In an interview to appear tonight on FOX Business Network’s (FBN) CAVUTO (8PM/ET), billionaire investor Carl Icahn speaks with FOX Business Network (FBN) anchor Neil Cavuto about the Federal Reserve’s announcement that it will not start tapering quantitative easing. Icahn discusses tapering, saying, “I do think that that is really what’s holding this market up… as long as they keep doing it I think that is going to be positive for the market. I think Janet Yellen will even be stronger than Bernanke doing it.” Icahn also speaks about investing in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and says, “They’re unique. I think Tim Cook certainly seems to be a good CEO. I think that the Board is almost crazy not to go in and buy stock here. It’s almost a shame they don’t do it, it’s a no brainer.”
Excerpts from the interview are below.
Carl Icahn On the Federal Reserve’s announcement that it will not start tapering quantitative easing:
“I’m no great expert on that but I do think that that is really what’s holding this market up. The fact of the Fed, you follow the Fed and as long as they keep doing it I think that is going to be positive for the market. I think Janet Yellen will even be stronger than Bernanke doing it.”
Carl Icahn On whether the Fed’s decision to taper will impact his decisions:
“We’re very proud of our record and in fact this year we’re up 30 percent already in our hedge fund and I say that because it just proves the activist model really works. And I think it will work whether they taper or they don’t taper.”
On whether it bothers him that the government is propping up the market falsely by providing all this cash:
“That is the problem, nobody knows what’s going to happen. It’s like you are in unchartered territory and it is a problem but I mean as long as you have the feast, you’re drinking the party punch bowl and you don’t know if it will work or if it won’t work. But I think for the time being it’s bullish for the market because it really creates earnings for companies because if you can borrow at 3 or 4 percent and you can buy other companies or do synergies and make 12 percent or 13 percent you don’t have to be a financial genius to understand that you’re going to make money.”
On what his plans are in regards to Apple:
“They’re unique. I think Tim Cook certainly seems to be a good CEO. I think that the Board is almost crazy not to go in and buy stock here. It’s almost a shame they don’t do it, it’s a no brainer. You have $150 billion in cash but even if you don’t want to use your $150 billion in cash, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) can borrow at 3 or 4 percent and they’re making tremendous money and so you buy stock that’s really returning 17 and 18 percent to you.”
On what he will do in regards to Apple if its Board does not buy stock:
“That’s an open question, right now I hope they will. I’ve had a good couple of conversations with Tim Cook, he hasn’t said yes or no but he does say that he is a fan of buying stock back and he’s already doing it and I intend to have dinner with him this month. You know, there are many, many companies that I get involved with where we do it peacefully, people don’t even know about it. You get involved, they know how I feel about certain things and we get recognition now quite a bit….in some cases we have been very destructive, we’ve been damn good board members, I mean, Hain, we just sold the stock after it went from 20 to 80, we were on the Board for quite a while and I think Irwin Simon has done a great job there.”
Carl Icahn On where he stands on Herbalife:
“There it’s not against the company’s management. I think Ackman’s completely and totally wrong, I think that’s almost a no brainer. They wrote a report that to me, was ridiculous and even now they keep saying about the company, the accounting is not good or what have you, but the real issue is Herbalife Ltd. (NYSE:HLF) keeps making more money and it does it in a legal way as far as I am concerned and it does give people a lot of work, I mean you’ve got people out of work that go and sell this product. You may like the product, you may not like it, you may say it sells for too high but hey if you go to these jewelry stores on 5th Avenue as opposed to go to 47th Street you can say they’re too high, that does not mean they’re illegal, that means they do a service. Herbalife has done a product for years. Ackman, I think, is just fighting it on the wrong level so to speak. I do think the company is still- I know it sounds funny – but it’s still undervalued.”
