Activist investor Carl Icahn has renewed his calls for Apple to buy back more of its stock.
Less than a year after Apple’s board voted to buy back $30 billion worth of stock, Icahn wants the Cupertino-based company to do even more. In a lengthy, open letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook released Thursday, Icahn said that now is the prime time for Apple to act because its shares are still undervalued. In return, Icahn vowed not to part with any of his own shares.
“To preemptively diffuse any cynical criticism that you may encounter with respect to our request, which might claim that we are requesting a tender offer with the intention of tendering our own shares, we hereby commit not to tender any of our shares if the company consummates any form of a tender offer at any price,” Icahn wrote.
Icahn thanked Cook for heeding his calls to buy back more stock in April.
Icahn also tried to draw Cook’s attention to another opportunity in the market: TV. He said fiscal year 2016 would be the prime time for Apple to roll out an UltraHD TV set, moving beyond Apple TV, a digital media player that the company already has on the market. He estimated that Apple could sell 12 million 55-inch and 65-inch TV sets in fiscal year 2016 at an average selling price of $1,500 each.
“Televisions are a centerpiece to the modern living room and thereby a promising gateway into the home for Apple’s growing ecosystem,” Icahn wrote.
Icahn cheered the arrival of the Apple Watch, which was revealed last month, marking Apple’s first brand-new product in about four years.
“It appears to us that Jony Ive and his team have yet again executed at a level that will bring to market a product that revolutionizes the entire category from both a hardware and software perspective,” he wrote.
Hailing Cook as the “ideal CEO for Apple,” Icahn stressed that his letter was not meant as a criticism of his leadership.
“Quite to the contrary, we could not be more supportive of you and your team, and of the excellent work being done at Apple, a company that continues to change the world through technological innovation,” he wrote.
Activist investor Carl Icahn is urging Apple CEO Tim Cook to buy back more stock (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images).
