Investor Carl Icahn has raised his objections to the move by Oklahoma City-based SandRidge Energy to acquire a Denver, Colorado energy firm in a $746 million deal.
In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Icahn notified the government of a letter he sent to SandRidge Energy directors, saying the acquisition of Bonanza Creek Energy “represents a new low in corporate governance.”
He called what they did “complete travesty” and his filing came just a few days after SandRidge directors adopted a poison pill, a shareholder rights agreement that limits the influence of Icahn and any other activist investor.
“Even more egregious is the fact that,while forcing large shareholders to remain silent and not allowing them to communicate with other shareholders, the pill explicitly allows the board and management to communicate with shareholders to attempt to persuade them of the merits of the transaction,” wrote Icahn.
He was not shy about his criticism of the board, adding, “Such actions would make a totalitarian dictator blush, yet you take them with a straight face and misrepresent the intentions of the pill by describing it as a ‘shareholder rights plan.’ We are not aware of a more insulting euphemism.”