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Icahn to debate share buyback with Apple CEO next month

Apple has a $60 billion share buyback program to use cash and increase its share price, but shareholder Carl Icahn said he'll discuss increasing it with Tim Cook.

Stephen Shankland Former Principal Writer
Stephen Shankland worked at CNET from 1998 to 2024 and wrote about processors, digital photography, AI, quantum computing, computer science, materials science, supercomputers, drones, browsers, 3D printing, USB, and new computing technology in general. He has a soft spot in his heart for standards groups and I/O interfaces. His first big scoop was about radioactive cat poop.
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Stephen Shankland
Carl Icahn tweeted about his upcoming tete-a-tete with Apple CEO Tim Cook.
Carl Icahn tweeted about his upcoming tete-a-tete with Apple CEO Tim Cook. Screenshot by Stephen Shankland/CNET

Activist shareholder Carl Icahn took to Twitter again on Thursday to advance his plan to amplify Apple's plan to buy back its own shares, saying he and Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook are scheduled to discuss the matter soon.

"Spoke to Tim. Planning dinner in September. Tim believes in buyback and is doing one. What will be discussed is magnitude," Icahn said in a tweet. Buying back shares can increase a company's stock price, and Icahn's tweets about the matter last week, when he disclosed that he has a "large position" in Apple stock, led to a surge in the company's share price.

Apple stock rose just 0.1 percent Thursday, to $502.96, and was essentially flat in after-hours trading.

Apple has been buying back stock since last year as a way to put its vast cash resources to use. In April, it announced an increase in its program, saying it's returning $100 billion of its cash to shareholders through dividend payments and a $60 billion share buyback authorization.

Icahn, though, wants a larger buyback program, he said on Twitter.