Fred Wilson Dumps Apple - for Good Reason

by liad on January 7, 2009

picture-6Earlier today Fred Wilson, Principle of Union Square Ventures and superstar investor posted as he frequently does on his blog about his public stock purchases and sales.

He explained in the post that he had decided to divest all his Apple stock as an indirect result of Steve Jobs health. Not as you may think because Steve’s health is understood to be quite poor and that in the event things take a turn for the worse Apple will be left without its Visionary and Commander in Chief invariably leading to a sharp and costly shock to Apples short/medium term share price but rather because he feels that Apples PR team are not being open and straight regarding the issue.

In his own words “I just can’t own a stock when I don’t believe the company is being straight with investors”.

The stock concerned being Apple and the surrounding issue being Steve’s health is I believe inconsequential to his decision. Trust and honesty between Investors and Investees is paramount and Fred has taken Apple’s recent handling of the ongoing health saga as reason enough to divest his entire position even though this decision may not necessarily make short-term financial sense.

Whilst I understand that “if they are not open about this issue what other perhaps larger ones could they also be hiding from us” may be a factor I don’t believe it to be the dominant one in Fred’s decision but rather that Apple’s handling of the situation showed signs of contempt for their investors and this was reason enough to dump their stock.

We can learn a lot from his decision not least that there are and should be dynamics at play when it comes to investment decisions far more potent than hard and fast financials (dare I say morality may even enter the equation). I thank Fred for giving us a glimpse into his decision making process.

On a side note, we can see that openness plays a big part in his investment criteria so if you find yourself pitching to him - make sure you lay that kind of thing on nice and thick. :-)

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2009 Who’s Who Young Business Leaders

by admin on January 1, 2009

Who's WhoReceived a letter in the post telling me that I have been included in the 2009 Who’s Who of Britains Young Business Leaders.

No idea how they got my details but according to the letter inclusion is based on “strictly determined criteria, based on the profiling of financial information in the public domain”.

I initially thought it was either a scam site pretending to be the official “Who’s Who” or that it was  just a big hustle where they offer to include everyone and their dog but ask for some kind of inclusion fee.

I was wrong on both fronts, inclusion is “limited to the top 2% of directors in the UK” and “not conditional upon any payment to, or purchase”.

Either way, remember the old Groucho Marx quote - ” I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member” -seems pretty pertinent to me about now.

Who's Who Young Business Leader Letter

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