market folly

While we don't normally cover Carl Icahn's movements in-depth on the blog (maybe we should?), we do generally like to keep tabs on him and cover all of his major moves. If you're unfamiliar with Icahn, he is a hedge fund manager, but more well-known as a 'corporate raider' and 'rabblerouser' for his activist ways. He takes on such a role trying to incite change within companies to unlock shareholder value. And, last year, he even started a blog to discuss numerous topics.

With the most recent 13F filings out disclosing his holdings as of December 31st, 2008, we see some noticeable changes.

Some companies he sold out of completely: Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Lear Corp (LEA), JC Penney (JCP), Temple Inland (TIN), and Time Warner (TWX), among others.

Some companies where he added to his position: Williams (WMB), & Yahoo (YHOO), among others.

Some companies where he sold off part of his position: Anadarko Petroleum (APC), Motorola (MOT), among others.

He has a massive position in Biogen Idec (BIIB) and the theory here is that they could be bought out by another company in biotech/biopharma land. His other large holding in this sector is Amylin Pharmaceuticals (AMLN).

Yahoo (YHOO), Biogen (BIIB), and Motorola (MOT) were his top 3 holdings respectively at the time of filing. Keep in mind we're in the midst of our hedge fund portfolio tracking series to keep an eye on some of the big money. We've already covered hedge fund Paulson & Co and will be covering a different fund each day.