Carl C. Icahn

Carl C. Icahn - Investors, Timeline and Family

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Carl C. Icahn's Personal Details

Carl Celian Icahn is an American entrepreneur, investor, and philanthropist

InformationDetail
BirthdayFebruary 16, 1936
NationalityAmerican
FamousBusiness People, Investors, Miscellaneous
City/StateNew Yorkers
SpousesGail Icahn (m. 1999), Liba Trejbal (m. 1979–1999)
Known asCarl Celian Icahn
ChildrensBrett Icahn, Michelle Celia Icahn
Universities
  • Princeton University (1957)
  • New York University
  • Far Rockaway High School
  • New York University School of Medicine
Birth PlaceQueens, New York City, New York
GenderMale
FatherMichael Icahn
MotherBella Icahn
Sun SignAquarius
Born inQueens, New York City, New York
Famous asInvestor
Socials

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Carl C. Icahn's photo

Who is Carl C. Icahn?

Carl Celian Icahn is an American entrepreneur, investor, and philanthropist. He is the founder, owner, and chairman of the American conglomerate ‘Icahn Enterprises’ that invests in diverse industries. He also serves as the chairman of the board of the American developer, manufacturer, and supplier of auto parts ‘Federal-Mogul,’ which operates two business divisions, ‘Federal-Mogul Motorparts’ and ‘Federal-Mogul Powertrain.’ He began his career as a stockbroker and with time, emerged as a ‘Wall Street’ titan, trading in stocks. He earned the reputation of being a “corporate raider” in the 1980s, following a series of takeovers. He garnered considerable equity shares in companies such as ‘Phillips Petroleum,’ ‘Dan River,’ ‘Marshall Field’s,’ ‘BFGoodrich,’ and ‘Hammermill Paper.’ He also acquired famous American companies such as ‘Texaco’ and American airline ‘Trans World Airlines’ (TWA). He thrived to take over ‘TWA’ in 1985. ‘Icahn Enterprises’ was incorporated in 1987. Carl also started a hedge fund, ‘Icahn Partners,’ in 2004. He supported Donald Trump, with whom he had business connections, in the latter’s 2016 presidential race. He also served a stint in Trump’s government as ‘Special Advisor to the President’ on ‘Regulatory Reform.’ According to ‘Forbes’ magazine, as of February 2017, Icahn, who still holds stakes in major companies, such as ‘Apple’ and ‘Dell,’ is the fifth-wealthiest hedge-fund manager and the 26th-wealthiest person on ‘Forbes 400.’

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Childhood & Early Life

Carl was born on February 16, 1936, in New York City, New York, US, in the Jewish family of Michael and Bella Icahn. His father, an atheist, was a cantor who later served as a substitute teacher, and his mother was a schoolteacher.

He studied at the ‘Far Rockaway High School’ and attended ‘Princeton University,’ from where he obtained a ‘Bachelor of Arts’ degree in philosophy in 1957. He followed his mother’s wish and enrolled at the ‘New York University School of Medicine,’ but left his studies after two years to join the US army.

Career

Following a stint in the US army, he commenced his career as a stockbroker in 1961. He founded the securities firm ‘Icahn & Co.’ in 1968. The company dealt with option-trading and risk arbitrage. He took a loan of US$ 400,000 from an uncle to buy a place for it on the ‘New York Stock Exchange.’

He started acquiring substantial shares of individual companies in 1978, thereby obtaining controlling positions.

He went for a hostile takeover of a major American airline ‘TWA’ in 1985, and became its chairman, thereby earning the reputation of a "corporate raider." He resorted to "asset stripping," or selling the assets, of ‘TWA’ to repay the loan he took to buy the company.

He took ‘TWA’ private in 1988 and earned US$ 469 million as personal profit, while ‘TWA’ was left with a debt of US$ 540 million. He sold the London routes of ‘TWA’ to ‘American Airlines’ for US$ 445 million, in 1991. He then came up with ‘lowestfares.com’ to sell tickets of ‘TWA.’

Meanwhile, in late 1986, while the American integrated steel-producer ‘U.S. Steel’ faced work stoppage, Icahn initiated a US$ 7 billion hostile takeover of an 89% stake in the company. He went for separate negotiations with the management and the union. He also began proxy battles with the management and shareholders. However, on January 8, 1987, he stopped his efforts to purchase the company.

The American conglomerate ‘Icahn Enterprises,’ founded by him, was incorporated on February 17, 1987. The company invested in diverse industries such as energy, auto parts, casinos, metals, real estate, rail cars, home fashion, and food packaging. It was controlled by Icahn, which owned an 89.8% stake in it. It presently owns companies such as ‘Pep Boys,’ ‘Trump Entertainment Resorts,’ ‘American Railcar Industries,’ ‘Federal-Mogul,’ and ‘Viskase.’

He bought a substantial portion of ‘King Pharmaceuticals’ stocks in 2004, after a deal was made in July that year for ‘Mylan Laboratories’ to acquire ‘King Pharmaceuticals’ for US$ 4 billion. He remained critical of the merger and threatened a proxy fight, stating that Mylan was overpaying for the deal. The deal was called off the following year.

In 2005, ‘XO Holding’ intended to sell its wired part to Icahn, its majority shareholder (a 60% stake) and chairman, for US$ 700 million. However, ‘R2’ and other minority shareholders marred this attempt through the ‘Delaware Court’ in 2008.

The years that followed saw him going for several investments, takeovers, and takeover attempts. Although he acquired around 33.5 million shares of ‘Motorola,’ he was denied a seat on its board of directors in May 2007.

He had acquired 8.5% of the total stakes of ‘BEA Systems’ by September 2007, and increased it to 13% before ‘Oracle Corporation’ announced its decision to purchase ‘BEA Systems’ on October 12, 2007. Oracle signed a definite agreement of US$ 8.5 billion, for the purchase, on January 16, 2008. It is believed that Icahn played an instrumental role in it.

In 2007, he also increased his stake in ‘Biogen’ and invested US$ 50 million in ‘Motricity.’ He and his affiliates also held major stakes in ‘Philip Services,’ ‘American Railcar Industries,’ ‘ACF Industries,’ and ‘Icahn Enterprises.’

He acquired a substantial amount of ‘Yahoo!’ shares in May 2008, and in no time, warned of initiating a proxy fight to remove its board of directors due to their non-acceptance of the takeover bid by ‘Microsoft.’ He initiated an agreement to increase the number of board members of the company to 11, encompassing him and two members of his selection. He resigned from its board in October 2009 and reduced his equity stake from 75 million shares to 12 million shares.

He came up with ‘The Icahn Report’ in June 2008, to promote his perspective on shareholder activism. It hosts the ‘United Shareholders of America,’ a platform where individual investors have the opportunity to sign up and campaign for shareholder rights.

He was the chairman of several companies such as ‘American Railcar Industries,’ ‘WestPoint Home,’ ‘XO Communications,’ and ‘Imclone.’ He served as director of ‘Blockbuster’ till January 2010.

He benefitted from greenmailing, a practice where a company would make him give up his takeover attempt by either buying him out or complying with the organizational and strategic reforms demanded by him.

He acquired a 10% stake in ‘Netflix’ in October 2012, and within a year, in October 2013, he sold around 50% of his shares, thereby earning a fortune.

He sued the American multinational computer-technology company ‘Dell’ and its board on August 2, 2013, to thwart a buyout bid of US$ 24.4 billion by the company’s CEO, Michael Dell.

In October 2013, he acquired 4.7 million shares of the American multinational technology-company ‘Apple Inc.’ He acquired another half-billion worth of the company’s shares in January 2014. He pressed the company to buy back its stock worth US$ 150 billion. He suggested multinational e-commerce corporation ‘eBay’ to spin off payments service ‘PayPal.’

He supported Donald Trump in the campaign for the 2016 US presidential election. It was announced on December 21, 2016, that Icahn would be inducted as ‘Special Advisor to the President’ on ‘Regulatory Reform,’ after Trump assumes office as ‘President.’ He held this post till August 18, 2017.

A septuagenarian, Icahn is still quite active in the market and maintains associations with some of the biggest companies of the world, such as ‘Apple,’ ‘Dell,’ ‘Netflix,’ ‘eBay,’ and ‘Family Dollar’ among others.

Personal Life

He was married to Liba Trejbal from 1979 to 1999. They had two children. Businessman, investor, and philanthropist Brett Icahn is one of them. Carl married Gail Golden in 1999.

The ‘Icahn Scholar Program,’ the ‘Icahn Institute for Genomics and Multiscale Biology,’ the ‘Carl C. Icahn Center for Science,’ and the ‘Icahn Stadium’ are named after him.

This hard-line investor and negotiator is also known for his philanthropic efforts. He funded a genomics laboratory, known as the ‘Carl C. Icahn Laboratory,’ at the ‘Princeton University.’ He contributed to the ‘Mount Sinai Hospital’ in New York, which renamed the ‘Mount Sinai School of Medicine’ as the ‘Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai’ and named another building as the ‘Icahn Medical Institute.’

His foundation, the ‘Children's Rescue Fund’ that developed the ‘Icahn House’ in the Bronx and runs the ‘Icahn House West’ and the ‘Icahn House East’ provides shelter to the homeless. He joined the ‘Giving Pledge’ list in 2010. He also received several awards and recognitions for his humanitarian efforts, such as the ‘Starlight Foundation's Founders Award.’

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Carl C. Icahn biography timelines

  • // 16th Feb 1936
    Carl was born on February 16, 1936, in New York City, New York, US, in the Jewish family of Michael and Bella Icahn. His father, an atheist, was a cantor who later served as a substitute teacher, and his mother was a schoolteacher.
  • // 1957
    He studied at the ‘Far Rockaway High School’ and attended ‘Princeton University,’ from where he obtained a ‘Bachelor of Arts’ degree in philosophy in 1957. He followed his mother’s wish and enrolled at the ‘New York University School of Medicine,’ but left his studies after two years to join the US army.
  • // 1961
    Following a stint in the US army, he commenced his career as a stockbroker in 1961. He founded the securities firm ‘Icahn & Co.’ in 1968. The company dealt with option-trading and risk arbitrage. He took a loan of US$ 400,000 from an uncle to buy a place for it on the ‘New York Stock Exchange.’
  • // 1978
    He started acquiring substantial shares of individual companies in 1978, thereby obtaining controlling positions.
  • // 1979
    He was married to Liba Trejbal from 1979 to 1999. They had two children. Businessman, investor, and philanthropist Brett Icahn is one of them. Carl married Gail Golden in 1999.
  • // 1985
    He went for a hostile takeover of a major American airline ‘TWA’ in 1985, and became its chairman, thereby earning the reputation of a "corporate raider." He resorted to "asset stripping," or selling the assets, of ‘TWA’ to repay the loan he took to buy the company.
  • // 1986
    Meanwhile, in late 1986, while the American integrated steel-producer ‘U.S. Steel’ faced work stoppage, Icahn initiated a US$ 7 billion hostile takeover of an 89% stake in the company. He went for separate negotiations with the management and the union. He also began proxy battles with the management and shareholders. However, on January 8, 1987, he stopped his efforts to purchase the company.
  • // 1991
    He took ‘TWA’ private in 1988 and earned US$ 469 million as personal profit, while ‘TWA’ was left with a debt of US$ 540 million. He sold the London routes of ‘TWA’ to ‘American Airlines’ for US$ 445 million, in 1991. He then came up with ‘lowestfares.com’ to sell tickets of ‘TWA.’
  • // 2004
    He bought a substantial portion of ‘King Pharmaceuticals’ stocks in 2004, after a deal was made in July that year for ‘Mylan Laboratories’ to acquire ‘King Pharmaceuticals’ for US$ 4 billion. He remained critical of the merger and threatened a proxy fight, stating that Mylan was overpaying for the deal. The deal was called off the following year.
  • // 2005
    In 2005, ‘XO Holding’ intended to sell its wired part to Icahn, its majority shareholder (a 60% stake) and chairman, for US$ 700 million. However, ‘R2’ and other minority shareholders marred this attempt through the ‘Delaware Court’ in 2008.
  • // 2007
    The years that followed saw him going for several investments, takeovers, and takeover attempts. Although he acquired around 33.5 million shares of ‘Motorola,’ he was denied a seat on its board of directors in May 2007.
  • // 2007
    In 2007, he also increased his stake in ‘Biogen’ and invested US$ 50 million in ‘Motricity.’ He and his affiliates also held major stakes in ‘Philip Services,’ ‘American Railcar Industries,’ ‘ACF Industries,’ and ‘Icahn Enterprises.’
  • // 2008
    He acquired a substantial amount of ‘Yahoo!’ shares in May 2008, and in no time, warned of initiating a proxy fight to remove its board of directors due to their non-acceptance of the takeover bid by ‘Microsoft.’ He initiated an agreement to increase the number of board members of the company to 11, encompassing him and two members of his selection. He resigned from its board in October 2009 and reduced his equity stake from 75 million shares to 12 million shares.
  • // 2010
    His foundation, the ‘Children's Rescue Fund’ that developed the ‘Icahn House’ in the Bronx and runs the ‘Icahn House West’ and the ‘Icahn House East’ provides shelter to the homeless. He joined the ‘Giving Pledge’ list in 2010. He also received several awards and recognitions for his humanitarian efforts, such as the ‘Starlight Foundation's Founders Award.’
  • // 2012
    He acquired a 10% stake in ‘Netflix’ in October 2012, and within a year, in October 2013, he sold around 50% of his shares, thereby earning a fortune.
  • // 2013
    He sued the American multinational computer-technology company ‘Dell’ and its board on August 2, 2013, to thwart a buyout bid of US$ 24.4 billion by the company’s CEO, Michael Dell.
  • // Oct 2013
    In October 2013, he acquired 4.7 million shares of the American multinational technology-company ‘Apple Inc.’ He acquired another half-billion worth of the company’s shares in January 2014. He pressed the company to buy back its stock worth US$ 150 billion. He suggested multinational e-commerce corporation ‘eBay’ to spin off payments service ‘PayPal.’
  • // 2016
    He supported Donald Trump in the campaign for the 2016 US presidential election. It was announced on December 21, 2016, that Icahn would be inducted as ‘Special Advisor to the President’ on ‘Regulatory Reform,’ after Trump assumes office as ‘President.’ He held this post till August 18, 2017.

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Carl C. Icahn's FAQ

  • What is Carl C. Icahn birthday?

    Carl C. Icahn was born at 1936-02-16

  • Where is Carl C. Icahn's birth place?

    Carl C. Icahn was born in Queens, New York City, New York

  • What is Carl C. Icahn nationalities?

    Carl C. Icahn's nationalities is American

  • Who is Carl C. Icahn spouses?

    Carl C. Icahn's spouses is Gail Icahn (m. 1999), Liba Trejbal (m. 1979–1999)

  • Who is Carl C. Icahn childrens?

    Carl C. Icahn's childrens is Brett Icahn, Michelle Celia Icahn

  • What was Carl C. Icahn universities?

    Carl C. Icahn studied at Princeton University (1957), New York University, Far Rockaway High School, New York University School of Medicine

  • Who is Carl C. Icahn's father?

    Carl C. Icahn's father is Michael Icahn

  • Who is Carl C. Icahn's mother?

    Carl C. Icahn's mother is Bella Icahn

  • What is Carl C. Icahn's sun sign?

    Carl C. Icahn is Aquarius

  • How famous is Carl C. Icahn?

    Carl C. Icahn is famouse as Investor

  • What is Carl C. Icahn's facebook?

    Carl C. Icahn's facebook is https://www.facebook.com/carlicahn

  • What is Carl C. Icahn's twitter?

    Carl C. Icahn's twitter is https://twitter.com/carl_c_icahn