Carl Icahn has had better six-month stretches in his legendary career.
From stumbles in battles with eBay and Apple to unsettling news on his Herbalife investment, Icahn’s magical 2013 — when he managed a 31 percent-plus return and pocketed $1.7 billion in profits — must seem so very far away.
The news last week that the FBI and the Securities and Exchange Commission had named the 78-year-old investor, golfer Phil Mickelson and Las Vegas gambler Billy Walters in an insider-trading probe regarding Icahn’s $10 billion bid for Clorox was just the worst in a string of bad news.
All three men have denied any wrongdoing, and it’s unclear whether the 3-year-old probe will prove fruitful for law enforcement.
For Icahn, the good news of 2013 began to turn last December when, sources said, he received a letter from Bill Ackman’s lawyers at Sullivan & Cromwell detailing their case against Herbalife.
Icahn has famously opposed Ackman’s $1 billion short against Herbalife. He said publicly that he didn’t think Sullivan believed Herbalife was a pyramid scheme.
The letter detailed just the opposite, sources said.
“A chill went over the room,” said an individual who was there when Icahn — who has a 17 percent stake in the company and five members on its board — discussed the letter with his team. “They were terrified that letter would be leaked to the press.”
Icahn doesn’t remember getting any such letter, he told The Post on Monday.
“I will say categorically that I don’t recall receiving any letter written by Sullivan & Cromwell to PricewaterhouseCoopers, sent to me by Herbalife, discussing this matter,” Icahn said.
The letter — whose existence has not been publicly known until now — was followed by more bad news for Icahn: The FTC, the FBI and state regulators were probing Herbalife.
Around the time of the letter, shares of Icahn Enterprises peaked at $148.53. They are down 35 percent since, closing Monday at $98.29. In addition:
On April 10, Icahn ended a contentious proxy battle with eBay, withdrawing demands the company spin off its PayPal payments unit. He also withdrew support from two members on eBay’s board after the company said it would add former AT&T CEO David Dorman as a director. Shares of eBay have fallen about 6.5 percent since then, closing Monday at $50.49.
On Feb. 10, Icahn dropped his demand that Apple return an additional $50 billion to shareholders in the form of stock buybacks after an influential proxy firm said it would not back the proposal.
While Icahn was forced to back off his demands, he is sitting on a profit of more than $1 billion — proof, he says, his performance in 2014 isn’t dimming.
“Looking just at the public record of my investment in Apple, if that’s considered dimming, then I’m happy to dim,” he said.