Icahn is out: Compares Dell board to a dictatorship as he gives up the chase
Activist investor Carl Icahn's letter is now out (as pre-announced on Twitter) and he's out too.
After several failed attempts to take tech giant Dell, Icahn is giving up the chase. But he does say:
I continue to believe that the price being paid by Michael Dell/Silver Lake to purchase our company greatly undervalues it, among other things, because:
1. Dell is paying a price approximately 70% below its ten-year high of $42.38; and
2. The bid freezes stockholders out of any possibility of realizing Dell’s great potential.
He really doesn't seem happy with Dell's board:
We won, or at least thought we won, but when the board realized that they lost the vote, they simply ignored the outcome. Even in a dictatorship when the ruling party loses an election, and then ignores its outcome, it attempts to provide a plausible reason to justify their actions.
Andrew Bary at Barron’s wisely observed, “In an action worthy of Vladimir Putin, Dell postponed a vote scheduled for last Thursday on Michael Dell’s proposed buyout of the company when it became apparent that there was insufficient shareholder support for the deal.”
…
One of the great strengths of our country is that we abide by the rule of law. However, state laws dealing with corporate governance often favor incumbent corporate boards and management and are weak in many areas. While we must abide by these laws, we believe that they can and must be changed. Among many other things, boards should not be able to treat elections as totalitarian dictatorships do; where if they lose, they simply ignore the results.