Business

Icahn steps up attack in eBay brawl

Carl Icahn is back in Silicon Valley, picking a fight.

The billionaire investor used his sharp tongue to pick apart eBay on Monday — taking special aim at the auction house’s powerful Silicon Valley director Marc Andreessen.

Icahn blasted the 42-year-old techland Zelig, co-founder of venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, for engaging in transactions that are “directly competing with eBay.”

Andreessen didn’t do right by eBay shareholders when the company sold Skype in 2009, Icahn claimed in the letter.

Andreessen, who is also a Facebook director, was part of a deal to buy Skype from eBay for $1.9 billion — only to turn around and sell it to Microsoft a year and a half later for $8.5 billion.

Icahn also saved some venom for eBay CEO John Donahoe, chastising the executive for allowing the Skype transaction.

In the letter, Icahn said Donahoe was “either naive or willfully blind.”

Icahn, who owns a 2.15 percent stake in eBay, is in a tizzy because he wants the company to spin off its PayPal operation.

Donahoe rejected Icahn’s proposal, saying that the payments company needs eBay’s stable source of customers to grow.

Ebay on Monday also shot back at Icahn’s criticisms of its directors, calling the activist’s accusations “mudslinging attacks.”

On Monday, he asked shareholders to vote for his nonbinding proposal to ask eBay’s board of directors to separate eBay from PayPal.

Icahn is also seeking to get two of his employees elected to eBay’s board.

Andreessen is not up for re-election until 2015, so he will remain on eBay’s board even if the riled-up Icahn wins his board battle.

Instead, Icahn is expected to take aim at director Scott Cook, a source close to Icahn said.

Icahn is seeking more information on eBay’s board dealings before choosing the second target, this person said.