Netflix isn't giving Carl C. Icahn the cold shoulder - at least not yet.
On Thursday, Netflix responded to Mr. Icahn's announcement that he had built up a roughly 10 percent stake in the company. It seems that Netflix is reserving judgement on the billionaire investor's interest.
“We have many shareholders, now including Mr. Icahn, and we're always open to their perspective on how to build on our success,†Jonathan Friedland, a Netflix spokesman, said in an e-mail.
Netflix's stock was essentially flat on Thursday, down about 0.3 percent in midafternoon trading, at $7. The stock price shot upward Wednesday afternoon after Mr. Icahn's stake was disclosed.
While Mr. Icahn's precise intentions for the media company aren't clear, it appears that he's pushing for a sale. That would be straight out of the investor's playbook, as Steven M. Davidoff writes in the Deal Professor column. Netflix could theoretically adopt a poison pill defense to prevent Mr . Icahn from coordinating with other shareholders, Mr. Davidoff says.
