Word: icahn
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Predictably, Crandall's revolutionary fare changes triggered a dogfight last week with Carl Icahn, the corporate raider turned executive who heads TWA. Icahn challenged the new fares by slashing TWA's rates as much as 40% below American's prices. Icahn also vowed to keep volume discounts for corporate travelers, which American's plan eliminated. "We are here to stay," he told TIME. "I'm not a passive guy. It's hard to drive a low-cost competitor out of business. And, as far as I'm concerned, it won't work...
...additional $25 million. But Delta, which had come up with $115 million to keep Pan Am flying in recent weeks in exchange for 45% of the company, refused to pay any more. Desperate, Pan Am's lawyers and bankers scrambled fruitlessly for fresh cash, reportedly begging TWA chairman Carl Icahn for a relatively paltry $15 million in a late-night call. Fat chance: TWA has said it will seek bankruptcy protection early next year...
...only to turn to his wife Linda. As president of the Manhattan p.r. firm Robinson, Lake, Lerer & Montgomery, she ranks among the most powerful -- and controversial -- publicists in America. Her clients range from Texaco, which she helped to fend off a takeover bid staged by raider Carl Icahn, to junk-bond king Michael Milken, whose infamy she tried to % subdue. Together the Robinsons are a nonpareil power couple who cut a broad swath through the toniest boardrooms and ballrooms of the corporate elite...
...Icahn dismisses such criticism. One reason so many of his competitors have gone under, he argues, is the very fact that they invested too heavily in new planes. Says he: "Most of these airline guys, if they're feeling down one day, if they're sick, you know what they do? They buy a plane. It's like an alcoholic buys a drink. Today you have a glut of planes." Icahn insists he can spruce up his fleet by leasing planes at bargain-basement prices...
Having tentatively stabilized TWA's finances, Icahn is bidding against industry giants Delta and United for choice Pan Am routes to Europe. He may have help from American, which does not want its large rivals to capture those assets. TWA could finance the deal by selling some of the routes to American and keep some to bolster its own strength. Icahn has always insisted that an executive with his own money on the line makes a better manager. Now he's got to prove...