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Original URL: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/03/01/einhorn_drops_apple_lawsuit/

iPrefs-seeking shareholder Einhorn drops Apple lawsuit

'Silly sideshow' folds its tent, moves on

By Rik Myslewski in San Francisco

Posted in Law, 1st March 2013 18:44 GMT

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David Einhorn and his hedge fund Greenlight Capital [1] have dropped their lawsuit against Apple.

Einhorn had sued to block a vote at Apple's investor meeting [2], held this Wednesday, that would have forced a shareholder vote on the issuance of higher-dividend preferred shares. Einhorn is promoting the idea of that class of shares, which he dubbed "iPrefs".

"Apple removed the bundled proposal from the shareholder meeting therefore resolving the issue," a Greenlight Capital spokesman told AllThingsD [3].

Not that Apple had a choice. Last Friday, a New York District Court judge issued an injunction [4] preventing Apple from holding that vote, known as Proposition 2, agreeing with Einhorn that Security and Exchange Commission rules prevented its "bundling" of multiple measures.

Einhorn's iPrefs idea – which lives on, unaffected by Friday's withdrawal of legal action – is intended to pry loose some of Apple's ginormous cash holdings, which were reported to stand at $137.1bn in the company's most recent financial report [5].

Einhorn's activist-shareholder stance has inspired both plaudits [6] and brickbats [7]. Place Apple CEO Tim Cook firmly in the latter camp, having called the Einhorn suit a "silly sideshow" both at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet conference on February 12 [8] and at his company's investors meeting this Wednesday [9].

Einhorn may now be folding that particular sideshow's tent, but don't expect him to retire his activist act entirely. ®