Icahn: The Once And Future Dealmaker

James W. Kinnear, Texaco's former president and chief executive, will never forget the first time Carl C. Icahn tracked him down--at the dentist's office. It was 1987, and Kinnear was having a tooth pulled. But Icahn was determined to get through. A Texas court had ordered Texaco Inc. to pay Pennzoil Co. a mammoth $10.53 billion for acquiring Getty Oil Co. because Pennzoil already had a deal with Getty. Texaco vowed to take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court and started Chapter 11 proceedings to protect its assets. But Icahn, after snapping up a 12% stake, demanded that Kinnear take immediate action. Within a week, Pennzoil and Texaco agreed to settle for $3 billion. And Icahn went on his way with a $600 million profit.

The triumph was classic Icahn. His knack has always been knowing just when to zig when the rest of the world is zagging. Whether speculating in junk-bond debt undervalued airline assets, or, more recently, shorting wildly inflated Internet stocks, Icahn has always bought when others are busy selling and the other way around. "Sometimes you come across something and you know it's a no-brainer," says Icahn, 64, sitting in Icahn & Associates' tony Fifth Avenue headquarters overlooking Central Park. Mixed amid the American fine art and antiques are leather-bound legal briefs and congratulatory letters from his many takeover deals, displayed like trophies of past victories.