Greenlight Capital Inc. founder David Einhorn may have won a major battle against Apple [3], with a federal judge ruling in his favor on Friday to block an upcoming shareholders vote over preferred stock, Reuters reported [4]. The vote, which sparked a fight between Einhorn and Apple [5] executives, would have made it possible for the company to block the creation of preferred shares.

The decision comes a day after Einhorn laid out his plans for iPrefs [6], or preferred shares, in a public conference call. Greenlight filed a lawsuit against Apple earlier this month in an attempt to open more of Apple's large cash reserves to investors. In his ruling, Judge Richard Sullivan said Greenlight [7] and an other investor "are likely to succeed on the merits and face irreparable harm if the vote on Proposal No. 2 is permitted to proceed."

[Photo by Flickr user Adita21 [8]]