Now that Carl Icahn has a toehold at Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) and fired off a letter to that company’s board on how shareholders should be treated, he’s getting down to business with Transocean Ltd. (NYSE: RIG). Icahn boosted his shareholdings in Transocean from about 1.6% to about 5.6% over the past couple of months, beginning soon after the rig operator settled its criminal and civil cases with the U.S. Department of Justice for $1.4 billion.
Icahn has sent a letter to Transocean’s board seeking a special dividend of $4 a share, nominations for three directs and repeal of the company’s staggered board appointments. Transocean should feel lucky. After all, Icahn is demanding $9 a share in a special dividend from Dell.
Transocean said in an SEC filing that it “will evaluate the proposals in due course.” At the end of 2012, Transocean had $5.1 billion in cash and equivalents, of which the company says it needs about $1.5 billion as working capital. That leaves around $10 a share in cash available and Icahn wants a piece of that.
Shares of Transocean are up about 1% in premarket trading this morning, at $53.50 in a 52-week range of $39.32 to $59.50.
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