Carl Icahn Just Fired A New Missile At Apple To Get It To Return More Cash To Shareholders
On Twitter, he says, "we'll be making a precatory proposal to call for vote to increase buyback program, although not at $150 billion level."
His tweet was timed to coincide with the release of a Time magazine profile of Icahn pegged to his battle with Apple.
For the most part Icahn sounds reasonable. He doesn't sound particularly hostile.
Even the precatory proposal is pretty tame. A precatory proposal isn't binding, it's just a suggestion for the management, basically.
"Tim Cook is doing a good job with the business," says Icahn. "I think he's good whether he does what I want or not," but "Apple is not a bank."
Apple has $147 billion in cash on hand. Icahn thinks it should be returning more of that cash to shareholders.
"I'm not against the management of this company. But they've got too much money on their balance sheet," Icahn tells Time.
Apple for its part says it has a $100 billion capital return program. And on its most recent earnings call, it said that it was essentially returning all the cash it generated in the U.S. right back to shareholders. If Apple were to use the overseas cash, it would be taxed.
Icahn has been raging on about Apple for a few months now, but there's been no change in Apple's policy yet.
This cover story for Time is his biggest, most public attack to date.