Carl Icahn gears up for board battle after acquiring 10 % in Netflix
01 Nov 2012
Carl Icahn yesterday acquired 10 per cent in Netflix Inc, as the billionaire activist investor gears up for a battle with the board of the US Internet streaming media company.
Share price of the California-based company soared 14 per cent to close yesterday at $79.24 after it was disclosed that Icahn had acquired the stake.
In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Icahn's investment arm Icahn Capital said that it has purchased more than 5.4 million shares of Netflix.
Citing its market dominance, and prospects for international growth, Icahn believes the stock price of Netflix is undervalued and the company should explore a sale or other ways to boost its value.
The filing said, [We] "believe Netflix may hold significant strategic value for a variety of significantly larger companies that are engaging in more direct competition with one another due to the evolution of the Internet, mobile and traditional industry. The reporting persons are considering ways for the issuer to maximize shareholder value but have reached no conclusion.''
"I believe that there is going to be great consolidation between Netflix and, everybody's read about it, Amazon or Microsoft or Verizon or Google, there are so many possible combinations," he said in an interview with Bloomberg TV.
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