Gannett said the activist investor had also withdrawn his corporate governance proposals that would have made it easier to sell the media company.
Activist investor Carl Icahn said he will seek two seats on Gannett’s board of directors, threatening a proxy fight for more influence over the media company’s plan to spin off its publishing division from its TV stations and digital assets this summer.
In an open letter Thursday to Apple CEO Tim Cook that focused on the need for more share repurchases, activist investor Carl Icahn said there’s “good reason to expect” Apple to introduce an UltraHD television in the company’s fiscal year ending September 2016. Icahn said Apple would be able to sell 12 million of the 55-inch and 65-inch TV sets that year and another 25 million in the company’s 2017 fiscal year. Each TV set would cost an average of $1,500, Icahn projected.
Carl Icahn, who disclosed a new activist stake in Gannett Co., had planned to mount a campaign to separate the company’s print and broadcasting businesses before Gannett beat him to it. He still wants to talk with management.
Exclusives
In a Wednesday regulatory filing, Icahn revealed Carl Icahn had used some of his $14 billion fortune to accumulate a 10% stake in Netflix Inc. Investors familiar with his cage-rattling history assumed he would press the owner of the world’s largest Internet video subscription service to make dramatic changes to boost its stock price. That hunch caused Netflix’s stock price to soar $9.66, or nearly 14%, on Wednesday to close at $79.24. The shares gained another 24 cents to $79.48 in afternoon trading Thursday.
Carl Icahn has jumped aboard the bandwagon of Netflix CEO Reed Hastings. The billionaire investor has acquired a 10% stake in the video streaming company, saying he sees “a significant strategic value” in its rights deals.
