John Paczkowski

Recent Posts by John Paczkowski

Icahn Asks Apple CEO for $150 Billion Share Buyback Over Dinner

icahn-thinking-of-cookActivist investor Carl Icahn and Apple CEO Tim Cook met on Monday, as expected. And, to hear tell from Icahn, things went reasonably well.

In a post to Twitter, Icahn said he pressed Cook to raise Apple’s stock buyback well above the $60 billion to which it’s already committed. “Had a cordial dinner with Tim last night,” Icahn tweeted. “We pushed hard for a 150 billion buyback. We decided to continue dialogue in about three weeks.”

Sounds like the billionaire investor has a bit more work to do in convincing Cook to return even more of Apple’s massive $146.6 billion cash position to the company’s shareholders.

As I wrote last week: “Apple presumably feels its buyback level is appropriate, and it’s hard to imagine it being convinced otherwise. Even with a stake as large as the one Icahn holds, the investor isn’t likely to have much influence on the way Apple allocates its capital. But who knows. Icahn’s not above picking fights with companies that don’t see things his way. And he can make plenty of trouble when he does.”

At $486.17, Apple shares are up nearly 2 percent on news of the meeting.

Apple did not respond to a request for comment.

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Another gadget you don’t really need. Will not work once you get it home. New model out in 4 weeks. Battery life is too short to be of any use.

— From the fact sheet for a fake product entitled Useless Plasticbox 1.2 (an actual empty plastic box) placed in L.A.-area Best Buy stores by an artist called Plastic Jesus