For decades, billionaire Carl Icahn has shaken up corporations across America by buying their stock and forcing them to change. Now at 79, Icahn is targeting Washington by committing $150 million of his own money to launch a Super PAC that will push for tax reform.
“For the past 40 years I have worked diligently to see that errant CEOs and boards were held accountable,” Icahn wrote in a public letter he sent yesterday to Washington lawmakers, including the majority and minority leaders of the Senate and House of Representatives. “I believe the time has come to also hold Senators and Congressmen accountable for the current gridlock in Congress that prevents important legislation from being passed.”
Icahn’s move may be the latest effort by billionaires to impact the
political process, but it is one of the biggest such individual efforts
launched from Wall Street,
where the fortunes of hedge fund and private equity titans have grown
substantially in recent years. Forbes estimates that Icahn has a net
worth of $21.6 billion, a fortune that has increased in recent years
thanks to winning bets on companies like Apple AAPL -6.45% and Netflix NFLX -6.59%.
A long-time feature of Wall Street who was once derided in the 1980s as
a corporate raider, Icahn has ushered in a golden age of activist
investing and his tactics have swept the financial world and become
accepted, imitated and even celebrated. Although some CEOs have claimed
to have enjoyed working with Icahn, many have lost their jobs because of
his campaigns.
In Washington, Icahn wants to focus on issues like corporate tax inversions that have seen U.S. companies move their tax addresses overseas through merger activity. Icahn blames Congress for not stopping the inversion wave. “In the last few years, over 50 companies have left the country through “inversions,” representing over half a trillion dollars in market value, hundreds of millions in tax dollars, and tens of thousands of jobs,” Icahn wrote in his letter on Wednesday. “If this exodus is allowed to accelerate, there will be disastrous consequences for our already fragile economy, as well as meaningful and unnecessary job losses. Foundational American companies, such as Pfizer, Walgreens, Monsanto, Omnicom, etc., have been reported publicly to be considering corporate “inversions.”
Must Read: The Little Black Book of Billionaire Secrets
Icahn is calling for the passing of tax reform legislation, like the kind outlined by senators Charles Schumer and Robert Portman, and supported by Paul Ryan to fund the Highway Bill. Icahn claims that U.S. corporations that have $2.2 trillion sitting outside the U.S. must be enticed to bring those funds back this year before they choose to invest the money abroad or seek an inversion deal. Icahn has previously said that U.S. companies would be willing to bring the money back and pay taxes on the funds if a compromised tax rate can be negotiated.
“For the past 40 years I have worked diligently to see that errant CEOs and boards were held accountable,” Icahn wrote in a public letter he sent yesterday to Washington lawmakers, including the majority and minority leaders of the Senate and House of Representatives. “I believe the time has come to also hold Senators and Congressmen accountable for the current gridlock in Congress that prevents important legislation from being passed.”
Billionaire activist investor Carl Icahn Photographer: Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg
In Washington, Icahn wants to focus on issues like corporate tax inversions that have seen U.S. companies move their tax addresses overseas through merger activity. Icahn blames Congress for not stopping the inversion wave. “In the last few years, over 50 companies have left the country through “inversions,” representing over half a trillion dollars in market value, hundreds of millions in tax dollars, and tens of thousands of jobs,” Icahn wrote in his letter on Wednesday. “If this exodus is allowed to accelerate, there will be disastrous consequences for our already fragile economy, as well as meaningful and unnecessary job losses. Foundational American companies, such as Pfizer, Walgreens, Monsanto, Omnicom, etc., have been reported publicly to be considering corporate “inversions.”
Must Read: The Little Black Book of Billionaire Secrets
Icahn is calling for the passing of tax reform legislation, like the kind outlined by senators Charles Schumer and Robert Portman, and supported by Paul Ryan to fund the Highway Bill. Icahn claims that U.S. corporations that have $2.2 trillion sitting outside the U.S. must be enticed to bring those funds back this year before they choose to invest the money abroad or seek an inversion deal. Icahn has previously said that U.S. companies would be willing to bring the money back and pay taxes on the funds if a compromised tax rate can be negotiated.
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