In a twitter post, billionaire investor Carl Icahn says he had dinner with Apple CEO Tim Cook yesterday, during which he pushed Cook for a $150-billion share buyback, Bloomberg is reporting. Last month, a couple of Apple related tweets by Icahn made Apple’s stock (AAPL) surge, when he revealed that he had a large stake in Apple and had discussed a larger buyback with Apple CEO.
Had a cordial dinner with Tim last night. We pushed hard for a 150 billion buyback. We decided to continue dialogue in about three weeks.
— Carl Icahn (@Carl_C_Icahn) October 1, 2013
While Icahn has not indicated how receptive Cook was to the idea, he did say that the two parties plan to meet again before the month is over. “Had a cordial dinner with Tim last night,” Icahn wrote. “We pushed hard for a 150 billion buyback. We decided to continue dialogue in about three weeks.” Tim Cook has previously announced a plan this year for a total of $100 billion in dividends and buybacks, but Icahn wants Apple to allocate $150 billion more for share repurchases.
“We argued very hard for it, we think it’s a no brainer,” Icahn said in an interview. The dinner with Cook took place yesterday at Icahn’s apartment in New York, the investor said. While they had spoken via telephone before, it was their first meeting in person.
Once again, the effect of Icahn’s tweet on Apple’s share price was nearly instantaneous, as noted by Philip Elmer-Dewitt from Fortune.
With the two parties set to talk again in three weeks, those discussions may come after Apple’s next quarterly earnings conference call, which usually happens in the third week of October.
