In life and business, there are two cardinal sins, the first is to act precipitously without thought, and the second is to not act at all. Unfortunately the board of directors and top management of Times Warner already committed the first sin by merging with AOL, and we believe they are currently in the process of committing the second; now is not a time to move slowly and suffer the paralysis of inaction.
Carl IcahnA great company in the media business needs visionary leaders, not a conglomerate structure headquartered in Columbus Circle that second guesses.
Carl IcahnSome people get rich studying artificial intelligence. Me, I make money studying natural stupidity.
Carl IcahnWith some exceptions, the wrong people are running U.S. companies. It's been that way for years, and it hasn't gotten much better.
Carl IcahnReuters was completely accurate that I am concerned about the level of the market. But I also made it clear on the conference call (and I believe as Reuters reported it), that it is almost impossible to predict what a market will do in the short term. There are too many variables.
Carl IcahnNow the guy that got to the top, the CEO, would obviously be stupid to have a number two guy who was a lot smarter than he is. So by definition, since he's a survivor and he got to the top and he isn't that brilliant, his number two guy is going to always be a little worse than he is. So, as time goes on, it's anti-Darwinism, the survival of the un- fittest.
Carl Icahn