Berkshire Hathaway, conglomerate of famed investor Warren Buffett, has offloaded close to 95% of its holdings at IBM in favor of a 23.3% leap in Apple stock, of which it now owns 165.3 million shares. In the past, Buffett has expressed more confidence in Apple than in IBM, particularly due to Buffett’s past aversion to investing in tech. This year’s major change echoes a similar move last November, when Berkshire cut its IBM stake by a third and invested in Apple.
IBM and Apple are historic rivals event though in recent years Apple has notoriously stayed ahead of their old competitors. This January marked IBM’s first uptick in more than 20 quarters, which observers attribute to the company’s shift toward analytics, cloud computing, mobile, and security solutions. Apple is in the midst of a troubled period, suffering delays in production, security vulnerabilities, and phone batteries they’ve admitted to deliberately slowing.
So far, IBM isn’t letting the Berkshire dump faze them. IBM spokespeople assured investors that their push into high-value, cutting-edge tech sectors will keep them happy.
