on NASDAQ anymore, so then they combine e.g. 10 shares into one to raise the price from .5 dollar to 5 dollar. Of course, a reverse split indicates severe problems for the company. So this rarely only happens once, usually it happens one or more times after that, before the company either folds or is taken over by another company.

So a more accurate description (wishful thinking) would be:

foreach $crash (@windows){
  reverse split /stock/, $microsoft;
}
exit $microsoft;
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Liz