Carl Icahn

13. Carl Icahn, Chairman, Icahn Enterprises

Phil Goldstein — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 11:23:49 -0400

What makes him powerful: Icahn, the billionaire activist investor and corporate raider, is one of the richest men in the world, with a net worth of around $14 billion. His investment strategy is simple: Target a company he believes suffers from poor leadership, start buying up shares of its stock and then raise serious hell until sweeping executive changes are instituted. It's an approach that's hit the jackpot time and again, because the more havoc that Icahn wreaks, the more the companies in his crosshairs seem to improve--and so does his bottom line.

In some respects, Icahn's increasing profile in the wireless industry is a ringing endorsement of the segment's economic prospects--if he didn't believe there is serious money to be made here, he wouldn't waste his time. Of course, if you're the CEO of one of the firms in Icahn's portfolio, you may wish he'd set his sights elsewhere. Consider what has happened to Motorola and Yahoo, two marquee companies significantly transformed by Icahn's efforts.

The most highly publicized tussle pitted Icahn against Motorola: After Ed Zander departed as CEO at the end of 2007, Icahn publicly championed a plan to split the firm into four parts. His holding company owns 6.4 percent of Motorola's outstanding shares, and he fought to become a director of the company, a move that shareholders shot down in May. However, in late March he sued Motorola for documents relating to its mobile devices business and to install his handpicked nominees on the handset maker's board of directors. In early April, Motorola and Icahn settled their dispute and all litigation, and the firm agreed to approve of two of his nominees, Keith Meister, the principal executive officer of Icahn Enterprises and William Hambrecht, founder, chairman and CEO of financial services firm WR Hambrecht and Co. Icahn also won authority to serve as a consultant on the future of the mobile devices division, including its search for a new CEO.

When Microsoft's proposed takeover of Yahoo went sour in the spring of 2008, Icahn launched a proxy fight and sought the ouster of the web services giant's CEO and co-founder, Jerry Yang. In July, Icahn and Yahoo settled the proxy battle, and Icahn won himself a seat on Yahoo's newly-expanded board. Far less contentious (at least so far) is Icahn's relationship with mobile content firm Motricity: In February 2007, Icahn poured $50 million into the company, and his son Brett joined Motricity's board of directors at that time as well.

The brief: When Icahn wants something, he has the money and the muscle to get it. As economic turmoil reshapes how the world does business, look for his crusade to grow even more fascinating.

16. Marco Boerries, Executive Vice President, Yahoo Connected Life

Tue, 14 Oct 2008 11:05:22 -0400

What makes him powerful: Yahoo dominated headlines throughout 2008, mostly for all the wrong reasons. After rejecting rival Microsoft's unsolicited $44.6 billion buyout bid, the struggling web services giant found itself under siege from activist investor Carl Icahn. Icahn threatened a proxy battle if the deal was not consummated and claimed that Yahoo's board "acted irrationally and lost the faith of shareholders" by turning down Microsoft's $33 per share takeover offer. Microsoft and Yahoo continued their mating dance for months, with Microsoft finally withdrawing its offer in early May--with its market capitalization in tatters, Yahoo soon after inked a non-exclusive search advertising alliance with rival Google, prompting many executives and senior employees to leave the firm after losing confidence in co-founder CEO Jerry Yang's ability to right the ship.

Swept aside in the takeover soap opera were the significant advances made by Yahoo's mobile unit under the leadership of Marco Boerries, head of Yahoo's Connected Life Division, which encompasses its mobile, digital home, PC client and broadband teams around the globe. With Yahoo's traditional web revenues eroding, the company is looking to the mobile platform as the next evolution of its business, and Boerries has responded with a series of new initiatives. At January's Consumer Electronics Show, Yahoo debuted a revamped Yahoo Go 3.0 mobile portal, a new mobile advertising initiative and, perhaps most significantly, its fledgling Mobile Developer Platform to third-party applications. In the months to follow, Yahoo announced a new multi-platform advertising effort dubbed Apex, a mobile content management solution called onePlace, a voice-enabled version of its oneSearch mobile search application and a mobile advertising revenue agreement with AT&T, not to mention a number of additional international search and marketing deals.

But Boerries must solve--on the mobile web--the same conundrum Yahoo faces on the wired web--specifically, how to keep pace with the seemingly unstoppable force that is Google. Consumer research provider Nielsen Mobile reports that Google dominated mobile web searches in the first quarter of 2008, accounting for 61 percent of mobile queries during the three-month period in question, while Yahoo was a distant second with 18 percent. Yahoo has largely reinvented its mobile image in the likeness of its opponent, opening its platform to third-party development and pinning its revenue hopes on mobile advertising--the problem is that Google, as well as Microsoft, can lay claim to mobile operating systems of their own, a huge tactical advantage that severely limits Yahoo's mobile scope and reach. However, a flurry of recent breakthroughs--including an idle-screen ad deal with Nokia and the debut of the oneConnect social networking app for Apple's iPhone--proves Boerries isn't going down without a fight.

Another Motorola executive departs

Lynnette Luna — Mon, 19 May 2008 11:38:04 -0400

Another Motorola executive has departed from the company. Rich Nottenburg, chief strategy and technology officer, is the latest executive to leave amid investor Carl Icahn's activist ways to shake up the Motorola board. Nottenburg's departure follows the replacements of CEO Ed Zander in January, acting CFO Tom Meredith in February along with mobile devices head Stu Reed, Casey Keller, head of marketing, treasurer Steve Strobel and EMEA mobile-devices head Mike Fenger. Dan Moloney, who leads the company's home and networks mobility business, will replace Nottenburg.

Motorola's financial woes continue, with the operator announcing last month that first-quarter losses reached $194 million. Motorola is splitting into two publicly traded companies, one of which is the handset business and the other being the networks business. But analysts don't believe that move will solve the company's problems any time soon. Moreover, LG is closing in on Motorola's worldwide mobile phone market share. LG's market share ratcheted up to 8.6 percent in the first quarter, up from 6.4 percent in the year-ago quarter. Shipments of phones increased year-on-year a sizeable 54 percent during the first quarter.

To find out more about Motorola's latest executive departure:
- check out this CNET article