On January 28, in a security filing, video rental chain Blockbuster Inc. (BBI) said the company's director Carl Icahn has announced his intention to resign from the company's board.
Icahn reportedly said in a letter to Blockbuster chief executive James Keyes that he was resigning because of Institutional Shareholder Services guidelines regarding the number of directorships a person can hold.
In May 2005, at the company's Annual Meeting of Stockholders Carl Icahn, Edward Bleier and Strauss Zelnick, a dissident group of nominees up for election to the Blockbuster Board of Directors, won election as Class III directors with terms expiring in 2007. They replaced incumbent Blockbuster Directors Linda Griego, Peter A. Bassi and Chairman John Antioco.
Currently, Icahn is reported to own about 16.9% of Blockbuster's Class A shares and about 7.7% of its Class B shares.
Icahn has seen the value of his stake falling drastically over the years. Blockbuster's stock was worth just under $10 when the advocate investor started building his stake and is now trading around 45 cents, reports noted.
On January 20, Blockbuster said it now expects GAAP net loss for 2009 to be in the range of $183 million to $193 million, excluding any impairment of goodwill and other long-lived assets. The company said its expectation for fiscal 2009 results were based on current information related to lower than expected results for the fourth quarter, particularly the 2009 holiday season.
BBI rose $0.03 or 6.67% and closed Monday's regular trading at $0.48. After hours, BBI declined $0.02 or 4.17% and traded at $0.46. The stock has traded between $0.13 and $1.56 during the past year.
For comments and feedback: editorial@rttnews.com