Apple Issues Statement On Shareholder Lawsuit

Earlier today the Internet was abuzz with news of a lawsuit against Apple from a fund manager who wanted Apple to give more cash back to shareholders. We passed on running the story because it was painfully boring, but it seems to have escalated to a point where Apple’s issued an official comment on the situation.

David Einhorn, the fund manager in question, wanted an additional $145 per share returned to shareholders. Apple clearly took notice of the claims and issued the following statement:

“Apple’s management team and Board of Directors have been in active discussions about returning additional cash to shareholders. As part of our review, we will thoroughly evaluate Greenlight Capital’s current proposal to issue some form of preferred stock. We welcome Greenlight’s views and the views of all of our shareholders.”

“As a part of our efforts to further enhance corporate governance and serve our shareholders’ best interests, Proposal #2 in our proxy includes some recommended changes to our articles of incorporation. These changes were recommended independently of Greenlight’s proposal and would not preclude Apple from adopting their concept. Contrary to Greenlight’s statements, adoption of Proposal #2 would not prevent the issuance of preferred stock. Currently, Apple’s articles of incorporation provide for the issuance of “blank check” preferred stock by the Board of Directors without shareholder approval. If Proposal #2 is adopted, our shareholders would have the right to approve the issuance of preferred stock. As such, Proposal #2 has the support of many of our shareholders.”

We cut out the boring preamble and concluding paragraph, but if you want to read them as well, you can check them out here.

Joshua is the Content Marketing Manager at BuySellAds. He’s also the founder of Macgasm.net. And since all that doesn’t quite give him enough content to wrangle, he’s also a technology journalist in his spare time, with bylines at PCWorld, Macworld and TechHive.