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Tony Robbins: How Carl Icahn, Wall Street's Activist Investor, Protects Shareholders | Big Think. - YouTube
Channel: Big Think
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Well one of my favorites is Carl Icahn.
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Time Magazine called him the master of the
universe on the cover of Time Magazine.
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And I’ll tell you when I first went to meet
Carl most people know him as a pretty intense
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guy.
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I walked in that day with my video crews you
guys have here and he says I want all these
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guys to leave.
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I said what?
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He said I don’t want a video crew.
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I said but you agreed to it this morning.
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He said I don’t care.
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I don’t want it.
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I said okay, well how about if my audio team
comes in.
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And he said no audio team.
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I said well what am I supposed to do here?
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He goes bring a pen and paper.
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You’ve got ten minutes.
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And, you know, I scheduled my meetings for
45 minutes and to go deep they usually go
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three hours.
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But to his credit, you know, he’s had so
many people attack him that he needs to know
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what you’re really about.
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When he saw I was sincerely about teaching
what he knows to individual investors and
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really empowering them he became very passionate
and he gave me almost three hours.
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He endorsed the book.
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He’s been extraordinary ever since and has
actually become a friend.
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So Carl is a teddy bear underneath and he
really does care.
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But his results are unquestioned.
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As I said earlier how about a 1600 percent
return if you’d invested with him over the
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last 13 years versus 75 percent for the S&P.
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As I said since 1968 a 30 percent compounded
return if you’d been with him during that
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time, outstripping even Warren Buffet.
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But what’s interesting about him is he really
believes that the challenge in stock and in
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business is that it’s an old boys club.
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That’s his view.
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And that what happens is the people that get
elected are the people the most liked and
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the board does what’s best for the board.
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And that, you know, there’s so much that
isn’t really looking out for the individual
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investor so that’s what made him an activist
and he’s very intense and he goes in and
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he buys enough stock to have an impact and
shakes their world.
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Lets them know that they’re going to be
fired unless, you know, they make some significant
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changes.
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And the results of what he’s produced though
are incredible.
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A lot of people say he’s just got in and
out so that’s why I put in the book an actual
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track record.
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You see he stays with most of these investments
for a very long time.
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There’s very few that he goes in and out.
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In fact a Harvard law professor, I put the
study in the book shows that of over 2,000
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activist interventions that have been done
the vast majority of them have made the company
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much more profitable for almost a decade afterwards,
not just for a few months or a few years.
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Because what happens is management is what
maximizes resources in a company.
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And when management gets unhungry or comfortable
or maybe supporting a certain strategy or
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approach you’re not going to get the most
out of it just like the rest of us as human
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beings.
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And Carl is one of those guys that comes and
shakes that stuff up.
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And when he comes you know things are going.
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The day that I go into see him he just recently
had done a Tweet saying that Apple was undervalued.
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And within two hours of that Tweet Apple stock
went up 17 billion with a B, billion dollars
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in value by one Tweet.
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And people said oh, he did that to manipulate
the market.
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He didn’t manipulate the market.
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He stayed in.
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He’s still in.
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He kept on buying more and more of the stock
even as the price went up because he thought
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the company’s really worth it.
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And in Apple’s case he was pushing them
to try and release a certain amount of money
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to shareholders in the form of dividends.
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I think he asked for 150 billion.
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And I said well did you really think you were
going to get that?
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He said no, but I figured if I pushed 150
billion maybe I’d get 70, 80 or 90 and I
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think he got 90 billion if I remember the
right numbers.
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The numbers are so huge it’s mind boggling.
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But he’s still with them.
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The day I visited with him he closed out on
a stock that he put in I think it was 30 million
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and he made 2 billion in 18 months.
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It was called Netflix.
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And he shared with me, he said Tony, you know,
when I took over Netflix I said do you always,
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you know, mess with the management?
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He goes not if they’re doing a great job.
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He said that’s people’s misunderstanding
about me.
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I look for great companies.
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And if the great company is being managed
well I’m just there to make sure they keep
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being managed well.
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And he said with Netflix he said he explained
to me that the chairman of Netflix and CEO
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of Netflix came and was sitting right where
you are right now Tony.
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And he said, the guy said to me look Carl,
we’ve had 100 percent increase in the stock
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in six months.
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And he said do you really need to work to
change the board right now?
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And Carl said, I looked at him and I said
I have a simple rule.
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It’s called Icahn’s rule.
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Anybody that makes me a billion dollars in
six months I don’t punch them in the mouth.
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So Carl’s a character.
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He’s amazing.
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He’s brilliant but he’s out not just for
himself.
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He’s truly out for his investors.
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And anybody that’s stayed with him has made
a fortune.
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He’s also if you’re watching this one
of the only hedge fund guys you can get access
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to without hedge fund fees.
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So take a look at that in the book.
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I explain how you can do that.
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There’s no other hedge fund member I’m
aware of that you can do that without having
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to pay their 2 and 20 if you know what that
means.
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Anything he moves into you probably want to
take a look at because if you look at the
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history of where he’s invested, the day
he invests and the day he got out – if you
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followed that pattern – he said so himself
in the interview – you’ve had a giant
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return.
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I forget the number but it’s in the 20 percent
range that’s there.
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But I think also he’s inspired another group
of activists.
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He’s looking out, getting other people to
look out for investors.
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Coca Cola, one of the, you know, greatest
companies in our history in terms of success
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anyway has recently gone to – they were
creating out a 24 billion dollar campaign
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for the executives in the company to basically
give discounted stock.
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It would reduce the value of the company by
that much.
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And Warren Buffet is, you know, the largest
shareholder there and he didn’t say anything.
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And Carl went a little crazy and he’s willing
to say anything.
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And he wrote to The Wall Street Journal.
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He wrote to Warren Buffet and he published
it and said how can you let this happen?
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And Warren abstained the vote and said I don’t
agree with it but he abstained, he didn’t
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vote against it.
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And, you know, Carl was like that’s not
right.
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This is not right for investors.
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So I would say listening to what this guy
says – he’s not always right but he’s
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somebody worth looking at because when he’s
looking at a company there’s likely opportunity
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and it’s also interesting to see some of
the people now, younger people that are starting
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to become investors that are tackling some
of these challenges like Coca Cola and really
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bringing attention to these things so investors
can be protected and so investors can get
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the returns they deserve.
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