Carl Icahn has withdrawn his proposal for a $50 billion share buyback from Apple after a recommendation against the plan from advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services. While disappointed at the recommendation, Icahn said that he did not disagree with ISS's assessment of the situation. Apple has already purchased $14 billion of its own stock this year, and is on track to buyback $32 billion in shares this fiscal year. Because of this, Icahn and his firm saw no reason to continue with their proposal, according to Icahn's letter:
As Tim Cook describes them, these recent actions taken by the company to repurchase shares have been both “opportunistic” and “aggressive” and we are supportive. In light of these actions, and ISS’s recommendation, we see no reason to persist with our non-binding proposal, especially when the company is already so close to fulfilling our requested repurchase target.
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Source: Shareholders' Square Table
