home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- THE WEEK, Page 16BUSINESSThis Parting Is No Sorrow
-
-
- Investor Carl Icahn may have finally found a way out of TWA
-
-
- It has been widely accepted wisdom that corporate raider Carl
- Icahn launched his hostile takeover of Trans World Airlines six
- years ago in order to greenmail management into paying a higher
- price for his stock. Icahn confounded the skeptics by actually
- taking control and running the airline, but he has made no
- secret in recent years of wanting out of his money-losing
- investment. Throughout last week, Icahn and TWA's labor unions
- hammered away at a deal that would turn over the airline to its
- 28,000 workers and allow the New York takeover artist to bail
- out and save face at the same time.
-
- Though at week's end the talks were ongoing, all the
- parties are in agreement that Icahn's departure is the desired
- outcome. Once the nation's No. 3 carrier, TWA now ranks a
- distant seventh. The reluctant chairman wants out of a bad
- investment, which he claims has cost him personally at least
- $100 million. The airline has lost more than $511 million since
- 1990, including $104 million in this year's first quarter. TWA's
- workers, angered by Icahn's relentless quest to cut costs, blame
- him for driving the carrier into the ground. But before Icahn
- can exit, he has to satisfy union demands for job security. He
- also has to resolve an order by federal pension authorities to
- make up a shortfall in TWA pensions of $1.1 billion.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-