One of the nominees of activist investor Carl Icahn and Southeastern Asset Management to the board directors of Dell Inc. (NASDAQ:DELL) is a retired director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) based on their latest proxy statement submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
The two shareholders nominated a dozen executives including Icahn himself to serve on the board of the embattled PC maker. Icahn and Southeastern Asset Management prepared a list of nominees last May. They waited for the final schedule of Dell Inc. (NASDAQ:DELL)’s annual meeting before nominating their candidates officially.
Icahn nominates former CIA director
Based on the proxy statement, Icahn replaced Bernard Lanigan Jr., investor and chief of Lanigan & Associates with A.B. Krongard, a retired executive director of the CIA on the list of nominees. He was responsible for the daily operations of the CIA during his tenure. Prior to that, he served as CEO of Alex Brown Inc., an investment banking company.
Krongard is the lead director of Under Armour Inc (NYSE:UA) and director of Apollo Global Management LLC (NYSE:APO). He also serves on the boards of Iridium Communications Inc. (NASDAQ:IRDM) and In-Q-Tel, a not-for-profit communications organization working within the intelligence community. He is 76 years old.
Icahn also revealed that he agreed to compensate his nominees excluding Krongard with $25,000 if they are not elected or appointed through settlement to the board of Dell Inc. (NASDAQ:DELL). The activist investor wants to remove the members of the board of the PC maker including its CEO and founder, Michael Dell. The activist investor repeatedly criticized the board for ignoring the concerns and interest of shareholders.
Icahn’s ongoing Dell War
Early this month, Icahn filed a lawsuit against the board of directors of Dell Inc. (NASDAQ:DELL) contesting their latest decisions in connection with the proposal of Mr. Dell and Silver Lake Partners to take the PC maker private as well as the proposed alternative recapitalization. Icahn also challenged the changes made in the voting schedule and rules for the LBO proposal.
The latest proposal of Mr. Dell and Silver Lake Partners to take Dell Inc. (NASDAQ:DELL) private is $13.75 per share plus a special dividend of $0.13 per share.
Meanwhile, analysts at Stifel view the earnings results of the PC maker for the second quarter as non-event based on its current situation. Stifel analyst Aaron Rakers and his colleagues noted that the servers business of the company continues to show relative strength compared with the negative data point of Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE:HPQ). The analyst also emphasized the PC segment revenue of Dell Inc. (NASDAQ:DELL) beat their expectations. However, its margins continue to decline.
Dell Inc. (NASDAQ:DELL) posted $3.56 billion revenue on mobility, and $3.55 billion revenue on desktop compared with the analyst revenue estimates at $3.43 billion for mobility and $3.24 billion for desktop. Its servers, networking, and peripherals revenue increased by 10% year-over-year to $2.89 billion.
