Kinabalu

Irate Icahn - Fast Money Recap (9/19/08)

Crocodilian:

You need to read more critically. The article you linked is Yahoo propaganda.

Irate Icahn - Fast Money Recap (9/19/08)

Just another comment on TWA. The major problem they had was a massively underfunded pension plan. Congress had just passed a law giving the PBGC a lien, with the same status as a tax lien (meaning, prior to everyone else), against the shareholders equity of any company they had to cover pension benefits for. This was a complicated area, not well covered in the financial statements, and it took a few years for accountants and acquirors to understand it. We always felt that if Icahn had understood this issue he would have avoided TWA as we did. It ultimately proved their downfall, along with recalcitrant unions, and the reason he couldn't turn them around.

Irate Icahn - Fast Money Recap (9/19/08)

Crocodilian

TWA was Icahns first real mistake. My company looked at acquiring TWA before Icahn went in and decided not to make a try for it because they had too many real problems. We concluded they were going to go broke no matter who bought them. After he bought his position we proposed a management solution to him which he turned down because he thought he could turn it around himself, and is sort of fiendish about cost control. I don't deny he was a greenmailer in some deals before it was illegal, but most of his deals pre-TWA benefitted all participants. He was, and probably still is, a very good investor with a very good eye for value.

People tend to forget that Icahn was originally a bond trader. In that business you make $ million trades constantly on verbal agreements. If you go back on one of those agreements no one will trade with you. That tends to instill a certain amount of integrity in a person.

Irate Icahn - Fast Money Recap (9/19/08)

Crocodilian

It's no mystery why Icahn is rich. He has been right many times. In the mid '80s I was a financial executive at a Fortune 500 firm. I was talking on the phone to a large investor in our company. He asked if he could put me on hold for a minute. He apparently pressed the hold button on the phone but didn't press it all the way. I could hear his excited conversation with an associate: " Icahn is buying TWA? Buy! Buy! I don't care what the price is! Buy! If Icahn is buying, buy!

Icahn had more followers in the mid to late 80s than any other takeover artist. That was because he always made big money.

Irate Icahn - Fast Money Recap (9/19/08)

Icahn (please note correct spelling) is on the right side of this issue. As far as protecting the rights and concerns of shareholders, Boards of Directors are a joke. The more they are paid the more suspicious you should be.

jackooo: For the commentor who asserted Icahn looted TWA, wake up! TWA was a disaster before he got there. That was one of his biggest mistakes.