“A judge approved Apple Inc’s request to speed up the schedule in a lawsuit filed by star hedge fund manager David Einhorn’s Greenlight Capital, part of an effort to get the company to share its huge cash reserves with investors,” Poornima Gupta reports for Reuters. 

“U.S. District Judge Richard Sullivan of the Southern District of New York on Monday brought forward the legal schedule by a few days at Apple’s request, which argued that the issue would have a big impact on the upcoming shareholder meeting on February 27,” Gupta reports. “ Apple told the judge that the request to modify the schedule had the support of Einhorn’s counsel.” 

Gupta reports, “Einhorn, a well-known short-seller and Apple gadget fan, shocked Wall Street last week by suing Apple to stop the iPhone maker from eliminating from its charter the ability to issue preferred stock without shareholder approval.  He wants Apple to return a bigger piece of its $137 billion cash pile to investors, through the issuance of perpetual preferred shares that pay dividends to existing shareholders.” 

Read more in the full article here. 

MacDailyNews Take: Sure, this one gets sped up, no prob.  Apple v. Samsung?  Let that one fester, so they can keep selling knockoffs of Apple’s innovations for as long as possible. 

Related articles:

Apple’s cash return options: Pay U.S. tax man or incur massive debt – February 11, 2013

Bernstein’s Sacconaghi: Most important for Apple is a capital allocation plan – February 11, 2013

Evaluating David Einhorn’s proposal to Apple – February 9, 2013

The colossal gall of bad Apple investors – February 8, 2013

Cramer: By suing Apple, wrong-headed Einhorn has gone too far – February 8, 2013

Analysts: Apple may crack open its massive, bulging wallet for shareholders – February 8, 2013

Apple with $137 billion in cash considers preferred stock – February 8, 2013

Einhorn’s Apple lawsuit marks biggest investor challenge in years – February 8, 2013

Gamco’s Haverty: Apple’s cash is ‘shareholders’ cash’ (with video) – February 8, 2013

Apple shares surge following company response to Einhorn – February 7, 2013

Greenlight’s Einhorn sues Apple over plan to eliminate preferred stock, wants more cash distributed – February 7, 2013

Greenlight Capital urges Apple shareholders to vote ‘No’ on proposal 2 that would impede Apple’s ability to unlock shareholder value – February 7, 2013

Greenlight’s Einhorn sues Apple, ‘dissatisfied with capital allocation strategy’ – February 7, 2013

Legg Mason’s Miller: Apple stock would rise 50% on ‘sensible capital allocation’ alone – February 6, 2013

Gamco’s Haverty: Apple board can be sued over excessive accumulation of cash (with video) – January 28, 2013

Greenlight’s Einhorn: Apple ‘the best big growth company’; Fed stimulus ‘counterproductive’ – July 10, 2012

David Einhorn says Apple isn’t a below-average company, it’s just priced like one – May 30, 2012