Billionaire Michael Dell has prevailed in the fight against fellow billionaire Carl Icahn, who... [+]
Billionaire investor Carl Icahn threw in the towel Monday morning by saying he wouldn't pursue his fight to scuttle the management-led buyout of
By standing down, Icahn hands a major victory to CEO Michael Dell and his private equity partner, Silver Lake Partners, who should be able to win Thursday's vote and make the deal a certainty. Icahn called off the campaign after Dell twice postponed the vote on the deal and upped his bid to $24.9 billion--and following a judge's ruling that shot down Icahn's effort to install a new board of directors.
The two sides battled for months, with Icahn flatly accusing of Dell of attempting to steal the company from public shareholders. He offered a number of alternatives, and last month seemed poised to win. With Icahn close to victory, Dell pushed the vote back and resorted to changing the rules on the vote to ensure approval for the buyout.
"We jokingly ask, 'What's the different between Dell and a dictatorship?" Icahn says. "The answer: Most functioning dictatorships only need to postpone the vote once to win."
Icahn tried a last-ditch effort by taking the fight to a Delaware courtroom, where he asked a judge to force Dell to hold its annual shareholder meeting before the delayed takeover vote. Had the move succeeded, he might have been able to persuade investors to oust the current directors and elect a board aligned with Icahn's ideas, but the judge foiled that plan.
True to his bold personality, Icahn made sure to have the last word. "We...congratulate Michael Dell, and I intend to call him to wish him good luck (he may need it)."
Shares of Dell rose 0.1% to $13.84 in pre-market trading, above the $13.75 bid from its founder and Silver Lake.
Reach Abram Brown at abrown@forbes.com.
