Warren Buffett says he sold a third of Berkshire’s IBM stake, and IBM shares drop
New York /Seattle — Warren Buffett is acknowledging what many investors have already realised: IBM’s long-promised reinvention is slow, painful and nowhere near close to the end. In an interview with CNBC, the billionaire chairperson and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway disclosed that he sold about a third of the firm’s investment in the computer-services giant during the first half of 2017. Before the sales, Berkshire held about 81-million shares. The news led IBM to tumble as much as 3.8% to $153.00 Friday in New York, its lowest intraday price since November. IBM has been frustrating investors for years, reporting in April its 20th straight quarterly revenue decline. The company once synonymous with mainframe innovations has been slow to adopt cloud-related technologies and has had to play catch-up to offer computing and other software and services delivered over the internet. After a run of three straight annual declines, IBM’s shares gained about 21% in 2016 but were still more than 2...
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