Einhorn pleads with investors on Apple vote
BILLIONAIRE investor David Einhorn yesterday pleaded with fellow Apple shareholders to vote against the iPhone maker’s proposals to change its corporate practice.
Einhorn’s Greenlight Capital hedge fund, which owns around $600m (£394m) in Apple shares, laid out proposals that would see billions of dollars returned to shareholders.
Einhorn said that despite the company’s history of product innovation its “attitude to managing its cash has been decidedly non-innovative”.
Greenlight Capital wants the company to distribute a new class of preferential Apple shares – which he dubbed iPrefs – that would be handed out to investors and return a regular, fixed dividend.
Apple has said it is considering Einhorn’s proposals. However, a board proposal at its upcoming annual meeting would see it prevented from issuing the kind of preferential stock suggested by Einhorn.
Greenlight Capital is also taking the company to court, claiming the proposals would violate US corporate laws. On Tuesday the judge presiding over the trial said Einhorn was likely to win the case.
Einhorn said his suggestions would return value to investors, while leaving Apple with cash to make acquisitions, and preventing it from jeopardising its business. Apple’s shares have fallen by a third since their summer highs.
“[The proposals] don’t interfere with whatever business plan Apple has, we want them to keep innovating and designing products we can’t imagine living without,” Einhorn said, imploring shareholders to “send [Apple] a clear message”. Apple did not comment.