“Apple Inc. Chief Executive Tim Cook defended the company’s distribution of cash to its shareholders and called the proxy fight a proposal requiring shareholder approval before the consumer electronics maker can issue preferred stock a ‘silly sideshow,'” George Stahl and Thomas Gryta report for The Wall Street Journal. “Last week, hedge fund manager David Einhorn sued Apple in a New York federal court, arguing that the shareholder proposal could limit how the company could return some of its $137 billion cash pile to investors.”
“At a Goldman Sachs GS +1.02% technology conference Tuesday, Mr. Cook said Mr. Einhorn’s idea of distributing a ‘perpetual preferred’ stock that could pay a dividend yield of 4% was ‘creative’ and worth investigating,” Stahl and Gryta report. “However, he said, Apple’s proxy proposal wouldn’t prevent that from happening because the company would seek shareholder approval on any such move anyway.”
Stahl and Gryta report, “The CEO noted that the company is returning $45 billion to shareholders through a combination of dividends and buybacks. ‘Apple doesn’t have a depression-era mentality,’ he said in response to criticism that Apple is hoarding its money.”
Read more in the full article here.
Related article:
Apple to live webcast CEO Tim Cook presentation at Goldman Sachs Conference on February 12 – February 11, 2013
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Einhorn is silly sideshow Bob.
Hedge funds need to be investigated and broken up.
Some people must think Einhorn is a megalomaniac.
He needs to be personally investigated.
I would like to know how he made his money and if he broke any laws.
What does he gain from a legal suit against Apple?
If anyone has dirt on Einhorn it might be interesting if they sent it to Wikileaks or MDN.
Let’s see if Einhorn has done anything wrong..
Hedge funds and mutual funds. The who’s master thesis was the concept of the mutual fund (thesis done at Princeton). He even went on NPR and said that his current opinion is that these funds take power away from the stack holders. That is CXO’s from all these big companies get these crazy un justified salaries (his words).
If Einhorn’s proxy fight is a sideshow, then Einhorn must be the Enigma. Hedge fund need to be either highly regulated or abolished. When hedge funds start threatening companies then something is really wrong. Hedge funds are equivalent to parasites and leeches, running from host to host sucking them dry without giving back nothing in return. I wonder if Einhorn’s Las Vegas ‘clients’ put him up to this.
There needs to be some rule that when a hedge fund purchases stock from a company it has to remain in the company for a certain period of time, say six months or so. That way these hedge funds won’t be flip-flopping their money constantly. They’ll be forced to choose a stock and stay with it. That should stop their hit and run attacks.
Maybe just a little bit more information about how they’re going to return more money to investors would have been nice? The stock is in the toilet again. Apparently investors are not impressed. In the end, new investors vote with their wallet.
GM is at it again, how about something intelligent other then speculation or hate.
The same could be said about you getting out of bed this morning that made Apple drop, but wait……
Speculation? Stock prices are a fact. Hate? I love my Apple stuff. Use them every day to make a living. And as I said, investors vote with their wallet. Maybe if your mother will increase your allowance you can learn how to invest too.