Icahn Buys Stake in Chesapeake to Protect Henhouse From ‘Foxes’

Billionaire investor Carl Icahn bought a 7.56 percent stake in Chesapeake Energy Corp. and demanded new directors amid growing shareholder concern about management of the second-largest U.S. natural-gas producer.

Four of Chesapeake’s nine directors should be replaced by candidates nominated by Icahn and other major investors, the 76-year-old hedge fund manager said yesterday in a letter to the Oklahoma City-based company’s board that was included in a U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission filing. The current board has failed to rein in overspending and a chief executive officer with an appetite for too much risk, he wrote.