Carl Icahn Quotes
120 Carl Icahn Quotes
1 2 3
[On TWA] We got ourselves an airline.
Carl Icahn
[To TWA employees] I have never sold or liquidated a company after gaining control.
Carl Icahn
[On TWA posting a $123 million loss in the last quarter of 1985 bringing total losses to $217.10 million for the year] I was looking for a challenge, I got it.
Carl Icahn
I am not going to stand by and watch this company bleed to death.
Carl Icahn
If we can’t make money, I will cash in my chips.
Carl Icahn
Now, with all the rules, there are a lot of moments of truth that look easy but are not. You have to make a lot of tough decisions fast… Some of the things they do now, some of the court cases have not been too good for the guys who do takeovers. They upheld some of these poison pills… They weren’t obstacles before. But now with some of these court cases upholding poison pills you have to worry about them. Before you’d just fight them. You’d work around them. You could sort of play your chess game with them. But now it’s made the chess game a little bit more difficult. I think some of them will be reversed. That’s why, there aren’t too many in the game. It’s a tough game. If it were easy…
Carl Icahn
[In 1983] Our firm has been very successful.
Carl Icahn
We built up a lot of capital over the years.
Carl Icahn
A takeover is more difficult than it seems: There’s a lot of pitfalls. It looks simple, but… you put a group together and say, ‘Let’s go take over xyz. We’ll just buy the stock. We’ll take over them.’ But it’s very tough because when you’re in it, there are so many pitfalls, so many headaches. First of all you put together a group of partners. Then every partner has a lawyer, and every lawyer wants something to say. So I would never do that. I learned that you only do it with limited partners. Nobody has anything to say where I’m concerned. They put in money with me and that’s it. But of course I put up most of the money so that’s a big plus. But that’s the problem of this game. Your own partners can hurt you.
Carl Icahn
It sounds funny but I was always ethical.
Carl Icahn
I have always lived by my word, so to speak. I think that’s the way to be… The funny, ironic part is if you do that over the years, it really pays off tremendous dividends.
Carl Icahn
It’s like a game and you’re collecting money… and you see how well you can do at it. I always did arbitrage and I always did well. It developed into creating a business and this is just creating something. It’s just building up capital. But it’s also doing something salutary.
Carl Icahn
I think I’m good at what I do. I think in the takeover business I would say I’m as good as anybody in this area… I have a good mind for this type of thinking. It’s like a chess game. I was always a good chess player.
Carl Icahn
I’m a pretty one-track kind of personality, sort of obsessive. I think that’s one of the hallmarks of success. It’s a very competitive world and if you’re not going to be an obsessive type of individual, very involved in what you do, competition is going to get you sooner or later. You have to be very involved… Ideas comes to you… not necessarily working and sitting at a desk… I have a certain ability to take advantage of the breaks, of the lucky breaks. People let their egos get in the way and don’t take advantage of certain breaks, of certain great opportunities.
Carl Icahn
What turns me one, is the excitement of it all. I really believe in what I’m doing. Don’t get me wrong. I like to win. But I love to rock boats that should be rocked. Sometimes I wonder why I keep doing it. I’ve got enough goddamn money.
Carl Icahn
The money is like the chips or the points or something.
Carl Icahn
You sort of really are in a sense fighting a very strong establishment, and it’s become exhilarating to see if you can outmaneuver them.
Carl Icahn
[In 1983] There were certain situations, where my group will be more effective by taking full control of companies, which should be more beneficial to everyone.
Carl Icahn
[On Phillips saying ‘Is Icahn for Real? – Could he really raise $4.2 billion for the deal] Is Phillips for Real?
Carl Icahn
I’m happy stockholders benefited. But I’m no Robin Hood. I enjoy making the money.
Carl Icahn
I felt good when I won the Phillips thing, because it seemed like we weren’t going to win. We were David fighting Goliath.
Carl Icahn
[‘Look, you’ve got a terrific plan. But they don’t like you. We know you’ve been in litigation before. If you start buying more stock we’re going to take you to court, and we’re going to dilute the hell out of you. Or we’ll sell off our crown jewels. On the other hand, you just bought the stock a couple of weeks ago, you can walk away with a $10 million profit. You can think it over. Talk to me tomorrow morning. You want to think about it?’] No. I’ll take the $10 million.
Carl Icahn
What’s wrong with making a profit? They’re making it sound like, ‘If Icahn makes a profit, that’s bad. Put him in jail.
Carl Icahn
[On entering the New York University School of Medicine] What the hell else was there to do? I hated it. I just decided I’m going to do what I want to do.
Carl Icahn
Undervalued. Undervalued. Undervalued.
Carl Icahn
What the hell do they know?
Carl Icahn
What do they think? What do they think?
Carl Icahn
[On hearing ‘You know, Carl, they don’t like you at all’] That’s funny, I thought I was making headway.
Carl Icahn
[In 1988] There is no question that leverage during the past year has gotten out of hand – it was almost a feeding frenzy.
Carl Icahn
[To the flight attendants union in demanding wage concessions – Machinists are] Bread winners…You girls are second incomes.
Carl Icahn
[To Jim Freund who had lent him his cashmere sweater] Jim, sometimes I think I was a schmuck. In a way, I’m in this mess because of my loyalty to the pilots, my moral obligation!
Carl Icahn
Jim, I don’t want to do a merger.
Carl Icahn
I won’t dignify that with an answer.
Carl Icahn
It’s the productivity we have to have if we are going to survive.
Carl Icahn
Those were different days. Conditions are different now. I wouldn’t strike that deal today. We need more cuts to stay in business.
Carl Icahn
[On new hires eager to work for less than a third of TWA’s wage scale] And people like them.
Carl Icahn
It could be argued that I paid a high price for nobility.
Carl Icahn
[On being asked ‘Are you glad you bought an airline?’] Oh, yeah, sure, we’re having a lot of fun with it.
Carl Icahn
Don’t ask me about air safety right now!
Carl Icahn
[On Vicki Frankovich] Can you believe that woman? She’s representing her people in something so important, and she goes home for an elementary school reunion!
Carl Icahn
I can’t sit here too long. I gotta go buy some stock.
Carl Icahn
1 2 3
Return from Carl Icahn Quotes to Quoteswise.com