14 DAY TRIAL // Greenlight Capital Inc., the investment management firm suing Apple for its tight grip on cash, is moving forward with its plans to stop shareholders from voting in favor of Apple’s Proposal 2 in the company’s proxy.
The investment firm announced that it would host a public conference call (and webcast) today, February 21, 2013 at 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time.
The purpose is to discuss Apple’s capital allocation strategy, as well as Greenlight’s own proposal to unlock value for all stock holders.
According to a press statement issued today, “Greenlight continues to ask shareholders to vote AGAINST Proposal 2 in Apple’s proxy, which would eliminate preferred stock from Apple’s charter and restrict the Board’s flexibility on capital allocation decisions.”
To convince shareholders that Apple’s current policies are wrong, Greenlight promises to dish out “additional details regarding the options available to Apple, including the merits of Greenlight’s suggestion of distributing perpetual preferred stock to Apple shareholders for free.”
In response to Greenlight’s initial claims earlier this month (which sounded pretty much the same as today’s statement), Apple’s management team and Board of Directors released their own statement citing “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,” Apple said.
The Mac maker clarified that Proposal #2 in its proxy includes some recommended changes to the company’s articles of incorporation.
Recommended independently of Greenlight’s proposal, the changes in question don’t preclude Apple from adopting their concept, the Cupertino giant said at the time.
Apple also specifically outlined that, “Contrary to Greenlight’s statements, adoption of Proposal #2 would not prevent the issuance of preferred stock.”