“Activist investor Carl Icahn’s attempt to get Apple Inc. (AAPL) to return money to shareholders was criticized by the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, the largest U.S. public pension,” Jon Erlichman and Adam Satariano report for Bloomberg. “‘We are uncomfortable with a raider coming into a company with a proposal to disgorge cash,’ Anne Simpson, Calpers’ head of corporate governance, said in an interview today. ‘Carl Icahn is a Johnny come lately.'”
“Calpers, with more than $270 billion in assets, owned 2.4 million Apple shares as of Sept. 30,” Erlichman and Satariano report. “The fund is asserting itself after Icahn said earlier this month that he would try to win shareholder approval for his plan to ask Apple to increase the size of its stock buyback program.”
“Simpson criticized Icahn for being outspoken about his buyback plan, including Twitter messages about a dinner he had with Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook,” Erlichman and Satariano report. “‘Sending tweets from under the dinner table — this is unseemly,’ she said.”
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