Almost exactly one day ago, when we noted that Icahn Enterprises has just sold a new batch of bonds, we predicted that the billionaire activist would follow through with a fresh volley of tweets:
More tweets coming? Icahn sells bonds for "general partnership purposes" http://t.co/VJSKWSjlFO [5]
— zerohedge (@zerohedge) January 21, 2014 [6]
And sure enough, less than 24 hours later, here comes the now well-known Icahn Tweet-pump
Since tweeting about our large position in $AAPL [7] on Aug 13, when the stock was 468 per share, we’ve kept buying shares of this ‘no brainer.’
— Carl Icahn (@Carl_C_Icahn) January 22, 2014 [8]
Having purchased $500 million more $AAPL [7] shares in the last two weeks, our investment has crossed the $3 billion mark yesterday.
— Carl Icahn (@Carl_C_Icahn) January 22, 2014 [9]
We feel $APPL [10] board is doing great disservice to shareholders by not having markedly increased its buyback. In-depth letter to follow soon.
— Carl Icahn (@Carl_C_Icahn) January 22, 2014 [11]
So, Icahn now has $500 million less in future AAPL purchasing power and is merely looking for piggybackers to take his exit-basis higher?
That said, good luck Carl: we realize it is an "ego thing" to not only go activist on the biggest public company out there, but bend it to your will - after all what else can one possibly want to put on their tombstone - but this one will take a whole lot more than just a few hollow "highly confident letters" from Jefferies to get over the hump.