A few months into 2014, Carl Ichan proposed that PayPal split off from eBay, eBay’s board disagreed and Icahn and VC Marc Andreessen publicly sniped at each other. A few months from the end of 2014, eBay’s board has taken to the view of Carl Icahn and decided to split PayPal off from eBay, and Marc Andreessen and Icahn continue to spar publicly.
On an appearance on CNBC’s Fast Money, Andresseen noted that he Icahns’ idea to split off PayPal did not constitute a unique stroke of genius, and that Icahn’s behavior on corporate boards was a poisonous combination of ignorance and arrogance that makes his presence destructive. He also likened Icahn to “Evil Captain Kirk,” noting he had both “the goatee and the sash.”
“He lies, he just makes stuff up. He slanders. … It’s like his inner 6-year-old comes out.”
Not to be outdone in the war of words, Icahn replied, noting his disgust at Andreessen’s attempt to take the moral high ground.
“Andreessen, he’s screwed more people than Casanova… Yet, he goes and he takes this attitude that he’s on the high moral ground and he just is as annoying as hell, to me, that a guy like that is still on this board after what the hell he did at Skype.”
Interestingly, the men both do agree that tech companies are undervalued, and that this is a systemic problem for investors.
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