Billionaire Investor Carl Icahn Sells Entire Stake in Apple

Alex Hern
The Guardian
Apr. 29, 2016

Carl Icahn, the billionaire activist investor who has long been one of the most prominent voices declaring the company to be undervalued, says he has sold his entire stake in the technology firm, citing the risk of China's influence on the stock.

After years of high growth, reaching triple-digit percentage points in 2015, Apple now sells more in China than it does in the whole of Europe. But sales in the country are now shrinking, with revenue dropping 26% year-on-year in the company's latest quarterly earnings.

Icahn's concerns aren't related to the China slowdown, however. Instead, the investor is concerned with the barriers to trade that China's authoritarian regime might put in place.

"You can't go into that business unless you're like Samsung which is really like a country backing it," Icahn told US cable television network CNBC. "A lot of people tried, a lot of people failed ... In China, for instance, they will come in and make it very difficult for Apple to sell there. They could theoretically, you know ... They're basically in some senses I would say, perhaps benevolent but a benevolent dictatorship. I don't know if benevolent is the right word."

In response to further questioning, Icahn clarified that he wasn't concerned with interference so much as with the country's "relationship" with Apple. "The thing that I'm worried about here in China doesn't affect the whole market. I'm not talking about China's economic status right now. I'm talking about, could the thing with Apple escalate a little bit? And if that does, what does that mean to Apple's profits during the interim?

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