Carl Icahn Ups Stake in Ebay, Sells More Netflix Shares

NDTV Profit Desk

15 Nov 2014, 01:49 PM IST

File photo of Carl Icahn

New York: Billionaire activist investor Carl Icahn increased his stake in e-commerce company Ebay while booking more profits from his stake in Netflix in the third quarter, a regulatory filing showed on Friday.

Mr Icahn increased his stake in Ebay by 15 million shares to a total of 45.8 million shares as of the end of September, up from 31 million at the end of June. He cut his stake in Netflix, the streaming video company, by 353,000 shares to 1.4 million shares, a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) showed.

His Ebay stake, which represents about 3.7 per cent of the company's outstanding shares, would be worth about $2.5 billion as of Friday's closing stock price of $54.36.

EBay agreed in late September to spin off its PayPal business next year. EBay chief executive John Donahoe had resisted Mr Icahn's calls for a PayPal split earlier this year and led a months-long campaign to convince investors that the company should remain intact.

Mr Icahn's cut to his Netflix stake proved prescient. The company's shares plunged 25 per cent to $333.53 in after-hours trading on October 15 after Netflix reported fewer video streaming subscribers than forecast in the third quarter.

Mr Icahn, who reported a 10 per cent stake in Netflix in October 2012, has periodically cashed in on that winning bet, in which his firm acquired Netflix shares for an average price of $58. He sold 3 million shares in October 2013 to book between $700 million and $800 million in profits.

Netflix shares closed up 1.7 per cent at $386.04 on Friday.

Mr Icahn, who reported a 6.6 per cent stake in media company Gannetton August 14 and an 8.48 per cent stake in Hertz Global Holdings on September 9, kept those stakes unchanged through the end of September.

His stakes in Apple and Herbalife were unchanged from the previous quarter. Mr Icahn is Herbalife's top shareholder with an 18.52 per cent stake.

Mr Icahn, who takes large stakes in companies and pushes for management change, was not immediately available for comment.