I was going to ask "Is there no limit to the man's greed?" but I guess I know the answer already.
Icahn rallies the troops to pump Apple for cash at next shareholder meeting
Wall Street tycoon Carl Icahn hasn't given up on his quest to have Apple return some of its $150bn cash stockpile to investors, and he now wants Cupertino's shareholders to vote on the idea. Icahn has spent the last few months pestering Apple CEO Tim Cook to spend the company's cash reserves on a stock buyback program that …
-
-
-
Thursday 5th December 2013 03:16 GMT Anonymous Coward
The debt still has to be paid back, so if the US based profit stream can't support that, they'll need to bring in and pay taxes on overseas earnings. TANSTAAFL.
Authorizing debt lets you get at the money now, and leaves the task of repatriating cash for later. Icahn is all about making a quick buck and moving on to his next target, so of course he takes the short term view, and would love Apple to take on $300 billion in debt and leave them exposed to bankruptcy down the road if sales fell due to changing markets and future profits weren't quite enough to keep up with their debt payments.
He's not dumb enough to ask for that because it would be clear what he's doing, but if he is able to push a vote and get it passed, he'll go back for more and more until he's shot down, then he'll sell his Apple shares and move on to his next target.
-
Thursday 5th December 2013 06:39 GMT Anonymous Coward
Good summary!
As an Apple Shareholder I will be voting against this should it come up on the agenda in the meeting. I might even fly over and attend in person to voice my opinion of Mr Carpetbagger.
You can be sure that once he has finished with Apple he will move on to another victim (sorry company) and subject it to his financial pillaging. Where too next? Microsoft? Probably not but Cisco, Oracle and even IBM could be in his sights.
-
-
-
-
Thursday 5th December 2013 01:17 GMT Hud Dunlap
Where was Icahn when Apple needed money?
He didn't invest in the company when it needed cash. He is what used to be called a sundowner. A tramp who showed up at sundown hoping to get a meal without doing any work for it.
I still don't understand how he has so much power when he has so little stock.
-
Thursday 5th December 2013 08:53 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Where was Icahn when Apple needed money?
He doesn't have any real power, other than name recognition. If I won the lottery (20 times in a row) and had $2.6 billion to buy Apple stock, I wouldn't have anyone writing articles about what I thought Apple should do, or get private meetings with Tim Cook, because I haven't been doing this for 30 years like he has.
But maybe if I did it for a couple decades I'd be well known and The Reg would write about me trying to get Elon Musk Jr. to borrow a bunch of money to pay out more of the profits from Fusion Powered Flying Cars, Inc.
-
-