Carl Icahn has done one of his favorite things again. He tweeted about Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL). He’s apparently sent yet another letter to CEO Tim Cook in an attempt to increase the company’s share buybacks. He announced the writing of that letter via twitter and said it will be posted on a new website he’s launching tomorrow.
Apple letter to be posted on Icahn’s site
In his tweet, Icahn said he was setting up a new website called Shareholders’ Square Table. It will launch on Thursday, and that letter he wrote to Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) will be posted on the site in full. He said he wouldn’t reveal what was in his letter to the company right now, but CNBC reported on an unnamed source who said that the letter is parts of Carl Icahn’s push to get the company to speed up its share buyback program.
Just sent a letter to Tim Cook. Full letter will be disclosed on my website, the Shareholders’ Square Table, which will be launched tomorrow
— Carl Icahn (@Carl_C_Icahn) October 23, 2013
That source also said that Icahn offered some kind of “unknown pledge” in exchange for accepting his suggestion. In addition, the letter apparently provides some detail on Icahn’s current position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), although we don’t know whether that position has gone up or down. Some have said his stake in the company was worth approximately $1.5 billion. Of course even though that amount is pretty large, it doesn’t even make Carl Icahn one of Apple’s biggest shareholders. Nonetheless, his reputation for pushing around CEOs and company boards granted him a dinner with Cook and Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer last month.
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has already been planning to spend $100 billion through 2015 on buying back shares and paying out dividends to shareholders. However, Icahn has been trying to push Tim Cook into spending a full $150 billion on share buybacks.
There’s been plenty of debate on whether Icahn will do more harm than good to Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), particularly after the debacle that was his scathing public arguments with Dell Inc (NASDAQ:DELL)’s board.
