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People and news organizations pay attention to Mr. Icahn because companies that ignore him — see Motorola and Yahoo — do so at their peril. Never mind that Mr. Icahn would probably not know an iPhone from a Galaxy S4. In a market-driven world, the stock price is everything. And the only thing. He doesn’t own shares in a company called Apple. He owns a stock listing called AAPL.

He is akin to everyone’s crazy uncle whom no one should listen to, except everyone does, and he often turns out to be right. He wins in part because he knows the outside play — the media game — so well. Using business news outlets and now social media, Mr. Icahn is able to make corporate boards quake and chief executives tremble because they know he will say anything, and he often does.

Mr. Icahn usually zeros in on troubled companies, but in this case he is cynically suggesting that one of the most successful companies in the world — one that has already announced plans for $100 billion in dividends and buybacks — should borrow $150 billion and go into real, actual debt despite having $147 billion in cash on hand. (Most of Apple’s cash is overseas and cannot be used to buy off investors.) Apple probably won’t take the Twitter bait. The company has replaced Coke as the most recognizable brand in the world, with a steady string of product hits. Does it really need Mr. Icahn’s advice?

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– http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/07/business/media/using-twitter-to-move-the-markets.html?ref=todayspaper