This article will answer every question you have about Carl Icahn. Below are some of the frequently asked questions about him/her.
- What does Carl do for a living?
- Who are Carl’s parents and siblings?
- What are Carl’s interests and hobbies?
- Is Carl married or does he have a girlfriend?
- Does Carl have any children?
- Where is Carl now?
- How tall is Carl?
- How much money does Carl earn?
- What is Carl’s net worth?
N/B: Please read the entire post to have all your questions answered.
Who is Carl Icahn?
Carl Icahn (Carl Celian Icahn) is a famous American financier, founder, and controlling shareholder of Icahn Enterprises, a diversified conglomerate holding company and public company located in Sunny Isles Beach. He invests in companies that have the potential to appreciate via changes to corporate policy. Carl was among the first activist shareholders credited with making that investment strategy mainstream for hedge funds.
Icahn took over Trans World Airlines and sold its assets which brought profit and earned him the name “corporate raider”. He no longer manages money from outside clients since 2011 although investors are allowed to invest in Icahn Enterprises.
Icahn began his career in 1961 at Dreyfus Corporation as a stockbroker. He served as an options manager for Tessel, Patrick & Co. and then he moved to Gruntal & Co. in 1963. Carl bought a seat on the New York Stock Exchange with $150,000 of his own money and a $400,000 investment from his uncle, M. Elliot Schnall in 1968. He formed Icahn & Co., focusing on risk arbitrage and options trading the same year.
How Old Is Carl Icahn?
Icahn was born on 16th February 1936 in Brooklyn. He is 86 years old as of 2022. Carl shares his birthday with celebrities such as Jackson Felt, The Weeknd, Ava Max, Elizabeth Olsen, Grace Mulgrew, and Ernst Haeckel, among others.
Carl Icahn Family
Who Are Carl Icahn’s Parents?
Icahn was born to Michael Icahn and Bella, an Ashkenazi Jewish family. His father, a “sworn atheist”, was first a cantor and later became a substitute teacher. Carl’s mother was a teacher too. He grew up in the Far Rockaway, Queens neighborhood of New York City.
Does Carl Icahn Have Siblings?
Despite being a famous billionaire, Ichan has managed to keep his siblings under lock. In case there is news regarding this matter, we will update you as soon as possible.
Carl Icahn Education
Growing up in the Far Rockaway, Queens neighborhood of New York City, Carl attended Far Rockaway High School. He enrolled at Princeton University and graduated in 1957 with an A.B. in philosophy. This was after completing a senior thesis titled “The Problem of Formulating an Adequate Explication of the Empiricist Criterion of Meaning. Later, he joined the New York University School of Medicine for two years and dropped out to join the military reserve force.
Carl Icahn Wife
Icahn met Liba Trejbal in 1978. By then he was 41 years old while she was 28. Liba is a ballerina from former Czechoslovakia. After 8 months, Liba became pregnant. Carl offered to marry her after signing a prenuptial agreement and they tied knots in March 1979.
Trejbal filed a divorce in October 1993 and sued to invalidate the prenuptial agreement. She claimed that she signed the agreement under duress due to the pregnancy. The divorce was settled in July 1999. In the same year, Icahn married Gail Golden, her longtime assistant, and a broker.
Does Carl Icahn Have Children?
Icahn has two children of his own, from her previous marriage. He is the father of Brett Icahn and Michelle Celia Icahn Nevin. Additionally, his current wife has two children from her previous marriage.
How Tall Is Carl Icahn?
Adding to his well-built body, Icahn stands at a medium height in stature. He is 1.76 meters tall.
Carl Icahn Career
Icahn took a controlling stake in Tappan forcing the sale of the company to Electrolux in 1978. This would bring him a profit of $2.7 million, or doubling his investment. He bought Bayswater Realty & Capital Corporation in 1979. Carl acquired ACF Industries in 1983 and sold his shares to Phillips Petroleum in 1985, making a profit of $50 million.
Icahn bought 50% of Trans World Airlines in 1985. He acquired the company completely in 1988 in a leveraged buyout. Carl sold the company’s assets systematically and paid off his debts. This process is known as “asset stripping” and earned him the “corporate raider” title.
He sold TWA’s London routes to American Airlines for $445 million in 1991. After making a profit of $469 million, Icahn left TWA with a debt of $540 million. Carl founded lowestfares.com to sell TWA tickets and bought portions of Global Leisure Travel from Ramy El-Batrawi.
1986 to 2005
Icahn attempted an unsuccessful $8 billion hostile takeover for 89% of U.S. Steel in October 1986. His bid was dropped in 1987 and he sold his shares in the company for $1 billion, making a profit of $200 million.
Carl sold his stake on the New York Stock Exchange in Texaco for $2 billion in 1989 and made a profit of $700 million. He acquired Pan Am for $375 million in 1990. Icahn took a 6.6% interest in Western Company of North America in 1994 and stopped its acquisition by BJ Services. Icahn made a profit of $125 million by selling his 7.3% interest in RJR Nabisco in February 1997. He took control over Marvel Comics winning over Ronald Perelman in June of the same year. Carl bid for Pan Am, offering $43 million in March 1998.
Icahn led a group of investors that acquired 5% shares in RJR Nabisco in December 1998. They pressured the company to separate its tobacco and food units. Icahn started raising $3 billion to form Icahn Partners, a hedge fund in 2004. He acquired shares in Blockbuster Video and Time Warner. Mylan announced a $4 billion stock deal to acquire King Pharmaceuticals in 2004. Carl bought more shares and threatened a proxy fight. He urged shareholders to vote against the Mylan acquisition and Mylan gave up the fight in February 2005.
2005-2010
Icahn acquired shares in Take-Two Interactive in August 2006. In 2009 he increased his stake to 11.3%, becoming the company’s second-largest shareholder. He bought a 9.2% stake in Telik in January 2007 and 6.1 million shares of WCI Communities. Lear Corporation’s board of directors accepted a $2.3 billion takeover offer on 9th February 2007 from Icahn.
Additionally, he invested $50 million in Motricity the same month. Carl lost an election for a seat on the board of directors of Motorola in May 2007. He systematically raised his shares in Biogen in 2007.
Carl disposed off his casino interests in Nevada in April 2007. He filed a lawsuit against Motorola in March 2008 as part of his effort to gain four seats on Motorola’s board and force a sale of its mobile business. Icahn acquired many shares in Yahoo! He expanded its board to 11 members including him through a forced agreement.
Carl launched a blog, The Icahn Report in June 2008. He was involved in the rejected attempted purchase of Imclone by Bristol-Myers Squibb and in the eventual sale of Imclone to Eli Lilly and Company for $6.5 billion in cash. Icahn filed a suit against Realogy over a proposed debt swap in December 2008.
Icahn offered to acquire XO shares he didn’t own each for $0.55 and later raised his offer to $0.80. He resigned from Yahoo! board of directors in October 2009. He then decreased his equity shares from 75 million shares to 12 million shares.
Through a subsidiary of Icahn Enterprises LP, Icahn acquired Fontainebleau Las Vegas for about $150 million in February 2010. He was among a group of lenders who purchased Tropicana Casino & Resort Atlantic City in March that brought the company out of bankruptcy for $200 million. Icahn announced the acquisition of an 8.54% stake in Lawson Software in May 2010.
2010-2015
By May 2010, Icahn owned a 6.9% stake in Mentor Graphics. He increased it to 14% in July. Carl offered to acquire Clorox for $10.2 billion in January 2011. He had 9.08% shares in the company by February. Icahn owned 10% of the shares in Netflix by October 2012. Forbes listed Icahn among the 40 highest-earning hedge fund managers in February 2013.
Carl owned 9.2% of the shares in Nuance Communications by April 2013. He sued computer giant Dell and its board in an attempt to derail a $24.4 billion buyout bid by the CEO, Michael Dell on 2nd August 2013. Icahn owned 4.7 million shares of Apple Inc as of October 2013. He bought 61 million shares in Talisman Energy in October. In the same month, he sold 50% of his shares in Netflix for a profit in excess of $800 million.
Carl invested half a billion dollars in Apple Inc in January 2014. He also bought eBay to complete the corporate spin-off of PayPal the same month. He invested in Talisman Energy in October 2014. Two months later, the stock price declined by 71% forcing him to sell his shares.
2015 – 2022
Icahn invested $100 million in Lyft on 15th May 2015. He hired CBRE Group to market the unfinished Fontainebleau Las Vegas in November to potential buyers. he also sold his shares in eBay to invest in PayPal. He disclosed a 7.13% stake in Xerox.
In December, Icahn increased his stake in Cheniere Energy to 13.8% and became the largest shareholder. He offered to buy Pep Boys. Carl sold the unfinished Fontainebleau Resort Las Vegasin August 2017 for $600 million.
Carl disclosed a 4.66% stake in Gannett Company in January 2016. Additionally, he owned shares in Freeport-McMoRan and Cheniere Energy but both declined in stock value. On learning concerns about Apple’s relationship with China, Icahn sold his Apple shares in April 2016. He raised his shares at Herbalife Nutrition to 21% in August. Additionally, he increased his shares in The Hertz Corporation.
Icahn bought 9.7% shares in Conduent in 2017. He increased his shares in Navistar International and Herbalife Nutrition.
Icahn sold his Hertz Global shares in May 2020 for 72 cents a share. This resulted to close to a 2 billion loss. Icahn nominated two people for election to McDonald’s board of directors in February 2022. He intended to pressure McDonald’s to improve the conditions of pigs raised by its suppliers.
However, despite his attempts, only 1% of the shareholders voted in favor of his nominee. He is featured in the 2022 HBO documentary Icahn: The Restless Billionaire directed by Bruce David Klein and Produced by Atlas Media Corp.
Carl Icahn’s Net Worth
There is no doubt that Icahn is a successful man. He has managed to accumulate $16.7 billion according to Forbes as of 2022.
