Wall Street raider eyes spot on Motorola's board

By Colleen Taylor -- Electronic News, 1/30/2007

Billionaire corporate raider Carl Icahn, whose wide-ranging investments include Blockbuster Inc., Imclone, Time Warner Inc., and several Las Vegas casinos, has set his sights on a position in Motorola Inc.'s board of directors.

The New York-born Icahn, 70, made a name as a shareholder activist after his hostile takeover of airline TWA in 1985. Icahn, who ranked 53th on Forbes Magazine's 2006 list of the "World's Richest People, " has led similar takeover attempts of Texaco and USX. Recently, he has turned his attention Time Warner  calling for the breakup of the media giant into four companies.

Motorola today confirmed its receipt of Icahn's nomination to the company's board and said it has received no additional information regarding his intentions. The company added that the notice announcing his nomination also states that Icahn and his entities "may be deemed to beneficially own, in the aggregate, 33,529,000 shares, representing approximately 1.39 percent" of Motorola's outstanding shares.

Motorola said it is reviewing the notice of nomination.