Activist investor Carl Icahn has dropped his campaign urging Apple to buy back $50 billion of stock this year, after the company stepped up repurchases and a proxy- advisory firm criticised his efforts as micromanagement.

The billionaire as recently as last week publicly urged the company to buy back more stock, after saying in December he would seek a shareholder vote to unlock funds held by Apple, which had $159 billion in cash and marketable securities as of December 28th.

While Apple co-founder Steve Jobs resisted calls to return cash to shareholders, chief executive Tim Cook has shown a willingness to meet investor demands. The iPhone maker bought $14 billion of its own shares after reporting earnings last month, bringing its repurchases to more than $40 billion in the past year. – (Bloomberg)