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I don't recall mentioning Dell.

No, but you generalized his deals as benefiting only himself at the expense of everyone else. He has unlocked billions upon billions in shareholder value over the past few decades and often sticks up to the management when they aren't acting in the best interests of shareholders. His involvement in the Dell deal, even if Dell goes private as originally planned, has been hugely advantageous for current shareholders because he's caused the Silverlake/Dell bid to be increased over the past few months. Unless you'd like to bring up specific examples where shareholders have not benefited from his activism (and then, once you've identified specific examples, argue whether his intent was malevolent) you're simply spouting empty rhetoric.


No, because he's involved, period.

Give it a break.
 
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Didn't read all the responses so if this has been done sorry....


The guy looks like one of the most interesting people in the world, no wonder people listen to what he has to say!

"I don't always use a cell phone but when I do, I use iPhone."
 
Carl Icahn actually is encouraging Apple to BUY BACK even more shares. In doing that, Apple would be buying back even more of its own stock, leaving less room for outside investors (like Carl) to attempt to have a controlling interest in the company.

Sadly, the SEC does not allow a company to hold its own stock as voting shares. They are 'retired' shares and cannot vote. Buying back stock increases the ownership of the company of the remaining stockholders and increases their voting clout.

At least, that is how I understand the buy-back process.
 
Is this the same Icahn that wanted new Apple management? Is this the same Icahn that wanted Apple to sell bargain-priced hardware at discount chain stores which would have diluted Apple's image?

Not sure how great this news is.



Hopefully he'll take a hand-off approach this time.

That's from 2009. Do know what product came out since then and has literally altered the face of personal computing?

Icahn is smart enough now to know to stay the F out of Apple's show.
 
I'm with SanJacinto

Carl Icahn is not even close to Warren Buffett.
Warren Buffett doesn't destroy healthy businesses and he does not invest in companies to force them to distribute their cash. I love Buffett. All I know about investing I got from Buffett, Graham and Damodaran.

Carl Icahn on the other side is an activist investor and that's really a bad thing. He searches for companies with massive cash reserves. After he bought a great amount of stocks he starts to influence management and forces them to reduce the cash reserves by increasing dividends or by starting stock buybacks. This is not good for Apple.

This are really bad news. The first really bad news regarding Apple since Steve's passing.

Buffett is the exactly opposite of Icahn. Buffett is a buy-and-hold who looks for good management, then lets them run the company.

Icahn is two things: 1) a killer of dead and near-dead companies; and 2) a suck-the-life-out-of-healthy-companies guy.

Icahn #1 is a useful (albeit sad) function in capitalism - get the capital tied up in companies that are going to die anyway freed up to do something useful. Of course Icahn takes a cut of that, but hey. Icahn #2 is bad. Bad for the company, bad for capitalism, bad for America, bad for anyone owning Apple stock. Sure the stock will pop for three, six, or more months. But he's here to get as much cash out of Apple as possible, then take his capital gains on top of that, then he's off. Leaving behind a cash-strapped company with a management now focused on finances rather than products.

This is the first time in 20 years I'm seriously considering selling my AAPL.
 
Is this the same Icahn that wanted new Apple management? Is this the same Icahn that wanted Apple to sell bargain-priced hardware at discount chain stores which would have diluted Apple's image?

Not sure how great this news is.



Hopefully he'll take a hand-off approach this time.

Did you read the article you quoted, even the part where it said "1 April 2009"?
 
Funny how people are never happy.

When Apple's stock was on a downward spiral, and analysts were cutting their predictions left and right, everybody was complaining how they were manipulating the market and pushing the stock down. Now there is a guy who openly says that he bought a lot of Apple stock and that he believes the price will go up, and again people complain about manipulation.
 
Steve's other widow

Steve's death widowed Apple.

Yes, there is the dutiful suitor. The gent who was waiting in the wings. He can take care of many tasks. Lawn care? check. Gutters cleaned? Check. Windows washed? Check. Oil changed? Check.

Can he thrill your very soul? No way, no how.

The predators arrive.
 
Hmmmm does he know something we don't? There may be a huge surprise waiting for us on the 10th... :)

Well, if he does, he can't trade on that fact. That said, it sounds like he bought a big stake in Apple and then met with Cook to give him advice. That's perfectly fine.
 
Stock price and market manipulation at its finest

Can't say it's manipulation, but it's so stupid. we would've eventually found out from the 13-F. It's so stupid that people would buy just because they find out someone like Icahn discloses a position. This shows us that primary sources of info for most people involved in the market is news, and not value. It's funny how people start piling on even though Icahn probably bought the stock months ago.
 
This unscrupulous, money-grabbing corporate raider ruined TWA. All its employees, including my husband, paid a dear price. We have long memories and forgiveness will never be in the picture.

Look out, Apple! This isn't going to be pretty!
 
Also let's not forget a crucial point of this NEWS: Carl Icahn actually is encouraging Apple to BUY BACK even more shares. In doing that, Apple would be buying back even more of its own stock, leaving less room for outside investors (like Carl) to attempt to have a controlling interest in the company.

That's actually very good advice to Apple. (And actually good advice to any company, as long as they can afford to buy back the shares that were long prostituted to Wall Street).

I do believe you are wrong. Any stock that Apple buys becomes non voting stock and would in fact increase the power of a single large stock owner.
 
that's what apple needs more innovative people, throw out the old staff and bring in some good guys with a futuristic vision.

That won't work. It's the company's culture and management that needs changing in order to foster innovation (the strategy is largely ok). In large corporations the focus is on the core business, risk management and short term profit. This clashes with the requirements of an innovative culture (risk taking and short term losses). That's why ever larger corporations go outside and acquire small start-ups that do not suffer from these things.

It's a common evolution of companies that was already reported in the 50s and 60s. Changing Apple doesn't help. They are reliant on venturing, open innovation or acquisitions.

----------

I will be purchasing quite a sum once the pump reaches its dump.

How will you recognise that moment?
 
I'm worried for Apple.

Icahn has never been known for passive investment (buy low and sell high).

Once he takes stake of a company, he would influence it heavily so he gets a very good return on his investment.

He is not in the market to buy 1B of AAPL, and wait for it to run on its own and sell them when it reaches 2B. There is a lot more to come.
 
I'm just saying, nothing huge, small things like iOS doesn't match OS X anymore. Plus, OS X Mavericks looks like an unfinished product (I know it's in DP.) Also, the icons don't match iOS's icons. For instance, now there are two safari icons. Now there's a skeuomorphic safari icon and a non-skeuomorphic icon. It's like are we going away from skeuomorphism or not?

Those aren't the only messy things, there's other stuff too.

How do controversial design changes in one product of a company indicate the status of the entire business? :confused::confused::confused:
 
Steve Jobs passes away.

Tim Cook, master of the supply chain, blankets the planet with iDevices, releasing new ones simultaneously in multiple countries worldwide, killing the buzz for new products with over saturation. Gone are the days of Steve Jobs' carefully calculated tech-lust inducing product launches. Tim Cook understands manufacturing...he does not understand mystique. There have been no waiting lines for Apple launches since Tim Cook took over. No lines; no buzz. No buzz; no lust. No lust; no Apple, as we've come to know it.

Quality control takes a hit, as Apple's vendors struggle to keep up, not with the demand of previous smaller scale staggered launches, but with the sheer volume of Tim Cook's massive worldwide launches.

Stocks drop on reduced hype, and word that Apple's vendors are being overworked and underpaid in miserable conditions.

Amidst the trend of bigger smartphone screens from increasingly popular manufacturers, Apple begrudgingly, stubbornly lengthens their screen by a little with the iPhone 5. It's seen by some as a stumble in the race.

iPad 4 is announced to little fanfare. iPad mini is a hit, despite being new on the outside/outdated inside.

2012 sees Apple spending far more time on litigation than innovation, as it scrambles to protect its aging property, reminiscent of a fading rock star who is more interested in protecting his old songs than making new ones.

Rumors of a cheaper phone emerge for 2013, with photo leaks. This despite Apple's previously firm stance as a strictly luxury brand. Again, post-Jobs Apple chooses raw sales figures over mystique. Rumors of a follow up phone to the iPhone 5 are strangely lacking any photo leaks, perhaps either because interest is waning in these secondary iterations, or because Apple has fallen behind schedule and has nothing to leak.

Apple fires the man who made iOS easy for anyone to intuitively use without an instruction manual. They put the person charge of designing hardware in charge of reskinning the entire OS, making it simultaneously trendy and unintuitive. Apple is now officially following the lead of UI designers on other platforms instead of breaking new ground. Former users of iOS will have a slight learning curve...new users will have a harder time distinguishing an iPhone from an Android phone, and the learning curve will be steeper. The new OS favors visual style over the ease of use and familiarity that the iOS brand has carefully nurtured over the previous versions. Tiny details are obsessively tweaked in the beta releases, while larger issues of general usability are completely overlooked.

Rumblings from Apple's board of directors hint at misgivings about Apple's ability to innovate at competitive speeds.

Carl Icahn, known vulture, begins a high altitude circling...

Apple will not collapse overnight. But they will collapse, some day, somehow. The story of how it will happen is actively being written. As they continue to morph from a company that makes things everyone wants, into a company that makes things everyone already has, from trend setter to trend follower, giving profit priority over innovation, the path of their demise will slowly come in to focus.
 
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"There ain't no such thing as a free lunch."

Google products cost way more than you're admitting. You're selling every detail about you dirt cheap. How about they offer to sell me their products without the data mining apps that run in the background? They'd never do that because they would lose money selling your information to advertisers. Google is just a sleazy spyware company with great PR. Just because it isn't worthless garbage doesn't make it any less spyware.

I just want to read the thread but had to reply to this. Let me get this straight. you hate the company and its FREE services because it does not do exactly what you want?
 
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