Apple has been sued by American hedge fund manager, David Einhorn, demanding the company must disburse more of its $137bn cash pile to shareholders.
Einhorn, founder of investment management firm, Greenlight Capital, has filed a complaint in a New York court claiming that Apple did not take measures to ensure that its shareholders receive the benefits of the company’s success.
Einhorn’s Greenlight Capital hedge fund owns 1.3m Apple shares and has urged fellow shareholders of Apple to oppose the company’s attempt to amend its corporate charter.
He alleged that Apple’s move would eliminate preferred stock from Apple’s charter and restrict the company’s ability to unlock the value of shareholder’s volume.
Apple’s annual meeting of shareholders is scheduled to be held on 27 February and Einhorn is urging all shareholders to vote against Proposal 2 in Apple’s proxy, which eliminates the company’s ability to issue preferred stock.
Einhorn said: "We believe Apple must examine all of its options to unlock the growing value of its balance sheet for all shareholders."
"Over the past several months, we have had an ongoing dialogue with Apple regarding one option to do so, namely the creation of a new security, a perpetual preferred stock that would be distributed at no cost to Apple’s existing shareholders, and would provide an attractive, sustainable dividend while preserving Apple’s financial resources to pursue its business strategy," he added.
Apple said its management team and board of directors have been in 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," the company said.
Apple reported a 18% rise in its revenue to $54.51bn for the fiscal first quarter of 2013, compared to $46.33bn for the same period last year.
