Carl Icahn Doubles Down On eBay

Carl Icahn has increased his stake in eBay by 15 million shares since the end of June, which could bring his company investment value to somewhere around $2.5 billion based on recent stock price, Business Insider reported.

The billionaire activist’s stake in eBay has jumped to 45.8 million shares, up from 31 million at the end of June. This move also corresponded with Icahn’s cutting of his stake in Netflix, which he reduced by 353,000 shares to 1.4 million shares, Business Insider said. His stake in eBay accounts for about 3.7 percent of the company’s outstanding shares. The ePay, PayPal split may be the motivation for Icahn’s larger investment with the e-Commerce company.

“eBay Chief Executive John Donahoe had resisted Icahn’s calls for a PayPal split earlier this year and led a months-long campaign to convince investors that the company should remain intact,” the Business Insider article said.

A September CNN Money article said Icahn has “made a killing on eBay,” but based on his then-31 million shares of eBay, he had the opportunity to gain almost $120 million in a few hours following stock trends in June’s figures. CNN said his “eBay victory” was just one of many in his series of recent successful savvy investing that’s done with a mix of  “Twitter prowess and public shaming of corporate management to get results.”

“It’s the reason regular investors keep an eye on his bets and consider getting in too,” the article said.