Stone also consulted with Carl Icahn, Asher Edelman, convicted inside trader David Brown, and several government prosecutors, and Wall Street investment bankers.

Icahn was also at odds with Antioco on how to revive profit at Blockbuster ; Antioco scrapped late fees in January, started an Internet service, and wanted to keep the company independent, while Icahn wanted to sell out to a private equity firm.

Dish Network had also expressed interest in bidding ; as did Carl Icahn, despite calling Blockbuster " the worst investment I ever made.

Dynegy investor Carl Icahn also promised a proxy battle, arguing that Blackstone Group's offer was too low.

This period is also an era marked by extremely competitive airline industry forces fighting for deregulation survival along with fighting for opportunities of vast individual creations of wealth characterized by those accumulated by leading industry figures but sullied names such as Frank Lorenzo and Carl Icahn during the 1980s.

Co-written by Stone and screenwriter Stanley Weiser, Gekko is claimed to be based loosely on arbitrageur Ivan Boesky, who gave a speech on greed at the University of California, Berkeley in 1986, real-life activist shareholder and corporate raider Carl Icahn and also Stone's own father Louis Stone.

Icahn made an attempted run as a major shareholder of Time Warner, owning about 3. 3 % of the company valued at billions of dollars.

Poison pills became popular during the early 1980s in response to the wave of takeovers by corporate raiders such as Carl Icahn.

Among the most notable corporate raiders of the 1980s were Carl Icahn, Victor Posner, Nelson Peltz, Robert M. Bass, T. Boone Pickens, Harold Clark Simmons, Kirk Kerkorian, Sir James Goldsmith, Saul Steinberg and Asher Edelman.

Carl Icahn developed a reputation as a ruthless " corporate raider " after his hostile takeover of TWA in 1985.

The result of that takeover was Icahn systematically selling TWA's assets to repay the debt he used to purchase the company, which was described as asset stripping.

Carl Icahn received very favorable treatment from his 2008 profile on CBS's 60 Minutes.

The character of Gekko is said to be a composite of several people, including Owen Morrisey, Dennis Levine, Ivan Boesky, Carl Icahn, Asher Edelman, Michael Ovitz, Michael Milken, and Stone himself.

Reportedly, Gordon Gekko is said to be a composite of several people: Owen Morrisey, who was involved in a $ 20 million insider trading scandal in 1985, Dennis Levine, Ivan Boesky, corporate raider Carl Icahn, art collector Asher Edelman, agent Michael Ovitz, and Stone himself.

For research, he read profiles of corporate raiders T. Boone Pickens and Carl Icahn.

The first part, where Gekko complains that the company's management owns less than three percent of its stock, and that it has too many vice presidents, is taken from similar speeches and comments made by Carl Icahn about companies he was trying to take over.

On October 25, 2006, a group led by billionaire investor Carl Icahn acquired a majority of stock thereby giving him control of the board.

Within hours of the announcement, interim CEO Joseph Fischer resigned, and Icahn announced that other members of the Board of Directors would not be re-elected.

The offer was made by letter addressed to ImClone's chairman of the board, Carl Icahn.

In addition, Bristol threatened to take the offer to the share holders for a proxy battle with the intention of replacing the current Board of Directors headed by Carl Icahn.

He had already purchased Continental and lost a bidding war for TWA to Carl Icahn.

Famous residents both past and present have included Victoria's Secret model Adriana Lima, Beyoncé and Jay-Z, Spanish singer Julio Iglesias, his son Enrique Iglesias, pro golfer Raymond Floyd, coaches Rick Pitino and Don Shula, US Senator George Smathers, Sheik Mohammed al-Fassi of Saudi Arabia, television host Don Francisco, billionaire investor Carl Icahn, co-founder of Calvin Klein Barry Schwartz, billionaire developer Donny Soffer, banker and developer Jamie Gilinski, steel executive Leroy Schecter, wireless executive Rajendra Singh, radio magnate Raul Alarcon, real estate billionaire Peter Breton, coal and oil executive Christopher F. Viegas, Perry Ellis head George Feldenkreis, former Philadelphia Eagles owner and billionaire art collector Norman Braman, heiress and philanthropist Suzie Linden, and former cable company CEO Ken Bagwell.

As CEO from June 2007 to January 2009, Yang had been criticized by many investors, including Carl Icahn, for not increasing revenues and stock price, while there has been a exodus of executives.

Yang and board chairman Roy Bostock were strongly criticized by investors for their handling of negotiations, which later led to several shareholder lawsuits and an aborted proxy fight from Carl Icahn.

* Icahn and BofA Take Steel Partners to Court

Carl Icahn developed a reputation as a ruthless corporate raider after his hostile takeover of TWA in 1985.

Corporate Raider Carl Icahn launched a hostile takeover of the steel giant in late 1986 and proceeded to have proxy battles with shareholders and management until abandoning all efforts to buy the company out on January 8, 1987.

In 1985, Uniroyal was taken private by its management and the New York investment firm of Clayton & Dubilier to prevent a hostile takeover by financier Carl C. Icahn.

In 2008, Icahn showed interest in the takeover of Yahoo!

Also in 2007, Lear's board of directors agreed to a $ 2. 3 billion takeover offer from American Real Estate Partners, an affiliate of financier Carl Icahn, subject to shareholder approval.

Following various restructurings that included negotiations with Carl Icahn who became a large bond holder, Mr. Amman engineered the sale of New Valley in a bankruptcy auction to First Financial Management Corporation in 1994 for $ 1. 2 billion where he became vice chairman, and a year later merged with First Data Corporation in a $ 6 billion transaction.

In 2006, Icahn sold his stake in KT & G ( Korea Tobacco & Ginseng ) for a substantial profit.

Although Time Warner recently sold 5 % of its AOL division, Icahn has been pressing for additional action to increase shareholder value.

On February 7, 2006, a group led by Icahn and Lazard Frères CEO Bruce Wasserstein unveiled a 343-page proposal calling for the breakup of Time Warner into four companies and stock buybacks totaling approximately $ 20 billion.

In exchange for the Icahn group's cooperation, Time Warner would buy back up $ 20 billion of stock, nominate more independent members to the board of directors, cut $ 1 billion of costs by 2007, and continue discussions with the Icahn group over their proposal, particularly on the future of Time Warner Cable.

On 22 February 2011, Carl Icahn, an activist investor, made an offer to buy the company for about $ 1. 86 billion in cash in a move to push other suitors to declare themselves.

Icahn accused Blockbuster of overpaying Chairman and CEO John F. Antioco, who served in that capacity since 1997, who received $ 51. 6 million in compensation for 2004.

However, after a due diligence review of Circuit City's financial books by Blockbuster ( pushed for by Carl Icahn ), Blockbuster withdrew its offer in July 2008.

During the 1980s, notable activist investors such as Carl Icahn and T. Boone Pickens gained international notoriety and were often perceived as " corporate raiders " for acquiring an equity stake in publicly owned companies, like Icahn's investment in B. F. Goodrich, and then forcing companies to take action to improve value or rid themselves of rebel intruders like Icahn by buying back the raider's investment at a fat premium, often at the expense of the other shareholders.

* Icahn calls for Time Warner breakup, buyback / CNNMoney. com

Icahn lost the bid and Fairmont agreed to be sold for $ 3. 9 billion USD to Colony Capital, LLC and Saudi Arabia's Kingdom Hotels International.

While the bid for Rockefeller Center was unsuccessful, Meyer and Ackman set an early precedent for what Carl Icahn would later refer to as activist investing.

Icahn raised his stake in Dynegy to 12. 9 percent in preparation for the shareholder fight.

On December 15, 2010, Icahn offered a US $ 5. 50 a share cash bid for Dynegy.

Also elected to the board were Vincent J. Intrieri, Senior Managing Director of Icahn Capital, and Samuel J. Merksamer, an investment analyst for Icahn Capital.