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It's not true that he buys "poorly" run companies. He buys companies where he thinks a simple change could make a big short-term profit for him, and then he lob
by cjensen 13y ago
It's not true that he buys "poorly" run companies. He buys companies where he thinks a simple change could make a big short-term profit for him, and then he lobbies for that profit.
In Apple's case, Apple looked really smart in 2008 for having money in the bank when there was a cash crunch in money market funds and people had trouble getting short-term operating funds. They look smart when they use their funds to lock up a bunch of Flash Memory for their devices rather than buying as they need at higher prices.
But Icahn didn't care about the long term advantages of the bank account to Apple. He just cared about trying to squeeze some of it out in the short term.
- ChuckMcM 13y agoAgreed, when I read the article I objected to the headline. Icahn's definition of 'poorly' seems to me, to really be "These guys are leaving money on the table." I do not believe that in the classic sense of 'earning money, meeting goals, and running the business' that Ebay is "poorly" run, but I would agree with an assessment that there are probably ways for them to increase the amount of money they either make or retain. However, my experience is that companies that are hell bent on getting every penny out of the business are not generally "well" run (again by my definition of what "well" means).