From LearnBonds:
Carl Icahn Quiet on Apple Inc., Buys $100 Million In Uber Rival Lyft
Carl Icahn is frustrating Apple Inc. investors right now. The hedge fund manager was supposed to release a report on the company this week, but has so far failed to do so. Instead the investor put $100 million from his Icahn Enterprises LP into Uber competitor Lyft. The ride-sharing business raised about $150 million in financing, according to a statement on Friday.*My bad, that wasn't Uber, it was Dr. Evil's demand in the third movie.
A private investment is an unusual move for Icahn, but the veteran investor has been taking a huge amount of interest in tech companies in recent years. His Icahn Enterprises has invested in the likes of Netflix Inc and eBay Inc. alongside his semi-activist $5 billion investment in Apple.
Icahn invests in Lyft
Lyft is outgunned and out-manned by its major competitor Uber right now, making Icahn’s investment in the company a curious one. Icahn said that his investment in Lyft was a “tremendous bargain.”
Icahn’s investment style in recent years has been to take a large position in companies and leverage it to influence the decisions of management. He managed to do that at Apple since taking a position in 2013, encouraging the company to massively expand its capital return program in order to boost the share price and give investors access to part of the Cupertino company’s $200 billion cash pile.
The latest round of financing valued Lyft at $2.5 billion. Uber has a funding round coming up this month that could value it at more than $50 billion according to the New York Times. That would put the company’s value above that of Netflix and Twitter Inc, Icahn’s investment in Lyft makes the company look like David facing Goliath in comparison....MORE
