He has no idea about technology. He didn't invest in Google and Amazon and he bought Apple at the absolute top. He also bought IBM and sold at a loss. He is equally mistaken with Bitcoin. It's just not his field and his moves mean nothing.
He's honest enough to admit as much. From the article:
"after I started buying [Oracle], I felt I still didn't understand the business. I actually changed my mind in terms of understanding it, not in terms of evaluating it. Oracle is a great business, but I don't think I understand exactly where the cloud is going."
at the same time he is extremely convinced that something he doesn't understand (Bitcoin) is going to fail but he doesn't short it either. He is just old.
Missing on investments you don’t understand is not strike against Buffett, that’s just good investing. A good investor is going to own only a few shocks at a time. What you buy is far more important than what you miss.
He’s up about 50% on his Apple investment.
IBM is probably Buffetts biggest mistake of the last decade or so, and he made money on it. He bought shares at $173, sold them for between $150 and $170, but also made close to $30 a share in dividends.
I agree in general with your sentiment. He not only missed those, but he comes off as ignorant versus unlucky regarding technology. His first Apple purchase price was around $90 so it was far from the top. Apple is more about consumer and brand though so I think it better fits his skill set than an enterprise software company. He did buy Verisign at $90 though too, which seems to have a pretty impressive regulated moat.
Regarding VRSN, keep in mind the distinction that not all of these buys are Warren Buffett.
For example one of Buffett's investment chiefs made that AAPL purchase in the first quarter of 2016, either Ted Weschler or Todd Combs. They bought ten million shares initially.
