Carl Icahn Outlines Grievances and Attack Plan Against eBay
eBay has been fighting the calls of billionaire and activist investor Carl Icahn to break-up the company by spinning off PayPal, and now the calls are going to get louder.
eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) has been fighting the calls of billionaire and activist investor Carl Icahn to break-up the company by spinning off PayPal, and now the calls are going to get louder. Carl Icahn has issued an open letter to eBay shareholders and revealed that he has a larger stake in the company.
The full letter to eBay’s holders confirms that Icahn has recently accumulated a significant position in eBay’s common stock. Icahn is also bringing up “multiple lapses in corporate governance” that include material conflicts of interest. Icahn even calls it a complete disregard for accountability that is the most blatant Icahn has ever seen.
More importantly, Icahn believes that his team should not even have to run a proxy fight to change the board composition. He is calling CEO John Donahoe inept in addressing transgressions, and he says that two board members are competing directly against eBay.
The other board members called out were Marc Andreessen and Scott Cook, who is the founder of Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ: INTU).
eBay has already responded to Icahn’s accusation and allegations in a letter of its own.
eBay shares were indicated up 1.5% at $55.40, against a 52-week range of $48.06 to $58.04. eBay’s market cap is about $72 billion, if you consider the latest gain.
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Jon Ogg has been a financial news analyst since 1997. Mr. Ogg set up one of the first audio squawk box services for traders called TTN, which he sold in 2003. He has previously worked as a licensed broker to some of the top U.S. and E.U. financial institutions, managed capital, and has raised private capital at the seed and venture stage. He has lived in Copenhagen, Denmark, as well as New York and Chicago, and he now lives in Houston, Texas. Jon received a Bachelor of Business Administration in finance at University of Houston in 1992. www.247wallst.com.
