Carl Icahn has given up his attempt to have Apple add another $50 billion to its stock buyback program.
In a rare defeat for the corporate agitator, Icahn posted a letter on his website Monday ceding the fight to Apple CEO Tim Cook.
“We see no reason to persist with our non-binding proposal, especially when the company is already so close to fulfilling our requested repurchase target,” Icahn said in the letter.
Shareholders were slated to vote on the controversial proposal at Apple’s annual shareholders’ meeting on Feb. 28.
Icahn’s proposal ran head first into strong opposition — from outside Apple, too.
New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer blasted Icahn’s proposal as “too risky and too short-sighted.”
Stringer, who oversees $1.3 billion in New York City pension funds, called on fellow shareholders to vote against Icahn’s proposal.
Icahn didn’t respond to Stringer’s accusations in his letter, citing instead a recommendation from shareholder advisory firm ISS to vote against the proposal.
ISS, which can influence as much as one-third of votes on any given shareholder proposal, pointed to Apple’s recent acceleration of its buyback program.
Apple recently repurchased $14 billion worth of shares in a two-week period, and “appears on track to repurchase at least $32 billion in shares,” ISS said.
Icahn’s proposal, therefore, “effectively only asks the board to spend another $18 billion on repurchases in the current year,” ISS said.
Icahn, who owns $3.6 billion of Apple’s stock, said that while he is “disappointed” in ISS’s recommendation, he agreed with its assessment. He also applauded Cook’s plans to launch new products in new categories this year.
“We are extremely excited about Apple’s future,” Icahn said.
Apple started buying back stock after shares fell on Apple’s disappointing earnings guidance for the current quarter — expected to be between $42 billion and $44 billion, flat with last year’s quarter.
After Cook revealed Apple’s recent stock purchases last week, Icahn tweeted, “Ridiculous. Keep buying Tim! You still have $145 billion cash.”
Apple shares closed Monday up 1.8 percent, to $528.99.
They are down 5.6 percent for the year.