CARL ICAHN

'Carl Celian Icahn' (born February 16, 1936) is an American billionaire financier, corporate raider, and private equity investor.

Contents

Biography

Business interests

Recent developments

Philanthropy

Thoroughbred horse racing

External links

See also

References

Additional reference

Biography

Raised in Queens, New York City, Icahn developed a reputation as a great corporate raider after his hostile takeover of TWA in 1985.^[1] He was educated at Princeton University (A.B., Philosophy, 1957) and New York University School of Medicine, where he dropped out before graduation.
Icahn began his career on Wall Street in 1961. In 1968, he formed Icahn & Co., a securities firm that focused on risk arbitrage and options trading. In 1978, he began taking control positions in individual companies. He has taken substantial or controlling positions in various corporations including: RJR Nabisco, TWA, Texaco, Phillips Petroleum, Western Union, Gulf & Western, Viacom, Uniroyal, Dan River, Marshall Field, E-II (Culligan and Samsonite), American Can, USX, Marvel Comics, Revlon, Imclone, Federal-Mogul, Fairmont Hotels, Kerr-McGee, Time Warner and Motorola.
Icahn, made extensive use of financier Michael Milken's junk bonds. After the junk bond and overall market bust in the early 1990s, Icahn played a lower-profile role in the business world, preferring to be less public in his dealings.

Business interests

As of 2007, Icahn and his affiliates currently own majority positions include ACF Industries, American Railcar, XO Communications, Philip Services, American Real Estate Partners, and American Casino and Entertainment Partners.
Icahn is a director of Blockbuster Inc., and the Chairman of Imclone, American Real Estate Partners LP, XO Communications Inc, WestPoint Home Inc., Cadus, and American Railcar. Also he is a beneficial owner of Adventrx Pharmaceuticals Inc, Hollywood Entertainment, National Energy Group Inc, Vector Group Ltd and has significant holdings in Time Warner Inc. He has casino interests in Las Vegas, Nevada, including the Stratosphere, Arizona Charlie's Boulder and Arizona Charlie's Decatur, which are operated through American Entertainment Properties, a subsidiary of Icahn's major company American Real Estate Partners. Icahn has also tried to take over Marvel Comics ^[2].
In 2004, Icahn purchased a large block of stock in a pharmaceutical concern, Mylan Laboratories, after Mylan had announced a deal to acquire another company in that market, King Phamaceuticals, of Bristol, Tennessee. Icahn threatened a proxy fight over the acquisition, saying that the contract required Mylan to over-pay. He also contended that Mylan's chief executive, Robert J. Coury was significantly overcompensated and that Mylan's corporate governance was otherwise badly flawed.
In early 2005, Mylan gave up its efforts to acquire King, but management said this was a result of its ongoing monitoring of relevant facts, not due to pressure from Mr. Icahn.
In 2006 Icahn sold his stake in KT&G (Korea Tobacco & Ginseng) for a significant quick one year profit.
At the moment Icahn is also a major shareholder of Time Warner owning about 3.3% of the company valued at billions of dollars. He has been actively attempting to influence the direction of Time Warner, often in conflict with its Chief Executive, Richard Parsons. Although Time Warner recently sold 5% of its AOL division, Icahn has been pressing for additional action to increase shareholder value. On February 7, 2006, a group led by Icahn and Lazard Frères CEO Bruce Wasserstein unveiled a 343-page proposal calling for the breakup of Time Warner into four companies and stock buybacks totaling approximately $20 billion. On February 17, 2006, the Icahn-led group agreed with Time Warner to not contest the re-election of TW's slate of board members at the 2006 shareholders meeting. In exchange for the Icahn group's cooperation, Time Warner will buy back up $20 billion of stock, nominate more independent members to the board of directors, cut $1 billion of costs by 2007, and continue discussions with the Icahn group over their proposal, particularly on the future of Time Warner Cable.

Recent developments

In August 2006, he bought stock in the video game publisher Take Two Interactive.
In January 2007, he purchased a 9.2% stake in Telik, Inc. (Nasdaq: TELK), a biotech company engaged in cancer research, because he believed its shares were undervalued.
On January 16, 2007 it was disclosed in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing that Mr. Icahn is the beneficial owner of 14.57%, or 6.1 million shares, of WCI Communities Inc. (NYSE: WCI) [1]. In the filing Mr. Icahn indicated that he intends to contact WCI to discuss how to "unlock the inherent value" of its shares.
On January 30, 2007 Motorola (NYSE: MOT) said it received notice that Icahn owns about 33.5 million shares, representing a 1.39% interest in the company and pressed for a seat on its board. But he was promptly turned down by the majority of the stock holders in the election for Board Directors which was held on May 8th.
On February 9, 2007, Lear Corporation's (NYSE: LEA) board of directors agreed to a $2.3 billion takeover offer from Icahn, pending a 45 day solicitation period for other offers, which it did not receive, and shareholder approval.^{[3] [4]}
On February 27, 2007, Icahn invested $50 million in Motricity, a North Carolina-based provider of mobile content delivery technology.
On April 23, 2007, Carl Icahn's company announced it was selling the Stratosphere and three other southern Nevada casinos to an affiliate of Goldman Sachs for $1.3 billion.
During April, 2007, Icahn successfully pressured Medimmune Inc (MEDI) to consider takeover bids. The company was bought out by AstraZeneca.
On May 7, 2007, Icahn's quest for a board seat on Motorola is effectively ended, as the company announced the next day that in a preliminary count of the votes for board members Icahn did not posses the number needed to be elected. Icahn stated that he would not sell his shares in the company.

Philanthropy

Icahn Stadium on Randall's Island in New York City is named after him, as is the Carl C. Icahn Center for Science and Icahn Scholar Program at Choate Rosemary Hall, a top tier New England prep school. This organization pays for tuition, room and board, books, and supplies for 10 students every year for four years (freshman-senior), an expense that adds up to about 160,000 dollars per student.
Icahn made a substantial donation to his alma mater Princeton University to fund a genomics laboratory which bears his name, the Carl C. Icahn Center for Science, Choate Science Building designed by I.M. Pei; and the Carl C. Icahn Laboratory for Princeton University’s Institute for Integrated Genomics. He also made a large donations to Mount Sinai Hospital, New York, of which he is a trustee, which in return named a building the Icahn Medical Institute.
His foundation, the Children’s Rescue Fund, built Icahn House in The Bronx, New York City, a 65-unit complex for homeless families consisting of single pregnant women and single women with children, and operates Icahn House North and Icahn House South, both of which are homeless shelters located in New York City.
Icahn has received numerous awards, including the Starlight Foundation’s Founders Award and the 1990 Man of the Year Award, and was named The Guardian Angel 2001 Man of the Year. In 2004, he was honored by the Center for Educational Innovation - Public Education Association for his charter school work. In 2006, He was honored with the 100 Women in Hedge Funds Effecting Change Award for his outstanding contributions to improving education.

Thoroughbred horse racing

In 1985 Carl Icahn established Foxfield Thoroughbreds, a horse breeding operation. At that years' Newstead Farm Trust sale run by Fasig-Tipton, he paid $4 million for Larida, a 6-year-old mare and a record $7 million for the 4-year-old bay mare Miss Oceana who was in foal to champion sire, Northern Dancer.
Icahn's Meadow Star won the 1990 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies and was voted the Eclipse Award for Outstanding Two-Year-Old Filly. In 1992, Foxfield ended its racing operation and became a commercial breeder. Having bred more than 140 stakes horses, in 2004 Icahn shut down Foxfield, selling all his mares and weanlings without reserve at the Keeneland November breeding stock sale.

External links

★ Forbes World's Richest People (2006): #53 Carl Icahn

★ Forbes 400 listing (2005): #24 Carl Icahn

★ Forbes World's Richest People (2004): #47 Carl Icahn

★ MarketWatch.com: Icahn's recent track record and Motorola

★ Carl Icahn Invests $50 Million in Mobile Content Distributor Motricity

★ "If He Ruled the World" Knowledge at Wharton

See also

★ Dan Raviv

★ Avi Arad

★ Toy Biz

★ Gordon Gekko

References

1. 10 Questions for Carl Icahn by Barbara Kiviat, Time Magazine, Feb. 15, 2007
2. ''Comic Wars'' by Dan Raviv, Broadway Books, April 2002
3. Lear agrees to Icahn buyout, may seek other offers, by David Bailey, Reuters, February 9, 2007
4. Lear Announces Expiration of Solicitation Period for Alternative Acquisition Proposal, Lear Corporation Press Release, March 27, 2007

Additional reference

Connie Buck, The Predator's Ball (1988), chapter eight ("Icahn-TWA: From Greenmailer to Manager-Owner").