Will Apple and Greenlight Get an Answer Soon?

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) will get a decision in the case filed against it by Greenlight Capital before the company’s annual shareholders meeting on February 27, a federal judge has said.

David Einhorn’s Greenlight started the lawsuit in an attempt to stop Apple from going ahead with a vote on a proposal to put limitations on issuing preferred stock. Apple has said it wants its investors to vote every time it decides to issue such stock, but Greenlight wants the option to become less limiting. The hedge fund has also claimed that Apple is breaking U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission rules by combining the proposal with two others up for voting at the meeting.

Einhorn, who holds more than 1.3 million Apple shares, has stressed that the court case is part of a larger battle to get the company to transfer more of its large cash holdings to its investors. According to the iPhone maker’s earnings report, it had $137 billion in cash holdings at the end of December.

According to Bloomberg, U.S. District Judge Richard Sullivan said in Manhattan that he would rule on the case before the February 27 shareholder vote. Apple had said it would wait for a final decision in the case before enacting any changes if the vote was allowed to proceed as planned…