Apple CEO calls Einhorn lawsuit 'a silly sideshow'

6:00 PM Apple, calls, Einhorn, lawsuit, sideshow, silly No Comments

Javier E. David, CNBC contributor , CNBC – 5 days

Apple's CEO Tim Cook on Tuesday rebutted criticism that his company was too tight-fisted with the $137 billion in cash it has amassed over the years, saying the tech giant "does not have a Depression-era mentality" preventing it from returning money to shareholders.

Wading into a controversy that was bought to a head last week by fund manager David Einhorn, Cook touted his company's investment in product development and research. The CEO rejected the basis of a lawsuit filed by Einhorn that the fund manager asserts will restrict Apple's ability to distribute its excess cash to its investors.

"Frankly I find it bizarre that we would find ourselves being sued for doing something that's good for shareholders," Cook told the Goldman Sachs' Technology and Internet Conference. He branded Einhorn's lawsuit as a "a silly sideshow."

Countering Einhorn's pointed criticism that the company was behaving like his cash-hoarding grandmother who lived through the Depression, Cook said his company invested $10 billion in capital expenditures last year, and would do the same this year.

"We do have some cash, but it's a privilege to be in this position ...where we can seriously consider returning additional cash to our shareholders."

He nevertheless said that Apple would "thoroughly consider" Einhorn's proposal to return cash to shareholders.

For his part, Einhorn managed to use his lawsuit to advance an issue that has dogged Apple for years. Analysts say the tech giant is notoriously parsimonious with paying dividends to its shareholders, magnified by the fact that the company's stock rose more than 31 percent in 2012.

Tim Lesko, an Apple investor at Granite Investment Advisors, told CNBC that he would prefer to see the company channel "the lion's share" of its cash to research and development. He remains "very constructive" on the stock, adding that he doesn't see "a real reason to make a change in our holdings."

In spite of sitting on a record cash haul, Apple's shares have swooned from a record high above $700 to new 52-week lows, as investors doubt the company's ability to keep pace with its competition. This week, speculation mounted that Apple would release a new watch.

Apple's culture of innovation "has never been stronger," Cook said on Tuesday, adding that it was "deeply embedded" in the value and DNA of the company. He insisted that the smartphone market would continue to be integral to the company's fortunes, based on growth trends in the all-important segment.

The company's dominance in the tablet space represents a big opportunity for Apple, Cook stated, even as challengers line up to erode the yawning market share of its iPad and iPad Mini. Tablets are growing in popularity, as consumers flock to the devices as an alternative to the traditional personal computer.

"We're in the early innings of this game," Cook said, touting projections that the 120 million units sold last year will triple over the next four years.

Cook points out that Black Friday numbers showed customers used iPads and iPhones to shop far more than their Android counterparts ... "I'm not sure what people are doing with these other tablets."

Some Apple watchers have worried that iPad Mini sales will eat into demand for its larger, more expensive iPad — a process analysts refer to as cannibalization. Cook, however, dismissed those concerns, saying that such talk often accompanied the introduction of newer Apple products.

"The first time I got asked about cannibalization was when Apple came out with the iBook, and people were worried that it would cannibalize the PowerBook," the CEO said. "When we came out with the iPad, people worried it would cannibalize the Mac." Both the PowerBook and Mac rank among Apple's most popular products.

Jon Fortt contributed to reporting for this article from San Francisco.

© 2013 CNBC LLC. All Rights Reserved

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Governor of Florida calls Obama strike possible ports block

3:00 PM block, calls, Florida, Governor, Obama, ports, possible, strike No Comments

MIAMI (Reuters) - Florida's Governor wants to call President Barack Obama federal law and order a cooling off period, when nearly 15,000 workers away from the job to a threatened strike, which would be a serious blow to the economy of the State, according to a letter he sent this week to the President.

The International Longshoremen Association maritime Alliance Union and have US focusing shippers and ports since March was collective bargaining but supposedly far from 15 ports on the Gulf of Mexico and eastern coasts, a deal with cargo handling remain.

In October, when a previous Treaty expired, the sides agreed a 90-day extension of terms, which will expire on December 29.

Florida ports in Miami and Fort Lauderdale would be hit directly, through a strike or lockout but a stoppage would also rattle, public transportation and trade, which accounts for 550,000 jobs in the and $66 billion engaged in economic activity, said Florida Governor Rick Scott in a letter dated Thursday.

Scott, "The threat to national safety and security, which would result in mass closure of ports are overvalued can not," Obama said.

Scott said that Obama had to prevent the power of the Taft-Hartley Act in 1947 or to interrupt a work stoppage in ports. Presidents Richard Nixon and George W. Bush both Taft-Hartley, which calls for 80 days cooling-off periods and mediation used, said Scott.

"The Taft-Hartley Act provides your management with tools that can help to avoid this danger," said Scott. "I ask in the name of the State of Florida, respectfully, that you invoke the law when... the contract expires at the end of the month."

(Report by Michael Connor in Miami; Edit by Cynthia Johnston)

(C) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2012. check, whether restrictions at: http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp

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Strauss-Kahn calls 'personal nightmare' fees

11:15 AM calls, nightmare, personal, StraussKahn No Comments

WASHINGTON-In brought a letter to IMF staff on Monday in circulation, Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn denied former IMF strongly against him and called the events surrounding his arrest attempted rape "a personal nightmare."

In the letter to the Fund, employees in an e-Mail from the IMF Acting Managing Director John Lipsky distributed Strauss-Kahn is apologized for the pain, his case had caused the global lenders and said he was confident that he would eventually be exonerated.

Strauss-Kahn faces charges that he tried to rape maid hotel in an upscale hotel in New York City on the 14. He is on a Manhattan of safe house under round-the-clock armed guard rather than is released on bail Friday.

Writing on his arrival in the Fund in 2007 reflects and explains his reasoning behind his resignation on Wednesday.

"I deny in the strongest possible terms that I encounter now;" I am confident that is the truth out and I will be relieved, "he said." A copy of the letter was obtained by Reuters.

"In the meantime I cannot accept that the Fund - and you love Kollegen--should have in any way to share my own personal nightmare." "So, I had to go."

He thanked the staff for their hard work and the institution in response to the global financial crisis.

"I would not leave, often without you - how may I not sufficiently done before popular-, that I understand and appreciate deeply all other work that you have done," he wrote.

Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters.

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Report calls for US-China to embrace investment

9:58 AM calls, embrace, investment, Report, USChina No Comments

WASHINGTON-zig billions of dollars in Chinese investment could flood in the United States over the next ten years, create a variety of American jobs officials not succumb to a political backlash and throw barriers, according to a report published on Wednesday.

The study forecast that some $1 trillion to $2 trillion in new greenfield investments or mergers and acquisitions around the world would unleash Chinese companies by the year 2020.

That would be a four-, eight - area to China's current outward investment of around $230 billion, according to the report for the Asia Society, the Kissinger Institute on China and the United States, and Woodrow Wilson International Center for scholars done.

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"If only 5 percent of China's expected outflows of the United States over the next ten years, the numbers be enormous", said the report authors, economists Daniel Rosen and Thilo Hanemann.

The next wave may be even more political heartburn as the early 1980s, as the Japanese company began making significant investments in the United States.

But U.S. policymakers should "open doors" Chinese investment and the potentially huge job-creating benefits through the U.S. system for the review of foreign investment from political interference, roses and Hanemann, said shielding.

"Japan's first investment in the United States almost as controversial in the 1980s as China's, but in the following years, Japanese US partners employ 1 trillion dollars in America and today almost 700,000 Americans have been made," she said.

Report, published in the talks at the highest level between the United States and Chinese officials in Washington next week, Congress and the White House calls, send a clear cross-party message that Chinese investment is welcome in the United States.

China is already the largest foreign buyer of US government debt with investments of more than $1.1 trillion as early 2011. But U.S. statistics showed that only $2.3 billion in the Chinese investments in companies with offices in the United States end of 2009, direct the report said.

This is about 0.1 percent of the $2.3 trillion in total foreign direct investment or FDI, in the United States.

The share of China's most is less than many smaller countries such as Saudi Arabia, Republic Korea, Brazil, Mexico, India, and in the shade provided by the largest foreign investors in Britain, the United States, Germany, Japan, the report said.

Chinese investment in the United States is already but increase, rise by more than $5 billion in 2010 and support of more than 10,000 American jobs, according to the report.

US companies have about 50 billion USD investment volume in China compared to the low level of Chinese investment here.

Many Chinese companies are caused by some previous high-profile raids, like Chinese oil company CNOOC's, in the year 2005 to acquire Unocal unsuccessful attempts investments in the United States as a result of the political outcry.

Much of that has to do with a false suspicion held by many US officials that "apply because China has so many State-owned enterprises, market forces and do not necessarily reflect profit motives in this country", said Rosen and Hanemann.

"Therefore they suggest that if a Chinese company's to America coming, rather must make it to a specific political purpose than simply money." This conclusion is wrong and if we need to maximize US interests, such misunderstandings will be corrected, "said."

The United States, through its inter-agency Committee on foreign investment in the United States, should carefully review continue to individual Chinese investment offers for potential national security concerns.

But Washington "Not the mutual game should play" by linking approval of Chinese investment to China open your market to more US companies, the report said.

"The United States capital from China, regardless of Beijing's State welcome the planners should have to say about foreign investment in China," according to the report.

"Since 30 years China more grown by broader, FDI, regardless of overseas his door open openness." The United States should do the same, or risk Chinese companies are power plants in Ontario instead of Michigan or Juarez instead of El Paso, "according to the report."

Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters.

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