Carl Icahn may be waving the white flag in his fight against the
offer by Michael Dell and private-equity firm Silver Lake to buy
out Dell Inc.'s shareholders, but he isn't doing so without getting
in some last zingers. Below are some quotes from Mr. Icahn's
letter:
--We have therefore come to the conclusion that we will not
pursue additional efforts to defeat the Michael Dell/Silver Lake
proposal, although we still oppose it and will move to seek
appraisal rights.
--We won, or at least thought we won, but when the board
realized that they lost the vote, they simply ignored the outcome.
Even in a dictatorship when the ruling party loses an election, and
then ignores its outcome, it attempts to provide a plausible reason
to justify their actions.
--We jokingly ask, "What's the difference between Dell and a
dictatorship?" The answer: Most functioning dictatorships only need
to postpone the vote once to win.
--We therefore congratulate Michael Dell and I intend to call
him to wish him good luck (he may need it).
--While we of course are saddened at our losing the battle to
control Dell, it certainly makes the loss a lot more tolerable in
that as a result of our involvement, Michael Dell/Silver Lake
increased what they said was their "best and final offer". As a
result of this increase all stockholders are to receive many
hundreds of millions of dollars more than the board originally
accepted.
--The Dell board, like so many boards in this country, reminds
me of Clark Gable's last words in "Gone with the Wind," they simply
"don't give a damn."
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