Carl Icahn
Carl Icahn let the world know that he sent a letter to Tim Cook, and oh yeah, he just happened to also mention that the contents of that letter will be revealed on Thursday (tomorrow) on a brand new site he's launching that same day. That's pretty clever, if you're into that sort of thing.
Mr. Icahn is an Apple bull who disclosed earlier this year that he has taken a major position in the company. He has been quite vocal in his belief that shares in the company are undervalued, and he has been exerting public and private pressure on Apple CEO Tim Cook to get even more aggressive about stock buybacks.
CNBC reported that an unnamed source said the letter contained an unspecified “pledge,” as well as another effort to make what CNBC called a strong case for a big buyback.
The way these things worked, that source is almost definitely someone who works for Mr. Icahn, and I'd bet dollars to donuts that person was tasked by Mr. Icahn to fill CNBC in on this (not at all) mysterious letter. Please note that this is speculation on my part.
So anyway, here's the tweet:
Just sent a letter to Tim Cook. Full letter will be disclosed on my website, the Shareholders’ Square Table, which will be launched tomorrow
— Carl Icahn (@Carl_C_Icahn) October 23, 2013
On the one hand, Carl Icahn has enough money and enough history that him sending a letter to the CEO of a major corporation in which he is a major shareholder is a newsworthy event. To that end, I respect Mr. Icahn's track record as an investor.
I should add that I also think Apple is undervalued, plus I own enough Apple stock to be less than a rounding error on a rounding error in Mr. Icahn's investing circles.
On the other, come on, this is a blatant publicity ploy for his new site—WHICH WILL BE LAUNCHED TOMORROW JUST FYI AND I THOUGHT I'D MENTION IT 'CUZ I THOUGHT YOU'D WANT TO KNOW.
That said, I'll be interested to see his “pledge.” My guess is that it will be a pledge to hold Apple's stock for X period of time, but again, that's just speculation on my part. We can find out Thursday on Mr. Icahn's conveniently launched new site.