market folly

Legendary investor and 'corporate raider' Carl Icahn recently made a bid for Clorox (CLX). After being rejected by the company, just yesterday he raised his bid to $80 per share, more than the current trading price of $74.

He sat down to chat with Bloomberg TV about his thought process. Icahn thinks that shares aren't trading up to his offer because the company still has yet to say they're for sale. Icahn also made it clear he wants to avoid a proxy fight.

If he was successful in a purchase, he would consider splitting it up, possibly keeping one of the divisions (though he refused to mention which). As far as antitrust concerns go, Icahn says that he doesn't think it would be a problem for CLX to be acquired by another company. At $80 per share, he thinks CLX is great value and that a large buyer looking for synergies could pay $100 per share.

That last point is why many investors seem to think that Icahn's 'bid' is merely posturing to ignite a bid from another company. The scenario plays on. As far as other recent investment ideas from Icahn, at the Ira Sohn Conference he pitched his own company: Icahn Enterprises (IEP).

Embedded below is Icahn's interview with Bloomberg TV (email readers come to the site to view):



Bloomberg TV also recently profiled Scion Capital's Michael Burry which we recommend watching as well.