SAN FRANCISCO, Dec 4 (Reuters) – Billionaire investor Carl
Icahn said on Wednesday that he has filed a shareholder proposal
with Apple for a much smaller stock buyback plan than he has
advocated previously, as he continued to pressure Apple to share
more of its cash pile.
“Gave $AAPL notice we’ll be making a precatory proposal to
call for vote to increase buyback program, although not at $150
billion level,” Icahn said in a tweet.
CNBC said Icahn’s plan calls for a $50 billion buyback
program.
Icahn had been urging Apple to buy back $150 billion worth
of shares. Icahn owns approximately 0.5 percent of Apple’s
outstanding shares, according to Thomson Reuters data.
Icahn on Tuesday told Time magazine that he filed a
shareholder proposal with Apple on Nov. 26, three days before
the deadline for measures to be voted on at the company’s next
annual shareholders meeting.
“As part of our regular review process, we are once again
actively seeking our shareholders’ input on our program, and as
we said in October, the management team and our board are
engaged in an ongoing discussion about it which is thoughtful
and deliberate,” Apple spokesman Steve Dowling said. “We will
announce any changes to our current program in the first part of
calendar 2014.”
