Warren Buffett in one of his now famous statements said that his favourite holding period with regards to the stocks that his entity has purchased is forever. Buffett is renowned for holding onto stocks, that he has invested in for a long time, as he trusts his acumen.
In a recent development, however, Oracle of Omaha offloaded a large tranche of his stocks from one of his biggest holdings, Apple. In addition, he also dumped his stocks in its entirety from Paramount.
Legal Trouble Inside-Out
Could this indicate something? something that is amiss with the second most valuable, trillion-dollar American tech giant. There are developments that could indicate in that direction. In the recent past, the California-based corporation has been mired in one controversy after another. While, the company has been at the centre of political and governmental scrutiny for a while, it has seen a major uptick in the recent past.
Apple Inc | Pixabay
Recently, the European Union, which has not had the best of understanding with Apple, handed it a fine of over a billion dollars for misusing and illicitly prioritising Apple's music service, Apple Music, affecting the competitiveness of the audio streaming sector in Europe, including the streaming-giant Spotify.
Misuse and Monopolization
It was just last month, that the company received the biggest blow of all, when a comprehensive legal suit was filed against it for trying to monopolise the US market with its iPhone by the United States Department of Justice.
In addition, it was also accused of missing its App Store and other devices that its users use to engage with other users and devices, that run on systems as an alternative to the ones run by Apple, restricting its users, in a nexus, with only Apple products, including iPads, AirPods, and most importantly, their smartwatches.
Recently, the company also lost its position as one of the best selling phones to its Korean arch-rival Samsung, as Samsung surged with a 20.8 per cent market share, going past Apple's 17.3 per cent. | Image Source: Wikipedia (Representative)
Losing Market Space
Recently, the company also lost its position as one of the best selling phones to its Korean arch-rival Samsung, as Samsung surged with a 20.8 per cent market share, going past Apple's 17.3 per cent.
In addition, its approach towards government has also wavered a little. A company, that made a mess when it was asked to crack the phone of an extremist, who was responsible for the San Bernardino, California, shooting in 2015 by the FBI, was pliant enough to take down applications from its App Store, when the Chinese government asked it to.
The impact of slowing China sales, in addition to the rising protectionism and trade war between China and the US, Apple's prospects may look bleak to many. Its shares prices, however, have not been affected as now. In the past five days, the company shares have gained 1.43 per cent, scaling to USD 186.28 on May 13.
