08 Carl Icahn & Icahn Enterprises

Icahn was born in Brooklyn to an Ashkenazi Jewish family. He was an only child. Both his parents were teachers, and his father was also a lawyer and a Jewish cantor.

Icahn earned a B.A. in philosophy from Princeton University in 1957.

He then went back to his native state and enrolled in the medical program at New York University. Two years later, he gave up on his studies and decided to enlist in the army.

After leaving the military, Carl Icahn joined Dreyfus & Co. as a stockbroker.

He left Dreyfus in 1963 and started working as a stock option trader at Tessel, Patrick & Co. He moved to Gruntal & Co. a year later and kept trading options there.

Icahn borrowed $400,000 from an uncle in 1968 to fund the purchase of a seat for Icahn & Co, his new brokerage firm, on the New York Stock Exchange. Icahn developed interest in risk arbitrage when trading stocks, which involves purchasing stock in advance of a takeover offer that increases the stock price.

During the 1980s Icahn became a much-feared corporate raider.

Icahn was regularly accused of "greenmail," which involves threatening a business takeover unless management agrees to pay a premium price to buy back the greenmailer's shares.

Trans World Airlines(TWA) was the pinnacle of Icahn's early endeavors.

He took over the airline that had previously belonged to Howard Hughes in 1985. Soon after, TWA acquired a number of tiny regional airlines as Icahn aimed to boost the airline's profitability on a larger scale. He took the business private in 1988 through a $650 million stock repurchase program, which allowed him to recover almost all of his $469 million investment. TWA also incurred a $540 million debt as a result of this. The airline's most valuable routes soon were sold to rivals, forcing the struggling company to file for bankruptcy in 1992. The next year,  Icahn left the business.

Carl Icahn describes his investment approach as being similar to those of other investors like Warren Buffett, focusing his acquisition choices on the hunt for undervalued companies (value investing).

The key distinction is that he focuses on uncovering the hidden value of distressed companies through a thorough examination of their financial statements. To put it another way, he seeks out struggling businesses with a bright future but no one wants to acquire their shares.

He likes to purchase items when no one else is interested in them, provided that the risk/reward ratio is favorable, the profit covers the bet he made and, if necessary, he has room to cut losses.