Judge Accepts Apple’s Request to Speed Up Einhorn Case

By: Zain Nabi  |   February 12th, 2013   |   Apple, News

Apple’s request to speed up the schedule in a lawsuit filed by a hedge fund manager David Einhorn of Greenlight Capital has been approved by a U.S. District Judge. Both parties had agreed to speed up the process so as to get the court’s verdict as soon as possible.

 

Recently, Einhorn sued Apple, asking the company to dole out more cash for its investors and objecting on some of the company policies. Apple had rejected Einhorn’s claims and now the formal legal process will determine the outcome of this lawsuit soon. Einhorn’s move, however, surprised many as it was completely unexpected for them.

 

Apple requested to expedite the process because it will have its shareholder meeting on February 27, and it feared that prolonging the lawsuit could have an impact on a meeting in an unwanted way. Apple is already dealing with a troublesome situation in the stock market with the value of its shares declining, and it does not want any more troubles in this regard.

 

Apple will file its response to the lawsuit by the end of Wednesday, while Greenlight will file its papers by Friday. Both parties have been ordered by the judge to appear for oral arguments on February 19.

 

Apple is going to come out with a proposal in the annual shareholder meeting with respect to giving authority to the shareholders to issue preferred stocks. Einhorn has challenged Apple’s method, saying that it violated Securities and Exchange Commission rules by ‘bundling’ some other matters into a single proposal.

 

Earlier when the case had been filed, Einhorn maintained that Apple had adopted a conservative approach by not doling out more cash for investors. This approach, many analysts believe, is because the company had a couple of encounters in the past that almost led it down, and it took quite a lot of efforts for Apple to recover. Apple has not yet commented on this aspect of the story, but it is determined to get the court ruling in its favour.

 

Source: Reuters