Matthew C Klein, Columnist

Icahn on Twitter Shows Apple the Future

Investor Carl Icahn got Apple Inc.'s attention when he went on Twitter to say the company should use some of its cash to buy back shares or pay higher dividends.

August 14, 2013 at 8:14 PM UTC

By Matthew C Klein

Matthew C. Klein writes for Bloomberg View about the economy and financial markets. He previously wrote for the Economist magazine and its economics blog, Free Exchange. Before that, Klein was a research associate at the Council on Foreign Relations, where he spent more than two years studying the history of the Federal Reserve and the intellectual history of monetary economics for an upcoming book by Sebastian Mallaby. He also worked at Bridgewater Associates, where he studied the economies of Central and Eastern Europe and advised institutional investors on asset-liability management. Klein has a bachelor's degree in history from Yale University. Originally from Chicago, he lives in New York.

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Yesterday, Carl Icahn said -- via Twitter-- that he thinks Apple could do more for its owners by buying back shares faster than planned. Apple's shares have gained more than 5 percent since then.

It isn't the first time the legendary investor has made money by publicly haranguing corporate executives for failing to do their jobs. In the old days, he and others like him would send critical epistles to directors and executives that would eventually find their way into the press. Today it's faster and easier to peck a short message on a smartphone and within minutes set financial markets abuzz.