Carl Icahn has pulled out of his position in Apple stock, citing issues regarding Apple’s expansion in China. The news comes hot on the heels of AAPL's tumultuous time after a second quarter earnings call and a Chinese regulator suspending access to the iBooks and iTunes stores.
According to The New York Times and the smugglers, shop owners and Chinese millennials they interviewed, Apple is having trouble expanding into China as consumer dissatisfaction mounts. The Chinese sources say the popularity of the iPhone has dramatically decreased there, citing reasons such as the price disparity between Android and iOS phones, lack of any new must-buy features and design qualms.
Adding to this is a Chinese regulator’s decision to block access to the iTunes and iBooks stores for iOS users who registered their iCloud accounts in mainland China. Apple only launched these stores in China less than seven months ago.
Icahn, the billionaire activist investor frequently in the headlines, had held nearly 1 percent of all the total AAPL stock at one point, but told CNBC today that “We no longer have a position in Apple.”
“To start, I think Tim Cook did a great job, I have a great relationship with him. I called him this morning to tell him [about selling the stock] and he was a little sorry, obviously. But I told him I think it’s a great company,” Icahn said on CNBC’s Power Lunch. “The issue with Apple is we were in it for about three years. I mean we’re not short-term oriented and we were in it and we liked it a great deal. I put out this tweet maybe two and half years ago, and if you bought the stock then, thinking you’ve have made 48 or 50 percent total return in those two and half years. We obviously made a great deal of money.”
According to Icahn, the stock was sold at around today’s market price point, “given a point or two.” AAPL was hovering around $95-$96 at the time of Icahn’s interview. He went on to cite the Chinese government possibly making Apple’s life difficult for selling, saying, “You worry a little bit — and maybe more than a little — about China's attitude.”
