Business Notes

Is the 1980s corporate raider going the way of the 1890s robber baron? Exhibit A: last week Carl Icahn, TWA chairman and high-stakes player during the Decade of the Deal, sold his 13.3% interest in Pittsburgh-based USX. Icahn became a force in the company in 1986, when takeover fever was at its height. He waged an unsuccessful 1990 proxy war to force the firm out of the steel business, but seemed to achieve partial victory in January when the company agreed to split its common stock into separate steel and energy issues -- an agreement that went into effect barely a week before Icahn's abrupt withdrawal from USX. The take from Icahn's sale was more than $1 billion -- impressive on paper, yet a measly 25% return on his investment over five years. Icahn's continuing problems at TWA apparently cry out for a compress of cold cash from his deep -- yet clearly not bottomless -- pockets.