Carl Icahn
Carl Icahn is a billionaire financier, ranking #18 on the 2007 Forbes 400 list with an estimated net worth of $14.5 billion.
Icahn built a name for himself in the 1980s as a corporate raider. After keeping quite for years, Icahn made a major comeback as a 'activist investor'. An activist investor agitates companies for changes, including buyouts, share buybacks, and dividend increases.
Icahn has successfully pushed for changes at Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) and Temple-Inland (NYSE: TIN), among others. Icahn won board seats at Motorola (NYSE: MOT) after first failing.
In 2007, Icahn's activism successfully pushed biotech company MedImmune into a sales agreement with AstraZeneca (NYSE: AZN). Icahn is also involved with biotech company Imclone Systems (Nasdaq: IMCL), where he is Chairman of the Board.
In early, 2008 Icahn activist target BEA Systems (Nasdaq: BEAS) was sold to Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL). Icahn held a 13% stake in BEA.
Icahn is also involved with developments at Biogen Idec (Nasdaq: BIIB) and WCI Communities (NYSE: WCI), which both unsuccessfully explored sales. WCI rejected a $22 per share takeover offer from Icahn in early 2007, only to see its stock plummet on the housing slowdown.
In 2008, Icahn targeted Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO) after the Internet company failed to work out an acceptable merger agreement with Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) Microsoft walked away from its bid for Yahoo! after months of bickering.
Carl Icahn's Portfolio
| Ticker | # of Shares | Change | Price | Value | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MOT | 137,741,443 | -0.08 | -0.97% | $8.20 | $1,129,479,833 | Related Stories » |
| APC | 14,401,628 | -1.70 | -2.73% | $60.67 | $873,746,771 | Related Stories » |
| YHOO | 55,039,056 | -0.30 | -1.96% | $15.00 | $825,585,840 | Related Stories » |
| BIIB | 17,511,304 | -0.53 | -1.12% | $46.92 | $821,630,384 | Related Stories » |
| IMCL | 11,669,544 | +0.00 | +0.00% | $69.99 | $816,751,385 | Related Stories » |
| LEA | 9,595,954 | -0.40 | -0.63% | $63.50 | $609,343,079 | Related Stories » |
| TWX | 12,933,159 | -0.47 | -1.50% | $30.85 | $398,987,956 | Related Stories » |
| TWC | 4,711,128 | -1.07 | -2.46% | $42.42 | $199,846,050 | Related Stories » |
| AMLN | 6,787,649 | -0.11 | -0.79% | $13.80 | $93,669,557 | Related Stories » |
| WMB | 3,918,959 | -0.56 | -2.73% | $19.97 | $78,261,612 | Related Stories » |
| TIN | 3,448,488 | -0.56 | -3.05% | $17.83 | $61,486,542 | Related Stories » |
| FOR | 2,653,012 | -0.40 | -2.11% | $18.58 | $49,292,963 | Related Stories » |
| REGN | 2,508,001 | -0.25 | -1.36% | $18.09 | $45,369,739 | Related Stories » |
| CYBX | 2,008,612 | -0.67 | -3.61% | $17.87 | $35,893,897 | Related Stories » |
| ENZN | 2,457,683 | -0.20 | -1.93% | $10.17 | $24,994,637 | Related Stories » |
| LGF | 4,289,508 | -0.10 | -2.00% | $4.89 | $20,975,695 | Related Stories » |
| BBI.B | 4,452,905 | -0.04 | -1.18% | $3.35 | $14,917,232 | Related Stories » |
| ABI | 649,026 | +0.00 | +0.00% | $11.47 | $7,444,329 | Related Stories » |
| BBI | 10,523,840 | -0.03 | -4.76% | $0.60 | $6,314,304 | Related Stories » |
| TELK | 4,156,663 | +0.01 | +1.30% | $0.78 | $3,242,198 | Related Stories » |
| WCI | 4,816,450 | +0.00 | +0.00% | $0.66 | $3,178,857 | Related Stories » |
| JCP | 80,000 | -1.07 | -3.49% | $29.57 | $2,365,600 | Related Stories » |
| PERY | 129,715 | -0.18 | -1.28% | $13.92 | $1,805,633 | Related Stories » |
| GFG | 2,653,012 | +0.00 | +0.00% | $0.29 | $769,374 | Related Stories » |
| FOLD | 201,940 | -0.24 | -6.42% | $3.50 | $706,790 | Related Stories » |
| ANX | 3,459,459 | +0.00 | +0.00% | $0.10 | $345,946 | Related Stories » |
| QRCP | 868,002 | -0.02 | -5.00% | $0.38 | $329,841 | Related Stories » |
