Icahn sells entire stake in General Motors

Friday, Sept. 22, 2000 | 10:56 a.m.

Just a month after notifying General Motors that he may buy as much as 15 percent of its shares, the billionaire investor Carl Icahn has sold his stake in the automaker.

Icahn controls the Stratosphere and two Arizona Charlie's casinos in Las Vegas and is investing in the Atlantic City gaming market as well.

Once derided as little more than a greenmailer, Icahn has gained a reputation as an aggressive value-oriented investor who presses companies with strong assets but weak stock prices to revamp or sell themselves. He made $600 million earlier this year after buying 10 percent of Nabisco Group Holdings and pressing Nabisco management to split the food and cigarette subsidiaries, a step Nabisco took in June.

GM declined to comment on Icahn's unexpected reversal. Icahn would not disclose when he sold his shares or the size of his stake in GM, but said it was less than $15 million.

It is unclear whether Icahn has permanently dropped his plans to invest in the automaker. Even as he bought shares last month, Icahn never publicly disclosed whether he planned to adopt a passive role in the company or an active one in forcing GM to restructure.