After Dollar General Corp. (NYSE:DG) made a bid for Family Dollar Stores, Inc. (NYSE:FDO) earlier this week, Family Dollar Stores, Inc. (NYSE:FDO)’s Board is at a crossroad. Few weeks back Dollar Tree, Inc. (NASDAQ:DLTR) had announced its decision of acquiring Family Dollar Stores, Inc. (NYSE:FDO), and everyone, including billionaire investor Carl Icahn was surprised that Dollar Tree, Inc. (NASDAQ:DLTR) made the bid instead of Dollar General Corp. (NYSE:DG). Now, Family Dollar Stores, Inc. (NYSE:FDO) blames Icahn for Dollar General Corp. (NYSE:DG) not being interested in it earlier. Icahn clarified these allegations on CNBC in an interview on Tuesday.
“[…] I am certainly happy for the IEP shareholders that benefit from this, the only thing that irks me about it is, again and I keep repeating this at the risk of being corny, I really do care about corporate governance. So, I think this is an example of why the system is so dysfunctional […],” Icahn said.
Icahn revealed that recently he had a ‘friendly’ dinner at his apartment along with Family Dollar Stores, Inc. (NYSE:FDO)’s CEO, Howard Levine, some of the company’s board members and Icahn’s own staff. The billionaire investor mentioned that though he didn’t bring up the topic, people from Family Dollar Stores, Inc. (NYSE:FDO) started discussing about the takeover and blamed him for Dollar General Corp. (NYSE:DG) being disinterested earlier in acquiring Family Dollar Stores, Inc. (NYSE:FDO). Icahn said that he found this ‘completely disingenuous’.
“[…] His [Howard Levine] ego was involved, I am an old poker player and this is the way I saw it. He mentioned it several times that the CEO who ran it for all these years is to be blamed and I said to him, “Well, what happened in the 10 years that you were running it?” […]” Icahn added.
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