Warren Buffett loses $2.5 billion in three days on Coca-Cola and IBM

Warren Buffett's investment firm holds large positions in IBM and Coca Cola

It's not been a good week for billionaire investor Warren Buffett.

His bet on Coca-Cola and American tech giant IBM have cost him more than $2 billion in just three days.

On Monday, Buffett lost nearly $1 billion after shares in IBM plummeted to a three-year low after it badly missed third-quarter earnings estimates and announced it would pay $1.5 billion to ditch its loss-making chip division.

That’s bad news for Buffett considering his investment firm, Berkshire Hathaway, is the largest investor in IBM.

Yesterday, Buffett's week of hell continued after Coca-Cola shares plummeted six per cent in New York trading after it reported flat sales and lowered its guidance for the year.

Coca-Cola is battling an on-going shift in consumer taste as customers look for healthier options containing less sugar and fewer calories. Yesterday, it confirmed soft drinks sales fell 1 per cent in its flagship North American market.

And that is a problem for Coca Cola, which recently introduced a stevia-based drink containing naturally occurring sugars and splashed $2 billion to secure a 16 per cent in energy drinks company, Monster, in a bid a broaden its portfolio.

The set of disappointing results from both companies come after Buffett admitted he made a "huge mistake" investing in Tesco, which has seen its share price more than halve in the past 12 months following a series of profit warnings.