Carl Icahn
Born	(1936-02-16) February 16, 1936 (age 76) Queens, New York City, New York, U.S.
Ethnicity	Jewish[1]
Alma mater	Princeton University and New York University School of Medicine (drop- out)
Occupation	Businessman
Net worth	US$14 billion (2012)[2]
Spouse	Liba Trejbal (1979 - 1999) Gail Golden (1999 - present)
Children	Brett Icahn (with Trejbal) Michelle Icahn (with Trejbal)

Carl Celian Icahn (born February 16, 1936) is an American business magnate.

Biography[link]

Icahn was raised in Far Rockaway, Queens, New York City, where he attended Far Rockaway High School.^[3] His father was a cantor, his mother was a schoolteacher.^[4] He was educated at Princeton University (A.B., philosophy, 1957) and New York University School of Medicine, but left without graduating.

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 of positions in individual companies.^[3] 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's, E-II (Culligan and Samsonite), American Can, USX, Marvel Comics, Revlon, Imclone, Federal-Mogul, Fairmont Hotels, Blockbuster, Kerr-McGee, Time Warner and Motorola.

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Business career and interests[link]

Little is known about Carl Icahns' endeavors prior to the 1990s, yet still many have regarded him as a main player in the "junk bond," and "mortgage bond," industries which transformed corporate America and S & L's into a profitable enclave susceptible to investment bankers and corporate raiders.

In 2004, Icahn purchased a large block of stock of Mylan Laboratories, after Mylan had announced a deal to acquire King Pharmaceuticals. Icahn threatened a proxy fight over the acquisition, on the ground that the deal required Mylan to overpay. In early 2005, Mylan gave up its efforts to acquire King, but according to the management, the decision was made after it monitored relevant facts, not due to pressure from Icahn.

In 2006, Icahn sold his stake in KT&G (Korea Tobacco & Ginseng) for a substantial profit.

In 2007, Icahn and his affiliates owned majority positions in firms including ACF Industries, American Railcar Industries, XO Communications, Philip Services, and NYSE-listed Icahn Enterprises, formerly known as American Real Estate Partners.

Icahn made an attempted run as a major shareholder of Time Warner, owning about 3.3% of the company valued at billions of dollars. He has been actively seeking to influence the direction of Time Warner, often in conflict with its former 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 Time Warner's slate of board members at the 2006 shareholders meeting. In exchange for the Icahn group's cooperation, Time Warner would 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.

In 2008, Icahn showed interest in the takeover of Yahoo! and the ousting of Jerry Yang from his position as CEO to allow Microsoft to purchase the web company.^[5]

Icahn sold his casino interests in Nevada on February 21, 2008. They included the Stratosphere, Arizona Charlie's Boulder, Arizona Charlie's Decatur, and Aquarius Casino Resort which are operated through American Entertainment Properties, a subsidiary of Icahn's major company, Icahn Enterprises. The sale price of $1.3 billion was roughly $1 billion more than he paid for the properties.

In June 2008, Icahn launched The Icahn Report which campaigns for shareholder rights. It hosts United Shareholders of America where individual investors can sign up and take part.

Icahn was a director of Blockbuster until January 2010, and the chairman of Imclone, Icahn Enterprises, XO Communications, WestPoint Home, Cadus, and American Railcar Industries. He is a beneficial owner of Adventrx Pharmaceuticals, Vector Group and has had significant holdings in Time Warner. Icahn tried to take over Marvel Comics, coming into conflict with Avi Arad, Ron Perelman, and Ike Perlmutter.^[6] Marvel ended up being acquired by The Walt Disney Company in late 2009.

Icahn's hedge funds currently own 5.6% of biotechnology company Biogen Idec. Beginning in 2007, Icahn has steadily increased his stake in Biogen, seeking to possibly acquire, break up, and/or sell off various parts of the company.^[7] As of June 2009, Icahn has managed to seat two of his allies on Biogen's board with the apparent goal of splitting the company into two entities and possibly replacing CEO James C. Mullen, of whom he has been highly critical.^{[8][dated info]}

In July 2010, Icahn acquired 14 percent stake in Mentor Graphics because of which Mentor Graphics signed a Poison Pill provision. As of September 2010, Icahn owns just less than 15 percent of Mentor Graphics. On February 22, 2011 he made an offer to buy Mentor Graphics for about $1.86 billion in cash in a move to push other suitors to declare themselves.

Recent developments[link]

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• XO Holding in 2005 announced to sell the wired part of its business for $700 million to its majority shareholder and Chairman Icahn himself to pay back its debts and buy back its preferred stock for about $600 million – all owned by Icahn himself. He would end up owning XO's traditional wired phone business outright, and still own his 60 percent stake in what would be left of XO. In the SEC filings, XO explained that a special committee of its BOD weighed Icahn's bid and declared it the best interest to shareholders. Investment bankers determined Icahn's offer to be "fair." And the stockholders would approve the transaction because Icahn owned 60% of the common stock and the directors, named by Icahn, hired the investment bankers to put their stamp of approval on his offer. However, R2 and other minority shareholders successfully defeated the attempt and the Delaware Court On March 31, 2008 entered a final judgment order: 1. Reduced by 1.5% of the interest on the debt held by Icahn; 2. Waived, through the due date of July 15, 2009 for any breach of the financial covenants with the Chairman; 3. Awarded $8 million to R2's and other minority shareholders’ attorneys at Icahn's cost and other damages to the business caused by Carl Icahn's self-dealing and/or conflict of interest.
• In August 2006, he bought stock in the video game publisher Take-Two Interactive. He increased his stake to 11.3% on December 21, 2009, making him the company's second largest shareholder.^[9]
• In January 2007, he purchased a 9.2% stake in Telik (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 Icahn is the beneficial owner of 14.57%, or 6.1 million shares, of WCI Communities (NYSE: WCI) [1]. In the filing Icahn indicated that he intends to contact WCI to discuss how to "unlock the inherent value" of its shares.
• On January 30, 2007 Motorola (then NYSE:MOT, now two separate entities: Motorola Mobility(NYSE: MMI) and Motorola Solutions (NYSE: MSI)) 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 turned down by the majority of the stock holders in the election for Board Directors which was held on May 8.
• 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.^[10][11]
• On February 27, 2007, Icahn invested $50 million in Motricity, a North Carolina-based provider of mobile content delivery technology.
• During April 2007, Icahn successfully pressured Medimmune (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 have enough to be elected. Icahn stated that he would not sell his shares in the company.
• On September 14, 2007, Icahn disclosed his ownership of 8.5% of outstanding shares in business software company BEA Systems. BEA Systems shares rose more than 4% after Icahn disclosed his stake in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In the filing, Icahn, known for forcefully pushing an agenda at companies where he acquires ownership, suggested that BEA Systems should put itself up for sale. By September 21, Icahn increased his stake to 9.88% of BEA, and on October 3, to 11.05%, and then to 13.22% on October 4, 2007.^[12] On January 16, 2008, Oracle Corporation announced it was purchasing BEA Systems.^[13]
• On February 21, 2008, Carl Icahn sold his American Casino & Entertainment Properties which owned four casinos in Southern Nevada (3 in Las Vegas, and one in Laughlin).The announcement had been made on April 23, 2007. The purchaser was an affiliate of Goldman Sachs and the price was $1.3 billion.
• On March 9, 2008, a story about Carl Icahn aired on American news program, 60 minutes, with reporter Leslie Stahl.
• On March 21, 2008 Icahn appeared on Nightly Business Report and discussed his views on proxy fights.
• On March 24, 2008 Icahn sued Motorola as part of his efforts to gain 4 seats on Motorola's Board and force a sale of its mobile business.
• On May 13, 2008 Carl Icahn purchased as many as 50 million shares of Yahoo, leaning toward launching a proxy contest.
• On May 15, 2008 Icahn confirmed that he would be commencing a proxy fight to remove Yahoo's Board of Directors in response to their "irrational" actions in rejecting Microsoft's takeover bid.
• On June 18, 2008 Icahn launched The Icahn Report.
• On July 21, 2008 Icahn agreed to join Yahoo's Board of Directors in a deal that would end the proxy fight. According to the agreement, the Yahoo Board will expand by two directors to eleven members. Eight directors will stand for re-election while the remaining three seats will include Icahn and two nominees that Icahn will recommend.^[14]
• In September/October 2008 Icahn has been involved in the attempted purchase of Imclone by Bristol Myers Squibb (which was turned down) and eventual sale of Imclone to Eli Lilly in an all cash deal valued at $6.5bn. Icahn had described Bristol Myers Squibb's upwardly revised offer of $62 per share as "absurd".^[15]
• In December 2008, Icahn filed suit against Realogy over a proposed debt swap.^[16]
• On April 20, 2009, Apparently, Carl Icahn's proxy battle for Amylin is an attempt to engineer a sale to Lilly. Icahn aims Amylin [AMLN] for sale to Lilly [LLY] ^[17]
• On September 28, 2009, XO Holdings (XOHO) rejected Icahn's offer to buy out the remaining shares of XO he doesn't own already for 55 cents a share as "substantially undervalues" company. Icahn previously attempted to buy the telecom assets from XO but dropped the bid because of shareholders opposition. A lawsuit filed by the hedge fund and minority shareholder R2 in August 2009 alleges Icahn as director and majority owner of XO - hurt shareholders by refusing refinance of the debts owned by Icahn when capital was easily available and repeatedly denying acquiring attempts at prices several times higher than Icahn’s offer. On October 26, 2009 Icahn raised his offer to 80 cents a share. The offer expired on the same day a filling disclosed its existence.
• On October 23, 2009, Icahn announced his resignation from the board of directors at Yahoo!^[18]
• On February 16, 2010, it was revealed that Icahn had reduced his equity stake in Yahoo! from a one-time high of 75 million shares to 12 million shares.^[19]
• On February 18, 2010, Icahn, through a subsidiary of his Icahn Enterprises LP, have acquired from Fontainebleau Las Vegas, LLC and certain affiliated entities the Fontainebleau property and improvements thereon located in Las Vegas, Nevada for an aggregate purchase price of approximately $150 million. Icahn is confident with the acquisition of the 70% complete Fontainebleau property stating that "The acquisition of the Fontainebleau property was a great opportunity to purchase a distressed asset that I believe has considerable value." ^[20]
• On March 8, 2010, a group of lenders, headed by Icahn, closed on the purchase of Tropicana Casino and Resort Atlantic City, bringing the company out of bankruptcy for $200 million.
• On March 23, 2010, Lions Gate Films rejected a takeover bid.^[21]
• On May 17, 2010, Icahn reported that he owns almost 12% of Hain Celestial Group Inc. (HAIN).^[22]
• On May 25, 2010, Icahn reported that he bought an 8.54% stake in Lawson Software as of May 11. (LWSN).^[23]
• On May 27, 2010, Icahn reported that he had accumulated a 6.9% stake in Mentor Graphics. (MENT).^[24] On March 15, 2011, Mentor's board issued a strong warning to its shareholders against a proxy action by Icahn.^[25]
• On February 11, 2011, Icahn reported that he had accumulated a 9.08% stake in The Clorox Company (CLX).^[26] Shares jumped over 9% that day on the news.
• In January 2011, he again proposed to purchase all the XO Holder common stock he does not already own for $0.70 per share. The board hired JP Morgan for evaluation. On July 12, 2011, Icahn and his affiliates raised the price to $1.40. In addition to R2’s suit, five additional class actions complain the inadequacy of the offer and Icahn’s self-dealing and illegally depressing the stock price in order to take the company private cheaply and using the $3.5 billion NOLs by himself.
• On July 15, 2011, Icahn offered to purchase The Clorox Company for $76.50 a share in a deal worth $12.6 billion. He then stated that if the deal falls through, he will pay Clorox $100 million.^[27]
• On September 27, 2011, Icahn rumoured to have purchased a stake in Canadian telecoms company Research in Motion, sending their share price up by as much as 7%.^[28] On October 17, 2011, Icahn denied the rumour.^[29]

Personal life[link]

Icahn has been marrried twice:

In 1979, he married Liba Trejbal, an ethnic Czech ballerina from the former Czechoslovakia.^[30][31][32] They separated in 1993 and divorced in 1999 after years of litigation. Liba had sought to invalidate a prenuptual agreement she had signed prior to their marriage claiming duress as she was pregnant at the time.^[33] Though Liba eventually settled for an undisclosed amount, she had fought Icahn's offer of roughly $1.5 million a year when his net worth stood in the billions.^[32][34] They have two children:

• Brett (b. 1979)^[30]
• Michelle (b. 1982)^[30]

In 1999, he married his longtime assistant and former broker, Gail Golden.^[32] Gail has two children from a prior marriage (Shana L. Golden and Christie R. Golden).^[30]

Philanthropy[link]

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 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 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 Laboratory at the University's Institute for Integrated Genomics. He also made large donations to Mount Sinai Hospital, New York, of which he is a trustee, which in return named a building the Icahn Medical Institute designed by Davis Brody Bond.

His foundation, the Children's Rescue Fund, built Icahn House in The Bronx, a 65-unit complex for homeless families consisting of single pregnant women and single women with children, and operates Icahn House East and Icahn House West, both of which are homeless shelters located in New York City.

Icahn has received numerous awards, including the Starlight Foundation's Founders Award and its 1990 Man of the Year Award. He was also named Guardian Angel 2001 Man of the Year. In 2004, he was honored by the Center for Educational Innovation - Public Education Association for his work with charter schools. In 2006, he was honored with the 100 Women in Hedge Funds Effecting Change Award for his outstanding contributions to improving education.

Wealth[link]

As of March 2012 his net worth is estimated to be $14 billion.

King Icahn[link]

In 1993, a book was written on the life of Carl Icahn by Mark Stevens. Titled King Icahn, it is the only biography written on the wealthy business man.^[35]

Thoroughbred horse racing[link]

In 1985 Carl Icahn established Foxfield Thoroughbreds, a horse breeding operation. At that year's 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 Sales November breeding stock auction.

See also[link]

• Dan Raviv
• Avi Arad
• Toy Biz
• T. Boone Pickens
• Icahn Stadium
• Theo Botha
• Mark Stevens (writer)
• Steven A. Cohen - Hedge-fund manager

References[link]

External links[link]

• Carl Icahn's Stock Portfolio: Always Updated
• Icahn Acolyte Lichtenstein Must Duel Hero
• Icahn and BofA Take Steel Partners to Court
• Guest Video Lecture by Carl Icahn at Yale Finanacial Markets Course (2008)
• - Dealscape: Icahn wants you for the United Shareholders of America! - blog
• The Icahn Report - Icahn's personal blog
• The Icahn Lift, 60 Minutes' Lesley Stahl Profiles The Billionaire Investor accessed March 14, 2008
• Forbes profile page on 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 (Registration required)
• Carl Icahn agreed to support MGM restructuring plan
• MGM Creditors including billionaire investor Carl Icahn and Spyglass Entertainment would write off approximately $5 billion in debts

v t e Private equity and venture capital investors Investment strategy Buyout · Venture · Growth · Mezzanine · Secondaries History History of private equity and venture capital · Early history of private equity · Private equity in the 1980s · Private equity in the 1990s · Private equity in the 2000s Investor types Private equity investors · Venture capitalists · Corporate raiders

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William A. Ackman, more commonly known as Bill Ackman, (born May 11, 1966) is the founder and CEO of hedge fund Pershing Square Capital Management LP.^[1] In December 2007 his funds owned a 10% stake in Target Corporation, valued at $4.2 billion^[2] through the purchase of stock and derivatives.^[3] His funds now own a 7.8% stake.^[4] In December 2010, his funds held a 38% stake in Borders Group and on December 6, 2010, Ackman indicated he would finance a buyout of Barnes & Noble for US$900M.^[5] He most recently won a shareholder proxy battle for Canadian Pacific Railroad.

Early life[link]

Ackman was raised in Chappaqua, New York. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree magna cum laude from Harvard College in 1988, and an MBA from Harvard Business School in 1992.

Gotham Partners[link]

In 1992, Ackman co-founded Gotham Partners with another Harvard graduate.^[6] By 1998, the firm had more than $500M in assets. In 2003, the New York Attorney General investigated whether the firm had engaged in illegal practices for publishing its own research reports on stocks in which it has taken either a long or short position.^[6] The litigation concluded that the firm had committed no wrongdoing. Gotham Partners primarily invested in non-publicly traded companies and real estate concerns.^[6]

Pershing Square[link]

Ackman's Pershing Square Capital Management (PSCM) has in the recent past acquired positions in Wendy's International Inc., McDonald's Corporation, J.C. Penney, General Growth Properties, Borders Group, Fortune Brands, Ceridian Corp and Alexander & Baldwin., pressuring the management of those companies to improve profits by selling either real estate assets or corporate divisions. The investment company in turn benefits when the asset liquidation returns capital in the form of dividends and a higher share price, whereby Pershing divests itself of its holdings at a higher share price. In the case of Wendy's International, Wendy's management bought back shares following the forced sale of the their subsidiary Tim Hortons through an IPO, while Pershing unloaded most of its own shares.^[7]

Target Corporation[link]

Pershing Square IV was established to bet solely on the rise of the stock of Target Corporation. The fund fell nearly 90% in 2008 and Ackman apologized for the losses.^[8] The fund subsequently rebounded. Ackman claimed in a February 2009 letter to investors, “Bottom line, PSIV has been one of the greatest disappointments of my career to date."^[8]

JC Penney[link]

Pershing Square filed for a 16.5% stake holding in JCPenney on October 8, 2010. Ackman runs Pershing Square as an "activist" hedge fund, meaning he invests in very few companies and plans to "actively" change them from the inside, by getting a seat or seats on the company's board of directors.^[9]

Canadian Pacific Railway[link]

On October 28, 2011, in a 13D regulatory filing, Pershing Square Capital indicated it owned 12.2% of Canadian Pacific Railway, one of the two major Canadian railways.^[10][10] Pershing Square began acquiring Canadian Pacific shares last year and in October announced that it held a 12.2 percent stake, which eventually increased to 14.2 percent, making Pershing the railway’s largest shareholder. At a meeting with the company that month, Ackman proposed replacing Fred Green as chief executive. Just hours before the railway’s annual meeting on Thursday, May 17, 2012, Green and four other board members unexpectedly resigned, giving effective control of the company to PSCM. The new board is dominated by Ackman’s appointees.^[11]

MBIA activities[link]

In 2002, Ackman began research which concentrated on challenging MBIA's AAA rating, despite an ongoing probe of his trading by New York State and federal authorities. He was charged copying fees for copying 725,000 pages of statements regarding the financial services company, in his law firm's compliance with a subpoena.^[12] Ackman has called for a division between MBIA's bond insurers' structured finance business and their municipal bond insurance side, despite statements from the insurance companies that this would not be a viable option.^[13]

He argued that the billions of dollars of CDS protection MBIA had sold against various mortgage backed CDOs was going to be a problem. He also argued that it was not proper for MBIA, which was legally restricted from trading in CDS, to instead do it through a second corporation, LaCrosse Financial Products, which MBIA described as an "orphaned transformer". Ackman bought credit default swaps against MBIA corporate debt as a way to bet that it would crash. When MBIA did, in fact, crash as the financial crisis of 2008 came to a head, he sold the swaps for a large profit. Ackman reportedly attempted to warn regulators, rating agencies and investors about the bond insurers' high risk business models.^[14] The story of Ackman's battle with MBIA was turned into a book called Confidence Game (Wiley, 2010) by Bloomberg News reporter Christine Richard.

Personal life[link]

In conjunction with other members of the Ackman and Ziff families, William has given to charitable causes such as the Center for Jewish History to preserve Jewish genealogy. In the press release, the Ackman family stated, "We want our children to know, not only their living relatives, but those representing past generations for a greater connection to their family and ancestral origin and heritage."^[15]

Family[link]

He married Karen Ann Herskovitz, a landscape architect, on July 10, 1994.^[16] His father is Lawrence Ackman, the chairman of a New York real estate financing firm, Ackman-Ziff Real Estate Group.^[6]

References[link]