He may feel more than comfortable publishing an open letter to Tim Cook calling for Apple to engage in an immediate $150 billion buyback of shares, but (vocal) activist investor Carl Icahn has said that he would never push Apple to buy Nuance Communications Inc., maker of the software that runs the Siri feature on Apple’s iPhones.
Last night Carl Icahn took to Twitter to talk about one of his favorite subjects, Apple. The billionaire investor tweeted that he had just sent a letter to Tim Cook and would be publishing the letter on his new website tomorrow.
True to his word, Icahn published the full letter this morning urging Tim Cook and the Apple Board to immediately tender an offer for $150 billion AAPL shares at their current price, rather than wait, as other investors have suggested. Icahn also stated that he will continue to invest in Apple and has already increased his stake in Apple from 4 million shares to 4.7 million.
Here’s the full letter:
Carl Icahn finally got his dinner date wish with Tim Cook last night, after the famous billionaire investor took to Twitter a few weeks ago to preach how Wall Street has seriously undervalued AAPL stock. Along with parading his optimism for Apple’s stock, Icahn purchased a major stake in AAPL stock and has been dying for Cupertino to issue more buybacks.
Despite the fact that Apple’s stock value has taken a more than 5% dip since the company’s unveiling of the iPhone 5c and 5s yesterday, key shareholder and billionaire investor Carl Icahn has bought “quite a bit more” stock today.
In an interview with CNBC, Icahn described AAPL as a “no-brainer” and repeatedly insisted that now is the time to buy.
Investment tycoon Carl Icahn has been bullish on Apple lately. In mid-August, Icahn unexpectedly tweeted that Icahn Enterprises, his diversified holding company, believed Apple to be “extremely undervalued.” Immediately, share prices jumped 5.6%. The next week, Icahn announced on Twitter that he and Tim Cook would be meeting in September to discuss a larger buyback program of AAPL shares.
That’s all nice, but Icahn is a business magnate, not an Apple fanboy. So what the heck is he up to here? A new theory being put forward by some investors is that Icahn has ulterior motives for his sudden Apple love affair: he wants Apple to buy Nuance, a company Icahn has a large stake in.
Spoke to Tim. Planning dinner in September. Tim believes in buyback and is doing one. What will be discussed is magnitude.
— Carl Icahn (@Carl_C_Icahn) August 22, 2013
Famous billionaire investor Carl Icahn took to Twitter this afternoon to announce that he and his new buddy Tim Cook are going to be meeting up for dinner in September to talk about Apple’s stock buyback program.
According to Icahn, Tim believes in doing the buyback, but the two giants are going to talk about the “magnitude” of it later to see just how much cash can be wrung out of AAPL.
Icahn made a lot of noise last week with claims that AAPL stock is extremely undervalued. AAPL shares shot up quickly after Icahn’s tweet last week, but his tweet this afternoon seems to have less of an effect on the stock. AAPL is down -3.83 and trading at 498.53 a share today but NASDAQ has been down part of the day, so maybe we’ll see a jump when things get back to normal.
Source: Twitter
AAPL shares rose 5.6% in value today after word came out that billionaire investor Carl Icahn thinks the company is ‘extremely undervalued.’ The stock was trading above $493 a share after 3PM ET today — a nice $26 jump up from the stock’s closing price on Monday.
Icahn revealed on Twitter that he spoke briefly with Tim Cook today about the company’s future and that he’s decided to make a large position with Apple: