Business Notes PROXY FIGHTS

Bucking like a determined bronc, Texaco has been trying to throw Corporate Raider Carl Icahn off its back for the past six months. Now the company may finally have succeeded. Last week Icahn conceded that he had lost in a proxy vote of Texaco's 215,000 stockholders. The investors rejected his proposal to put himself and four associates on the oil company's 14-member board in a bid to force Texaco to consider his $60-a-share takeover offer. While the exact tally of the votes is likely to take several more weeks, Icahn figured that he narrowly lost after several major stockholders, notably the Manhattan investment firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, said they had voted for Texaco's current management.

Icahn's next move? "I haven't made up my mind yet," he insists. Icahn may have trouble raising the money to boost his $12.5 billion offer. He could hold his 14.8% stake and collect more than $100 million a year in dividends. Or he could sell and earn a profit of more than $500 million.