In 1985, T. Boone Pickens, a force in the burgeoning business of hostile takeovers, appeared on the cover of Time magazine. He was fresh off an audacious tender offer for Gulf Oil, and the cover illustration showed him playing poker with oil derricks printed on the cards.
He was identified with two potent words: “Corporate Raider.â€
Almost three decades later, Mr. Pickens has objected to that designation. In the pages of Time magazine.
Mr. Pickens is the author of a blurb about a fellow investor, Carl C. Icahn, that appears among a list of 100 influential people in the latest issue of Time. While discussing his friend, Mr. Pickens takes the opportunity to talk about himself:
Carl Icahn and I have been friends for decades. We’ve been called a lot of names over the years. “Corporate raider.†“Asset stripper.†“Bloodsucking ghoul.†All tough stuff. All inaccurate.
These days, financiers who buy stakes in companies and then forcefully push for change are known by the more polite term “activist investor.†They include billionaire hedge fund managers like William A. Ackman and Daniel S. Loeb.
As the “activist†name suggests, these investors tend to argue that their work is good for the companies they go after. Mr. Pickens has this to say about Mr. Icahn:
Sure, Carl is about as smooth as a stucco bathtub. But he is the best thing going for corporate America. Call Carl what you want, but recognize him for what he is: a shareholder activist. And an effective one at that.
Mr. Icahn, for his part, appeared on the cover of Time last December. The headline was a little different: “Master of the Universe.â€
