“Andrew Wilkinson of Miller Tabak & Co. notes Icahn Associates clocks in at #23 on the list of the biggest Apple shareholders, at around 0.5%,” Brendan Conway reports for Barron’s.
[F]or all the fuss, and we know just how vocal Mr. Icahn can become on television, his fund holds around 0.5% of shares outstanding at Apple. Granted that’s worth a tidy $2.5 billion but it is well down the pecking order. Icahn Associates’ holding of 4.7 million shares compares to 47.0 million held by Apple’s largest investor – Blackrock – which owns 5.2% or 47 million of Apple valued at $23.5 billion at current prices. Based on his near-hour long appearance on television over lunch, perhaps we should expect to hear the Blackrock folks take to the airwaves all day Friday to pitch their case for how Tim Cook needs to run his company. – Andrew Wilkinson, Miller Tabak & Co.
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Sounds familiar:
This isn’t Dell, thank Jobs.
Apple has a market cap of $445 billion. Icahn reportedly has just over $1 billion in AAPL. His “large” stake is actually around 0.22% of Apple; not 20%, not even 2%. He’d need to quadruple his current “large” stake just to get to 1%.
Icahn’s stake is “large” to him, not to Apple. To Apple, it’s a drop in the ocean.
So, while he can squawk on Twitter and other media, less than a quarter of one percent doesn’t buy him a lot of financial leverage to “force” Apple to do anything beyond a yawn. At 0.22%, he’s lucky Tim even bothered to pick up the phone. – MacDailyNews Take, August 14, 2013
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Rainy Day” for the heads up.]
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MacDailyNews says it in mid-August. Analysts parrot it at the end of October.
lcahn should sell App, and buy AMZN. It lost 9 cents share, and it’s up huge AH..
Damn keyboard! Should sell Apple, and buy AMZN
Another excellent idea Carl! Another bubble upon which you can ride until it pops and POP goes your investment. Just get the hell out of Apple’s carefully quaffed hair, you sad fellow.
VERY WELL STATED MDN.
Bad Day at Black Rock
The English have an expression that seems to suit Mr. Icahn.
“All mouth and trousers”
I prefer the one that goes “All fur coat and no knickers”
Actually it’s “All mouth & no trousers”. I’m English and have no idea what it means though.
Actually, NDW, although it sounds like it *should* be ‘no’, Macaholic is actually correct. It’s a Northern expression meaning someone who’s a bit full of themselves, but with precious little reason; style over substance (all mouth and (trendy) trousers but nowt beneath the show).
Oh, right. I stand corrected.
I learnt my way of saying it from my grandparents and my granddad was a Yorkshireman.
I learned it off watching English TV like ‘Coronation Street” which is set in Manchester area.
I’ve heard naught about one nor t’other. Me dad was a Lancashire lad.
Think about this: Apple can borrow money at say 3% or less. The dividend Apple pays on the stock is about 2.3% today which when they buy the stock back Apple stops paying. Therefore Apple pays .7% on the debt. In addition the interest payment is tax deductible whereas the dividend Apple pays has no tax effect. If Apple pays 20% tax in the US that means that Apple gets a .6% reduction in tax resulting in a .1% net cost.
Now if you had a company that you thought the stock was undervalued and you had the same cash and conditions as outlined above – wouldn’t you do a larger buyback?
Absolutely NOT. Why should Apple pay ANYTHING to make Icahn richer? Based upon all of his past actions there’s a 99.999% chance that as soon as Apple announces a buy back and there’s an almost immediate bump in stock price Icahn will dump his stock to get his quick profit. Then AAPL falls because he’s dumped it. THEN where will all the long term investors be? Answer: worse off than they are now because Apple’s net value will be less and AAPL will be no higher than it is now? Why sould Apple pay anything to be worse off than they are now?
Besides, how is a lower stock piece hurting Apple? Answer: It’s not.
What will a higher stock price do for Apple? Answer: Nothing.
What can Apple do at a higher stock price that it can’t do now? Answer: Nothing.
Tell me again why Apple should pay even one penny to do what Icahn wants?
Besides, if you really look into the details of the prior bond deal you’ll see that your borrowing premise does not hold up. Future bond rates will also be higher than they were the first time around.
Icahn(‘t) is threatening a shareholder proxy war…
I wish there was a reverse posibility of that, one in which shareholders could vote him and his .22% out.
Apple could reiisue more shares to dilute his weeny…
That would be hilarious. Ward off old ‘LOOK AT ME!‘ Carl by doing exactly the opposite of what he demands. 😆
My 20 000 shares of Apple votes against A-holes like this Carl S-hit. >:(
I hope that the others do the same.
20K? Sure. Uh huh. Right.
Just because you don’t doesn’t mean others don’t. Grow up.
He could have bought the shares back when apple was 18 a share and it has split twice since then. So yes he could have 20k shares easily.
I don’t get it, why has not just buy icahn’s share and sent him to go FHS?
Looks like icahn just want to turn apple into dell.
Clearly old I DEMAND ATTENTION! Carl has no concept of Apple. Only an eye on manipulating AAPL to his mammon worshiping advantage. What a waste.
I expect TC will handle this just fine, but this is one of those situations I REALLY wish SJ was still here – to rip this guy a new one.
I agree. I don’t think Tim Cook will bow to this Asshat’s wishes but he will be very polite and diplomatic whereas SJ would simply tell him to F. OFF.
I can’t in good conscience disagree, but owing to your problematic track record with Acme products I must hesitate
Icahn May be a small fish but if he makes whispers in the bigger fishes ears and gets them to agree with him then he may be able to cause trouble.
Tim would be wide to take him as a deionise threat.
Indeed. The man symbolises everything vile about the way the financial markets work. They would happily gut Apple in order to make a quick buck, then cast it adrift again leaving the new BOD having to scale back in order to re-balance the company. Capitalism is supposed to be about building up, but this lot only know how to destroy.
Is this author claiming that Icahn’s FUND holds 0.28% of Apple while Icahn himself holds about 0.22%. How else can they claim that Icahn controls 0.5%? It’s been widely reported (even by Icahn himself) that he only holds what amounts to less than 0.25%. How did this author get to more than double that — unless he’s just making it up! Is he claiming Icahn has more than doubled his ownership of AAPL shares? (Note Well: I did NOT say ownership of Apple! He owns AAPL shares. This does NOT mean he owns part of Apple.)
Apple does not have to list ownership in AAPL down that far. So other than guessing or hear-say where is he getting this inflated number that Icahn supposedly controls?
Will somebody at Apple please tell Carl to go fsck himself.
Don’t go away mad, Carl Icahn. Just go away and bedevil some other company.
And damn, I wish there was some way for Apple to burn his ass on the way out.
Still, don’t underestimate him. he’s a tricky – and persistent – dick once he sets his sights on something, so this sub-plot will likely have more twists and turns – and maybe many – before it’s over….
….the seemingly miniscule size of his holdings notwithstanding
.
Hmm. You got me thinking. Maybe his -somethingelse- is minuscule, explaining his bombastic overcompensation syndrome.
Carl Bone-aparte…. ;-D
He’s becoming like the Kardashians of the tech finance gossip columns. Most people don’t understand the point of this article, which is that he’s all media bluff and bluster, with less-than-zero power over Apple. But the tech gossips keep regurgitating every press release, as if its something important. Luckily at age 77 he won’t be around much longer to annoy like a buzzing housefly.
He’s a dangerous ‘Donald’. He needs to be watched.
It just takes one turd to foul the who;e punchbowl.
Let me know Tim, my shares will be with Apple.
Carl craves attention. That’s about the sum of it.
Isn’t a shame when crazy people have money then use it to shove their craziness onto others? I suppose dealing with crazies is to be expected when you’re the CEO of the best company on the planet.
He’s threatening litigation, but he would lose. You’re not going to win a case for negligence when there is already an outstanding buyback that is 1) the largest in history and 2) still in its infancy!
“We thank Mr. Icahn for his concern, but we feel we have taken on enough risk with the current buyback for the time being.”
THE END
Question is, why DID Tim bother picking up the phone at all?