Carl Icahn Quotes

But for people that make a lot of money, at least in business, or in any area, I think, the common denominator is an obsession, that they really are obsessed.

In life and business, there are two cardinal sins. The first is to act without thought and the second is not to act at all.

Which meant, if somehow GameStop did start to go up, the people who had shorted the company would begin to feel pressure to buy; the more the stock went up, the heavier that pressure became. As the shorts began to cover, buying shares to return them to their lenders, the stock would rise even higher. In financial parlance, this was something called a 'short squeeze.' It didn't happen often, but when it did, it could be spectacular. Most famously, in 2008, a surprise takeover attempt of the German automaker Volkswagen by rival Porsche drove Volkswagen's stock price up by a factor of 5 — briefly making it the most valuable company in the world — in two quick days of trading, as short selling funds struggled to cover their positions. Similarly, a battle between two hedge fund titans — Bill Ackman, of Pershing Square Capital Management, and Carl Icahn — led to a squeeze involving supplement maker — and alleged pyramid marketer — Herbalife, which cost Ackman a reported $1 billion. And perhaps the first widely reported short squeeze dated back a century, to 1923, when grocery magnate Clarence Saunders successfully decimated short sellers who had targeted his nascent chain of Piggly Wiggly grocery stores.

In a fight, I go over a certain line and I become very tough. I even surprise myself. I reach a certain point in a fight where there is no turning back.”                                                                                                                                               —Carl Icahn

Stan Druckenmiller, reflecting on his unbelievable success as an investor, said that the only way to make superior returns is to concentrate heavily. He thinks “diversification and all the stuff they’re teaching at business school today is probably the most misguided concept everywhere. And if you look at great investors that are as different as Warren Buffett, Carl Icahn, Ken Langone, they tend to be very, very concentrated bets. They see something, they bet it, and they bet the ranch on it… . [T]he mistake I’d say 98 percent of the money managers and individuals make is they feel like they got to be playing in a bunch of stuff.”4

From Ashwood’s perspective, those who trusted Carl to rebuild TWA were naïve from the outset. “A leopard doesn’t change his spots. Icahn was, and is, a financial engineer. He can’t run a business. He can’t run a corner deli. If he ran the deli and the freezer broke, he wouldn’t fix it. He’d try to sell the spoiled milk rather than have the freezer fixed.

As employees vented their animosity, cruel jokes swept through the airline’s cockpits and ticket counters. Two of the favorites:   “Carl and one of his aides are walking down the street when a young blonde passes by. The aid says to Carl, ‘Hey, why don’t you screw her?’ Carl replies, ‘out of what?’”   “Saddam Hussein looks in the mirror and asks, ‘Mirror, mirror, who’s the meanest, most detestable son of the bitch in the world?’   “‘What! Who the hell is Carl Icahn?

On the day it was announced that Boesky was going down, I was negotiating with USX lawyers about the terms of a possible agreement that would give Carl the opportunity to have access to USX’s financial information,” Steve Jacobs recalls. “This presumably would facilitate Carl’s ability to make a bid because Drexel needed the information. But when the announcement came about Boesky, you knew the transaction was not going to fly.”   In the past, Icahn had succeeded in intimidating his adversaries by convincing them that he had the resources to make good on his threats. In most cases, that meant buying stock until he controlled or appeared capable of controlling the companies he attacked. But once Drexel was laid low and the pipeline of takeover capital had run dry, Icahn’s options were limited. In a critical transition, USX’s lawyers and investment bankers started treating Icahn as a major stockholder rather than as a raider capable of acquiring the business.

What I’ve seen is a common denominator for successful people—I don’t mean just lucky; you know, you can get lucky for a year or two, get rich. But for people that make a lot of money, at least in business, or in any area, I think, the common denominator is an obsession, that they really are obsessed.

Apollo was having a difficult time finding candidates for the top spot, and Frissora would have had a hard time finding any job at any other public company. In September 2014, he had left as CEO at Hertz Global citing “personal reasons.” In fact, Hertz was in the middle of a massive accounting scandal where the rental car and equipment company was facing accusations of inflating profits. Carl Icahn had taken a near 10 percent stake and was making noise. Another hedge fund said Frissora had “lost all credibility.” To his surprise, Frissora got a call from an executive search firm just two weeks after leaving Hertz. They asked if he had interest in the Caesars job. He met with Rowan, Sambur, and Bonderman. Apollo claimed it would be a brief six-month bankruptcy, and the job would be fun. Frissora had been the CEO of two public companies, Hertz and auto parts maker Tenneco, and was new to gaming. But Hertz had gone private in a $15 billion LBO in 2006, so he had experience working with private equity. Until the accounting scandal, Hertz had prospered under Frissora. Rowan and Sambur were hoping an experienced operator could impose business discipline they believed Loveman had not.

When I was a kid, my mother said I was born with some kind of “warrior gene” or something.

If you want a friend, buy a dog

Events are often blown out of proportion, both the good and the bad.

The stories are rampant that Carl is going to take over TWA, which has been miraculously transformed from being the third-least-respected company in the United States into a national treasure.

My father was a very opinionated man,” Carl recalled. “He had set opinions on everything, and his strongest opinion was that there was something wrong about great wealth. To describe his feelings about this as an opinion is really an understatement. Wealthy people outraged him. The social juxtaposition of a tiny group of people living in great splendor and many more living in abject poverty was anathema to him.

In spraying the negotiations with a thousand possibilities, Icahn creates a complex environment in which he can camouflage his strategy. What does Carl really want? Which direction is he headed in? By tossing out dozens of variables, he leaves everyone guessing. The more his adversaries try to figure him out, the more he opens new channels: some dead ends, others viable options. It is in this context, where less accomplished negotiators look for symmetry and consistency, that Icahn thrives.

Trump said something to me that crystallized his view of politics and explains, to my mind, much of his subsequent difficulties. “I deal with people that are very extraordinarily talented people,” he told me. “I deal with Steve Wynn. I deal with Carl Icahn. I deal with killers that blow these [politicians] away. It’s not even the same category. This”—he meant politics—“is a category that’s like nineteen levels lower. You understand what I’m saying? Brilliant killers.