American businessman, investor, and philanthropist Carl Celian Icahn. He is the company’s creator, owner, and chairman. Icahn Enterprises is an American conglomerate that makes investments across a variety of industries. Additionally, he holds the position of chairman of the board for Federal-Mogul, an American company that develops, produces, and supplies automobile parts. Federal-Mogul runs two business divisions: Federal-Mogul Motorparts and Federal-Mogul Powertrain. He started out as a stockbroker but over time became a “Wall Street” giant who traded equities. After a string of takeovers in the 1980s, he gained the reputation of being a “corporate raider.” In firms including “Phillips Petroleum,” “Dan River,” “Marshall Field’s,” “BFGoodrich,” and “Hammermill Paper,” he acquired sizable stock stakes. He also purchased well-known American businesses like Texaco and the American carrier Trans World Airlines (TWA). He succeeded in running “TWA” till 1985. Icahn Enterprises was formally established in 1987. In 2004, Carl also founded the hedge fund “Icahn Partners.” He backed 2016 presidential candidate Donald Trump, with whom he had business relationships. He also had a brief term in Trump’s administration as the president’s “Special Advisor on Regulatory Reform.” Icahn, who continues to own stock in significant corporations like “Apple” and “Dell,” is the fifth-wealthiest hedge-fund manager and the 26th-wealthiest individual on the “Forbes 400” as of February 2017, according to “Forbes” magazine.
Early Childhood & Life
On February 16, 1936, Carl was born in the Jewish household of Michael and Bella Icahn in New York City, New York, in the United States. His mother was a schoolteacher, while his atheist father was a cantor who later worked as a substitute teacher.
He attended Princeton University and Far Rockaway High School while pursuing his education, earning a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy in 1957. He enrolled in the “New York University School of Medicine” per his mother’s request and left his studies after two years to enlist in the US army.
Career of Carl C. Icahn
In 1961, he started his career as a stockbroker after serving in the US army. In 1968, he established the securities company “Icahn & Co.” The business engaged in risk arbitrage and options trading. For the purpose of purchasing a space for it on the “New York Stock Exchange,” he borrowed $400,000 from an uncle.
In 1978, he began accumulating large stakes in various businesses, assuming control over them.
In 1985, he attempted a hostile takeover of TWA, a significant American airline, and succeeded in doing so, rising to the position of chairman and gaining the moniker “corporate raider.” To pay back the debt he obtained to purchase the business, he turned to “asset stripping,” or selling the company’s assets.
In 1988, he took TWA private and made a profit of US$469 million for himself, leaving TWA with a US$540 million debt. In 1991, he sold American Airlines the TWA routes to London for US$ 445 million. Then he created “lowestfares.com” to sell “TWA” tickets.
Icahn launched a US$ 7 billion hostile buyout of an 89% share in US Steel in late 1986, as the American integrated steel maker was experiencing a work stoppage. He entered into separate talks with the union and the management. He also started proxy fights with shareholders and management. On January 8, 1987, he gave up trying to buy the business, nevertheless.
On February 17, 1987, he established the American company “Icahn Enterprises,” which was named after him. The corporation made investments in a variety of sectors, including energy, rail cars, casinos, metals, real estate, home fashion, and food packaging. Icahn, who held 89.8% ownership in it, controlled it. Pep Boys, Trump Entertainment Resorts, American Railcar Industries, Federal-Mogul, and Viskase are just a few of the businesses it currently owns.
In 2004, after a contract was completed for “Mylan Laboratories” to acquire “King Pharmaceuticals” for US$ 4 billion, he purchased a sizeable percentage of the company’s equity. He continued to be skeptical of the acquisition and vowed to engage in a proxy battle, claiming that Mylan had overpaid for the transaction. The following year, the agreement was canceled.
In 2005, “XO Holding” planned to sell the wired portion for US$ 700 million to Icahn, its chairman and biggest shareholder (with a 60% interest). Through the “Delaware Court” in 2008, “R2” and other minority stockholders ruined this endeavor.
He pursued various investments, takeovers, and takeover attempts throughout the ensuing years. He bought about 33.5 million Motorola shares, but in May 2007 he was turned down for a position on the board of directors.
By September 2007, he owned 8.5% of the total interests in “BEA Systems,” and by the time “Oracle Corporation” announced its intention to buy “BEA Systems” on October 12, 2007, he had boosted that to 13%. On January 16, 2008, Oracle formally agreed to the purchase of US$ 8.5 billion. Icahn is thought to have had a significant impact on it.
He also raised his position in Biogen and put $50 million into Motricity in 2007. He and his affiliates also have sizable holdings in Icahn Enterprises, American Railcar Industries, Philip Services, and ACF Industries.
After purchasing a sizeable quantity of Yahoo! shares in May 2008, he immediately threatened to launch a proxy battle to have the company’s board of directors removed for refusing to accept the buyout offer from “Microsoft.” He negotiated a deal to add two additional members to the company’s board, bringing the total to 11, including himself. In October 2009, he left the company’s board and decreased his ownership holdings from 75 million to 12 million shares.
In June 2008, he developed “The Icahn Report” to advance his viewpoint on shareholder activism. It is the home of the “United Shareholders of America,” a platform that allows individual investors to join and advocate for shareholder rights.
In addition to “American Railcar Industries,” “WestPoint Home,” “XO Communications,” and “Imclone,” he served as chairman of other businesses. He directed “Blockbuster” from January 2009 until January 2010.
He benefited from the tactic known as “greenmailing,” in which a firm would buy him out or agree to the organizational and strategic adjustments he requested in exchange for him giving up his takeover effort.
In October 2012, he bought a 10% interest in “Netflix,” and a year later, in October 2013, he sold about half of those shares, making a tidy profit.
On August 2, 2013, he filed a lawsuit against the board of directors and the American multinational computer technology corporation “Dell” to stop CEO Michael Dell from making a US$24.4 billion takeover offer.
He purchased 4.7 million shares of Apple Inc., an American multinational technology corporation, in October 2013. In January 2014, he purchased further firm shares totaling $500,000,000. He pushed the business to repurchase its $150 billion worth of stock. He urged that PayPal, a global e-commerce firm, be spun off from eBay.
He backed Donald Trump during the 2016 US presidential election campaign. Icahn would be appointed as a “Special Advisor to the President” on “Regulatory Reform” after Trump takes office as “President,” it was announced on December 21, 2016. He served in this capacity until August 18, 2017.
Icahn, who is now in his seventies, is still very active in the market and has relationships with some of the biggest corporations in the world, including “Apple,” “Dell,” “Netflix,” “eBay,” and “Family Dollar,” among others.
Individual Life of Carl C. Icahn
From 1979 to 1999, he was married to Liba Trejbal. They have two youngsters. Brett Icahn, a businessman, investor, and philanthropist, is one of them. In 1999, Carl Golden wed Gail Golden.
Named in his honor are the “Icahn Scholar Program,” “Icahn Institute for Genomics and Multiscale Biology,” “Carl C. Icahn Center for Science,” and “Icahn Stadium.”
This tough investor and negotiator are renowned for his charitable work as well. At “Princeton University,” he provided funding for the “Carl C. Icahn Laboratory,” a genomics research facility. He made contributions to the New York-based “Mount Sinai Hospital,” which renamed the “Mount Sinai School of Medicine” the “Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai” and dubbed another structure the “Icahn Medical Institute.”
Homeless people can find shelter through his nonprofit, the “Children’s Rescue Fund,” which also operates the “Icahn House West” and the “Icahn House East” in the Bronx. In 2010, he signed up for the “Giving Pledge” list. In addition, he received numerous honors and accolades for his humanitarian work, including the “Founders Award of the Starlight Foundation.”
Carl Icahn’s Net Worth
American entrepreneur, investor, and activist shareholder Carl Icahn have a $24 billion net worth. As the creator and major stakeholder of the holding corporation Icahn Enterprises in New York City, Carl Icahn is well known. His investment approach, which has become commonplace for hedge funds, entails purchasing substantial holdings in businesses, which he then exerts pressure on to modify corporate policies in shareholders’ best interests. Icahn earned money from the hostile takeover of Trans World Airlines in the 1980s, which led to accusations that he was a “corporate raider.” Since then, he has tried a number of other mercenary takeovers and asset sales.