Carl Icahn, swashbuckling raider turned trendy hedge fund activist, is driven by the game as well as the cash.
Best known for his aggressive takeovers of troubled companies such as Texaco and USX in the heady junk-bond era and using his own money, Icahn has morphed into a hedge fund maven, investing in companies with a view to shaking up management where he says shareholders are being shortchanged.
But why bother with a hedge fund when, ranked by Forbes as the 24th richest American with $8.5 billion, Icahn could have used his good nose for spotting value to continue life as a lone raider?
“He was missing the game – there’s nothing to beat running other people’s money for competitive drive,” says Barry Colvin, president of hedge fund of funds Tremont Capital Management, which has some $10 billion assets under management. “If you run your own money, you’ve only yourself to hurt. But with third-party money, it’s a different set of pressures. You’ve got to perform and deliver the returns.”
