Hedge Fund Legend Dumped Apple Shares After Reading The Steve Jobs Biography And Deciding Jobs Was A ‘Really Awful’ Person (AAPL)
At the start of the year, hedge fund legend Julian Robertson dumped his stake in Apple.
Today, he’s explaining his rationale for the move, and it’s one of the strangest reasons we’ve ever heard.
He tells CNBC he read Walter Isaacson’s biography of Jobs, and came away thinking Jobs was a “really awful” person.
“I came to the conclusion that it was unlikely that a man as really awful as I think that Steve Jobs was, could possibly create a great company for the long term. I just don’t believe bad guys—do well in the long run,” Robertson said.
He added, “How can you create a great organization of people and be that mean a person?”
The fact that Jobs was a, shall we say, demanding boss was not news. It was known for years. It’s strange that it affected Robertson’s decision.
Stranger still, if Jobs was still around, Robertson would remain an investor.
“There’s no question that—and I think if he were still there, I’d still be in it,” he said. “I think he’s one of the great geniuses of the world. But—he’s not the kind of guy I think that would develop a long-standing company.”
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