Apple’s CEO says lawsuit a distraction

Apple CEO Tim Cook is calling a shareholder lawsuit against the company a “silly sideshow,” even as he said he is open to looking at the shareholder’s proposals for sharing more cash with investors.

Investor David Einhorn sued Apple Inc. last week, saying a proposal slated for a vote at the company’s annual meeting in two weeks would make it more difficult to enact his plan to reward shareholders by distributing a new class of shares.

Cook said Apple’s proposal puts more power in the hands of shareholders, making it difficult to understand why a shareholder would fight it. Calling the fight a waste of time, Cook said Apple won’t squander money by mailing letters to shareholders to persuade them to vote for the proposal.

“My preference is that everyone on both sides of this issue would take the money they’re spending on this and donating it to a worthy cause,” Cook said.

Apple’s proposal asks shareholders to vote on a few governance issues in one go. Einhorn’s company, Greenlight Capital, said in a statement that if Apple thinks the suit is a waste of resources, “it could simply end the matter by complying with existing law” and let shareholders vote on the contested proposal separately from the other issues.

Cook spoke Tuesday morning at a Goldman Sachs investor conference in San Francisco. Repeating previous statements, he said Apple is “seriously” looking at ways to hand out more cash to shareholders.

Investors appeared to be listening for something more substantive out of the CEO on the cash issue. Apple’s stock fell $12.03, or 2.5 percent, to close at $467.90.

Wall Street is clamoring for Apple to share more of its cash, which amounted to $137 billion at the end of last year and is still growing fast because of the company’s massive profits.