Veteran activist investor Carl Icahn's latest involvement in the airline industry deepened on Tuesday. His Icahn Enterprises (IEP 2.06%) successfully installed two of its executives on JetBlue's (JBLU -2.84%) board of directors. That news was encouraging enough to send Icahn Enterprises's stock into positive territory; it closed the day 1.5% higher, in contrast to the 0.6% slump of the S&P 500 index.
The veteran activist investor gets active with JetBlue
After market hours on Friday, JetBlue announced the two appointments in a press release. Icahn Enterprises general counsel Jesse Lynn and Steven Miller, portfolio manager of the company's Icahn Capital subsidiary, will initially serve as non-voting observers on JetBlue's board. They will become full voting members following the airline's annual shareholders meeting this spring.
Icahn, known for being a wily and at times very successful activist investor, and his troops are acting fast with JetBlue. News of the board appointments came only three days after Icahn divulged in a regulatory filing that he had amassed a stake of just under 10% in the air carrier.
In that filing, Icahn wrote that he was not only seeking to place associates on JetBlue's board, he was considering buying more shares in the company.
NASDAQ: IEP
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Interesting timing for a new shareholder's entry
Strategically, JetBlue is in something of a holding pattern. Its ambitious proposed buyout of discount carrier Spirit Airlines has been blocked by the government's Department of Justice and is currently on appeal. Spirit also has a brand-new CEO, Joanna Geraghty, who officially began the job last week.
