Icahn drops plans to force Apple to return more cash to investors
11 Feb 2014
Activist investor Carl Icahn has dropped his plan to force Apple to return more money to shareholders and he saw, "no reason to persist" with his effort.
Icahn had been demanding that the iPhone maker buy back $50 billion of its shares.
In a letter to Apple shareholders, he said he was satisfied with the recent efforts of Apple's chief executive, Tim Cook, to return cash to investors.
He added, the company had repurchased $14 billion of its stock in the two weeks since the firm reporting earnings that fell far short of exepctations (See:Apple buys back $14 bn stock in two weeks after weak results).
"As Tim Cook describes them, these recent actions taken by the company to repurchase shares have been both 'opportunistic' and 'aggressive' and we are supportive," said Icahn in an open letter.
The investor's announcement follows a day following a shareholder advisory service, ISS, recommending that Apple shareholders vote against Icahn's plan.
ISS added that Apple had "returned the bulk of its US-generated cash to shareholders via aggressive stock buybacks and dividends payouts".
In this context, according to ISS, the iPhone maker's board's "latitude should not be constricted by a shareholder resolution that would micromanage the company's capital allocation process".
Icahn noted in his letter though that Apple had already repurchased $14 billion worth of shares in the last two weeks and that the tech giant was on track to repurchase at least $32 billion in the fiscal year.
