Well, it was a good run, or at least an exciting one, but financier Carl Icahn is giving up on his quest to keep Dell public.
In a statement released Monday morning, just days before a shareholder meeting will convene to assess a bid by Michael Dell and Silver Lake Partners to take the company private, Icahn wrote that given recent changes in the voting rules:
“…it would be almost impossible to win the battle on September 12th. We have therefore come to the conclusion that we will not pursue additional efforts to defeat the Michael Dell/Silver Lake proposal, although we still oppose it and will move to seek appraisal rights.”
Icahn reiterated his belief that Dell’s $ 24.8 billion ($ 13.75 per share) bid for the server-and-PC company undervalues it. That bid, he wrote, is “approximately 70 percent below [Dell’s] ten-year high of $ 42.38.” And he blasted Mr. Dell’s proposal, saying it “freezes stockholders out of any possibility of realizing Dell’s great potential.”
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