Amid the Apple-heavy crush of news today, what with the leaks and headlines about what the newest iPhones and Apple Watch models will look like, among other things, the Fox Business Network caught up with legendary investor Warren Buffett who had a warning for the iPhone maker.
Buffett, a well-known Apple bull whose fans in the financial press refer to him as the Oracle of Omaha, specifically brought up the speculation that won’t go away about the possibility of Apple scooping up Tesla. Seemingly, the thinking has always gone, such a deal would be a simple way to supercharge Apple’s own ambitions in the auto space. Except, well, no it wouldn’t, Buffett warns.
“In an interview with Fox Business Network on Thursday,” as reported by Business Insider, “Buffett said buying Tesla ‘would be a very poor idea’ for Apple. He said that building a long-term competitive advantage in the auto industry is much more difficult than in the tech industry, where companies can use speed, scale, and network effects to maintain an edge over competitors.
“‘You can win in autos one year and you lose the next,’ Buffett said.”
Welp. Apple’s own efforts toward entering the car industry, meanwhile, certainly keep see-sawing into and out of the news cycle. Like earlier this month, when we learned that Tesla senior VP of engineering Doug Field defected to Apple. Then there was this report from The Information about Waymo but which also quoted one source as saying Apple has recently set up a facility for testing prototype cars near Surprise, Ariz., which is west of Phoenix.
Then in recent days the blog Appleinsider posted what it said were Apple patents that seam to show sunroof and car seat designs.
We’ll see if anything concrete ever emerges from Apple in this area. (Of course, we’ve all been waiting and saying that for a while now.) Still, Buffett’s warning is not only well-taken, but in another interview today he included some light criticism of Tesla’s chief executive directly.
It was specifically focused on Elon Musk’s gonzo Twitter habit, which has landed him in hot water recently. “I don’t think it’s helped him a lot,” Buffett, who very rarely tweets himself, told CNBC about Elon’s tweeting.
Added the famed investor, “I think there’s other things in life I want to do than tweet. I’m not that desperate for somebody to hear my opinion on this.”
