Apple: Billionaire investor Carl Icahn has sold Apple stake on China fears
Billionaire investor Carl Icahn has sold his stake in Apple, and it's China's fault.
Icahn said that while Apple is a "great company" and chief executive Tim Cook is doing "a great job", he had sold his position in Apple.
Speaking to CNBC he said that China's attitude towards Apple and the Chinese economic slowdown led him to sell his stake.
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"We no longer have a position in Apple. Tim Cook did a great job. I called him this morning to tell him that and he was a little sorry, obviously. But I told him it's a great company," Icahn said.
"In Apple today as opposed to six months or a year ago, in this one, there’s no need for activism because I think they have a great management. But you worry a little bit, maybe more than a little, about China's attitude."
But he added that China's government could "come in and make it very difficult for Apple to sell there … you can do pretty much what you want there".
Ichan said that if China was steadied he would buy back his stock. True enough, he continued to state Apple's stock was cheap, despite his reservations.
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In an open letter to Apple chief executive Tim Cook in May last year, Icahn argued that shares of Apple were worth $240 a piece, near 90 per cent what they were trading for. The billionaire has made around $2bn on Apple.
The news won't be very welcome to Apple, which has been pounded after reporting sales to have declined 13 per cent year-on-year, its first year-on-year drop since 2003.
Sales of iPhone, Apple's cash cow, dropped by 10m.
And concerns over Greater China were evident in the results. In that part of the world, revenue slid by 26 per cent compared to same quarter a year prior.