Matt Levine, Columnist

Carl Icahn Would Like to Ask a Favor of Apple

There are two kinds of activist investor. Carl Icahn is the rich kind, as is advisable. With Apple he is sort of acting like the other kind.

December 5, 2013 at 6:33 PM UTC

By Matt Levine

Matt Levine is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. A former investment banker at Goldman Sachs, he was a mergers and acquisitions lawyer at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz; a clerk for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit; and an editor of Dealbreaker.

Provide news feedback or report an error

Site feedback:

Take our Survey

Carl Icahn is an "activist shareholder." What that means is that he buys big chunks of a handful of carefully selected companies and pushes them to make big strategic or financial changes so that his shares will go up, launching proxy fights or takeover bids if necessary to get what he wants. Carl Icahn is a billionaire and The Most Important Investor In America apparently.

John Chevedden is an "activist shareholder." What that means is that he buys a few shares of a bunch of companies and submits nonbinding shareholder proposals to those companies to call attention to corporate governance issues like executive pay and director election procedures. John Chevedden rides the subway to shareholder meetings apparently.