American business magnate Carl Icahn offer to acquire Oshkosh Corp. for about $3 billion 1210121

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Defense News - United States
 
 
Friday, October 12, 2012, 08:03 AM
 
American business magnate Carl Icahn offer to acquire Oshkosh Corp. for about $3 billion.
Carl Icahn, the American billionaire activist investor, offered to buy Oshkosh Corp. (OSK) for about $3 billion, saying management of the military vehicles supplier has failed to deliver on pledges to improve profitability. The $32.50-a-share offer is 21 percent more than the Oshkosh, Wisconsin-based company’s Oct. 10 closing price, Icahn said today in a statement. Icahn said he intends to nominate directors for election to Oshkosh’s board at the company’s annual meeting, with his offer conditional on those directors being elected.
     
Carl Icahn, the American billionaire activist investor, offered to buy Oshkosh Corp. (OSK) for about $3 billion, saying management of the military vehicles supplier has failed to deliver on pledges to improve profitability. The $32.50-a-share offer is 21 percent more than the Oshkosh, Wisconsin-based company’s Oct. 10 closing price, Icahn said today in a statement.
Carl Icahn, the billionaire activist investor, talks about his offer to buy Oshkosh Corp. for about $3 billion, his stake in Navistar International Corp., and his acquisition strategy
     

Oshkosh, which supplies blast-resistant trucks to the U.S. Army and Marine Corps, posted a 66 percent drop in net income last year as its sales shrank with the end of the war in Iraq and the U.S.’s plans to withdraw troops from Afghanistan. Icahn, Oshkosh’s largest investor with a 9.5 percent stake, has criticized the firm’s executives for the poor performance.

“Management has taken a passive attitude to the future of this company, willing to sit back and watch what happens to the defense, housing and construction industries,” Icahn said in the statement. “Oshkosh needs proactive shareholders to bring a proactive management team together to weather a volatile economy, a shrinking defense industry and a budget constrained municipal environment.”