With Apple shareholder proposal pending, Carl Icahn turns his attention to Hertz
Activist investor Carl Icahn, who has a history of using his money and power to influence publicly traded companies and most recently made Apple one of his targets, is now setting his sights on Hertz, buying as many as 40 million shares in the rental car company.
Icahn's newfound stake in Hertz was revealed by an anonymous source to CNBC on Friday. The moves made by the investor prompted executives at Hertz to adopt a so-called "poison pill" earlier this week in an attempt to prevent Icahn from gaining control of the board of directors.
Prior to Friday, the identity of the activist investor was unknown. Hertz simply attributed its precautionary measures as being in response to "unusual and substantial activity" in its shares.
Icahn's stake in Hertz is said to be partially in derivatives, in addition to common stock. If his entire stake were in common stock, sources reportedly said it would make him the company's single largest shareholder.
The apparent interest of Icahn in Hertz comes as the billionaire remains involved in a public fight with the Apple Board of Directors over that company's cash and reserves. He has openly called for Apple to spend the entirety of some $150 billion it has in cash on a share repurchase program.
However, Icahn formally filed a shareholder proposal in November, in which he instead detailed a $50 billion stock repurchase plan. Apple, unsurprisingly, has recommended that investors vote against the proposal, saying that its board is already "thoughtfully considering options for returning additional cash to shareholders."
During fiscal 2013, Apple spent $23 billion of an expanded $60-billion share repurchase authorization, which contributed to combined dividend payments and repurchases totaling over $43 billion since the program was initiated some six quarters ago.
Icahn revealed in October that he had at the time 4.7 million shares of AAPL stock, up from a previous total of 4 million. His interest in the company, and stature as a Wall Street icon, have even garnered him private meetings with Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook and Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer.
Icahn's newfound stake in Hertz was revealed by an anonymous source to CNBC on Friday. The moves made by the investor prompted executives at Hertz to adopt a so-called "poison pill" earlier this week in an attempt to prevent Icahn from gaining control of the board of directors.
Prior to Friday, the identity of the activist investor was unknown. Hertz simply attributed its precautionary measures as being in response to "unusual and substantial activity" in its shares.
Icahn's stake in Hertz is said to be partially in derivatives, in addition to common stock. If his entire stake were in common stock, sources reportedly said it would make him the company's single largest shareholder.
The apparent interest of Icahn in Hertz comes as the billionaire remains involved in a public fight with the Apple Board of Directors over that company's cash and reserves. He has openly called for Apple to spend the entirety of some $150 billion it has in cash on a share repurchase program.
However, Icahn formally filed a shareholder proposal in November, in which he instead detailed a $50 billion stock repurchase plan. Apple, unsurprisingly, has recommended that investors vote against the proposal, saying that its board is already "thoughtfully considering options for returning additional cash to shareholders."
During fiscal 2013, Apple spent $23 billion of an expanded $60-billion share repurchase authorization, which contributed to combined dividend payments and repurchases totaling over $43 billion since the program was initiated some six quarters ago.
Icahn revealed in October that he had at the time 4.7 million shares of AAPL stock, up from a previous total of 4 million. His interest in the company, and stature as a Wall Street icon, have even garnered him private meetings with Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook and Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer.
Comments
CNBC - Icahn's private PR network
anyone know why is AAPL today -2% ?
I think we may have uncovered the big, nasty flaw in Capitalism.
First order of business with Icahn on board, change the name from Hertz to Hurtz
Hey. Rest of Wall Street. How does it feel to have Icahn breathing down your necks now?
I think we may have uncovered the big, nasty flaw in Capitalism.
I am not sure that capitalism requires companies to be publicly traded. In fact I would think that the entire stock market system is something of a leach on the system and just like labor unions they once served a valuable purpose but have long since outgrown their initial function to take on a life of their own which retains only a glimmer of the original purpose.
In case that is not clear - in the case of unions, they came about at a time when working conditions and worker compensation was horrendous and things like considering it acceptable for some number of workers to die for each floor of a building or span of bridge built where common place. Unions provided a mechanism or means for the workers to have leverage against management, but how far has that leverage been moved since and past a point of balance they become the oppressors. In the case of publicly traded stock, there was a time when you did not need an IPO to start or build or expand a company. Publicly traded stock gives a company a way to fund things that might not be possible through more traditional means, whether from profits or borrowed money or private investors. But at what point does the tail wag the dog?
I know it's not that simple and it's difficult to do what Icahn wants as the whole board of directors have to approve it but it's easier to convince such a board when money is involved rather than the best interests of the company and its employees.
Apple is definitely not going to sustain itself the way the market wants it to, that's for sure. Technologies don't just progress on a consistent pattern that Apple can take advantage of.
Will this guy just go away already. Nothing of Apple holds any interest to him other than share price.
Carl,
Don't take your focus off Apple! We shareholders need you! Clearly the board and Tim Cook don't care how the call option sellers manipulate the stock to ridiculously low valuations. We need a strong WALL STREET bull to bully these market manipulators out of the stock. These west cost techie nerds have no idea how to play the game which is why they toss Apple stock around like a drunkin' hooker. I will be voting YES on your proxy and so should everyone else that wants to make money being long Apple stock.
LOL, clearly you have little understand of the public equity markets. Our economy would be a small fraction of what it is today without the capital to grow that public markets have provided public companies.
Carl,
Don't take your focus off Apple! We shareholders need you! Clearly the board and Tim Cook don't care how the call option sellers manipulate the stock to ridiculously low valuations. We need a strong WALL STREET bull to bully these market manipulators out of the stock. These west cost techie nerds have no idea how to play the game which is why they toss Apple stock around like a drunkin' hooker. I will be voting YES on your proxy and so should everyone else that wants to make money being long Apple stock.
And people who actually care about the company and it's long-term future should ignore people like you and Ichan and vote no on his proposal.
I am not sure that capitalism requires companies to be publicly traded. In fact I would think that the entire stock market system is something of a leach on the system and just like labor unions they once served a valuable purpose but have long since outgrown their initial function to take on a life of their own which retains only a glimmer of the original purpose.
...
You're joking about the need for unions being a thing of the past, right?
Care to tell that to the millions of workers struggling with multiple jobs at serf-level wages? Want to tell them that they have, as individuals, a realistic chance of negotiating for wages with multi-national corporations?
Without unions, every gain you (without acknowledging) enjoy would disappear in a moment.
Vacations, child labor (you don't think so?), workplace safety? Gone.
The destruction of unions has heralded the death of the middle class. Too bad self aggrandizing silicon valley types don't have any sense of history, or gratitude.
We shareholders need you!
Sell your stock now and go back to being a day trader.
Publicly traded stock gives a company a way to fund things that might not be possible through more traditional means, whether from profits or borrowed money or private investors. But at what point does the tail wag the dog?
Primary advantage: private equity has ridiculously low liquidity compared to public trading. You can literally get into and out of a position in a public company in milliseconds. This is not possible with private equity which means a inherently higher risk. It also effectively locks out small investors, where small, for a company of Apple's size, means hundreds of millions of dollars.
Second advantage: it provides an effective market-based method of both executive and employee compensation. And not only that both stock grants and options can have tax advantages in the US.
+infinity.
Carl,
Don't take your focus off Apple! We shareholders need you! Clearly the board and Tim Cook don't care how the call option sellers manipulate the stock to ridiculously low valuations. We need a strong WALL STREET bull to bully these market manipulators out of the stock. These west cost techie nerds have no idea how to play the game which is why they toss Apple stock around like a drunkin' hooker. I will be voting YES on your proxy and so should everyone else that wants to make money being long Apple stock.
Sure, you need him until he gets what he wants and sells all his AAPL and walks away with a fat bank account. Or until his proposal gets voted down and he sells all his AAPL and walks away in search of another corporation with fat coffers that he can raid. Either way, he is not in it for the long hall, he is not in it out of concern for other stockholders, he is in it only to further enrich himself. Sometimes he wins, sometimes he loses, but all times he walks away.
This is not a flaw in the capitalist system (better called by the name "free enterprise"). Rather is is a fault of government which is under the power of the banking industry (better called by the name "banksters"). The government then empowers the banksters to develop all kinds of complicated derivatives (anything except the real thing) and when they do damage to the people (better called by it's correct name "defraud" the people) by making their money making moves so complicated that neither the people nor the government can figure out what is going on. And in the long run it all really began when the FED was created and then put in charge of the supply of money in the United States (better called "printing" money). Of course the system is further confused by the idea that we do not use money at all, but currency (better called by its correct name "counterfeit" money).
If you want to see what is really going on you might try to google "The Hidden Secrets of Money". They are far more knowledgable than I and their explanation is, naturally, better.
And for anyone who is not familiar with his history, Carl Icahn has left a string of disasters behind him as he uses the rules in his favor to either acquire companies or to manipulate them for his profit.
Jeez.
The same old photo of iCahn again?
May I suggest this alternative for future articles?