Icahn Hit by Hindenburg Short as Activist Becomes Target
(Bloomberg) — Carl Icahn, the famed activist investor whos made a career out of starting corporate brawls, found himself on the receiving end of criticism Tuesday after Hindenburg Research disclosed a short call against his investment firm. Shares of Icahn Enterprises LP closed down 20% in the biggest one-day drop on record, after Hindenburg claimed in a lengthy report that the company is overpriced, and said it found evidence of inflated valuations for some of its assets. Icahn hit back at Hindenburg hours after the report came out, saying that the firms performance would “speak for itself over the long term as it always has.” “We stand by our public disclosures,” Icahn said in a statement. “We believe strongly in hedging our positions to mitigate risk, especially in markets that we are living in today,” Icahn added. “We think Icahn, a legend of Wall Street, has made a classic mistake of taking on too much leverage in the face of sustained losses: a combination that rarely ends well,” Hindenburg said in the report. The missive pits Icahn, 87, against Hindenburg‘s founder Nathan Anderson, who has made a name for his research firm in recent years by targeting corporate giants like payments company Block Inc. and