Irony abounds in the Age of Trump, and nowhere more abundantly than within his inner circle. And so we find a close associate of a man who is president today because he used to gleefully fire people on television now in danger of (it has to be said) a rather gleeful firing at the hands of the very activist investors Trump’s SEC is trying to silence.
“With Mr. Barrack’s track record and personal issues, no reasonable, fiduciarily-aware public company Board of Directors would select Mr. Barrack as C.E.O. of Colony or any other public company today.”
Whatever could the angry shareholders at Blackwells Capital possibly be talking about? Anyway, there’s more to their dislike of Barrack than the fact that he’s (almost) never met an accused sexual predator he didn’t like (and want to give money to).
Blackwells claims that Mr. Barrack “destroyed more than $775 million in just nine months….” Mr. Barrack has already announced plans for a successor, Marc Ganzi, in 2021. But Blackwells says that is not fast enough and noted that Mr. Ganzi is a personal friend of Mr. Barrack’s.
Barrack thusly may be quite grateful for Jay Clayton’s recent interventions on behalf of those dogged by activist investors. His fellow Trump buddy, Carl Icahn, is less so, but that has something to do with the fact that it is Carl Icahn who demands the firings, and not the other way around. And rarely in his centuries of agitation has he found a group more deserving of dismissal than pretty much anyone associated with Occidental Petroleum. In fact, everywhere he turns there, he finds more people he wants out.
The legendary investor now wants to replace Occidental’s entire 10-person board of directors, a person familiar with the matter told CNN Business. Icahn was previously only pushing to replace four members of the oil giant’s board.
Icahn’s stepped-up proxy fight includes a bid to remove Vicki Hollub, the oil giant’s CEO, from her seat on the board, the person said….
“Owning this company, and being at the mercy of a board and CEO who have already shown they are willing to take inordinate risks and gamble stockholders money to further their own agendas, is extremely dangerous for an investor,” Icahn recently told CNN Business.
An Activist Investor Tries to Oust a Trump Confidant [DealBook]
Carl Icahn wants to fire Occidental’s entire board of directors [CNN]