Icahn launches blog, highlights corporate 'absurdities'

Activist investor Carl Icahn launched his own blog, the Icahn Report, on Thursday, apparently in an attempt to point out "absurdities" in the U.S. corporate system.

So far, the site has seven posts dating back to June 12, although until Thursday the site wasn't accessible to the general public. The left-hand column lists "featured posts," as blogs commonly do, while a list in the right column highlights posts under the heading "absurdities."

One such post describes Icahn's opinion on the "absurdity of the poison pill," perhaps a thinly veiled rail against recent Yahoo activities. "Public companies refer to a poison pill as a 'shareholder rights plan.' Does anyone else find that amusing?" Icahn writes.

Icahn is waging a bitter battle in an attempt to oust Yahoo's board and pursue an acquisition of the company by Microsoft. He has called a severance plan put in place recently by Yahoo, which some say would encourage employees to quit in the event of a Microsoft takeover, a poison pill.

Just days before his "poison pill" blog post, Icahn wrote this in a letter to Yahoo: "I cannot understand why the Yahoo board feels so strongly about its 'poison pill' severance plan and why it continues to refuse to rescind it. How can you continue to repeat that your severance plan is in the best interests of shareholders and employees?"

On his blog, Icahn also tears apart the system behind corporate boards in the U.S., another point he's brought up in his battle for Yahoo. "The inherent quid pro quo is to pay the board huge retainers for attending several meetings per year and rubber stamp ill conceived CEO proposals. In turn, a CEO can fly around the world on the company's private jet on the 'business' of visiting all the world's greatest golf courses while he runs the company -- and the value of your stock -- into the ground," he wrote.

Icahn slammed board compensation at Yahoo in a recent letter to Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock in which he described the board as "busy reaping great compensation benefits. Indeed, you made approximately US$10,000 per week last year -- not bad for a board member. I believe most of your shareholders would be interested in seeing your time sheets."

While Icahn's blog posts so far appear to be arguments in support of his ongoing Yahoo dispute, the search company isn't mentioned by name anywhere on the site -- except in links at the end of each post, allowing site visitors to bookmark individual posts using the Yahoo Bookmark service.

The site also appears to invite comments to each post, although so far none have appeared. A link allows anyone to send an e-mail message directly to Icahn.

It also includes a page with an Icahn biography that reads as though he wrote it himself. The bio includes details of some charity groups Icahn is involved with or sponsors, such as three charter schools, a homeless shelter in New York City and a complex called the Icahn House in The Bronx that houses single women and their children.

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.