Icahn es un archiconocido “corporate raider” que ha hecho gran parte de su fortuna en el mercado del control corporativo, tomando posiciones de control en empresas como Texaco, Time Warner, Western Union, Motorola, o Marvel Comics, entre muchas otras. Gracias a esto es uno de los 50 hombres más ricos del mundo. Ultimamente ha estado metido en la reciente batalla por el control de Yahoo.

Pues bien, en línea con su defensa del “corporate activism” y de acoso contra las ineficiencias en el control de las grandes corporaciones, Icahn destaca los siguientes puntos (extracto muy resumido, recomiendo leer el artículo completo):

• There has been much criticism of the fact that CEOs earn 520 times that of the average worker.
• The buildup of incompetent boards and managers is the result of poor corporate governance. Poor corporate governance now threatens more than just potential shareholder value; it threatens this country’s very economic survival.
• To paraphrase Winston Churchill, “democracy might not be the greatest system there is but it is the greatest system mankind has invented so far.”
• Many American corporations are dysfunctional because corporate democracy is a myth in the United States. They run like a decaying socialistic state. Our boards and CEOs exist in a symbiotic relationship [...] What kind of democracy is this? There is no accountability.
• Why did we get here? Because in corporate America there are no true elections. It is tyranny parading as democracy. It’s a poison running through the blood of corporate America. Perhaps, with enough public support, the lawmakers and regulators will take note.
• Years from now historians will marvel why we the shareholders – the legitimate owners of companies – did not do something effective about removing terrible managements.