Icahn Threatens Takeover of Board of Directors at SandRidge Energy

The man known nationwide as a “corporate raider,” Carl Icahn makes it clear, he wants control of Oklahoma City-based SandRidge Energy Inc.

After putting pressure on the company’s board late last year convincing it to pull out of a $746 million merger with Denver-based Bonanza Creek Energy, Icahn made it clear he intended to nominate at least one person to the SandRidge board.

This past week in a regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission  he said he will nominate a full slate to the board, a move that could allow him to dictate strategy for the company. Icahn has made it clear he has “grave concerns” about the current board members.

“Specifically, the Reporting Persons believe that the Process—if overseen by the Issuer’s current board of directors, who have a history of making poor decisions on behalf of stockholders is likely to be value destructive,” said Icahn in the filing made by his company, Icahn Capital LP.

The filing indicated that Icahn notified the SandRidge board on April 4 of his intends to nomination a “full slate of candidates that would publicly commit to run—in a fair and timely manner–its own formal process to evaluate strategic alternatives.”

He also indicated he might put up an all-cash offer for the company to allow shareholders to monetize their investment or remain as investors.

So far, there has been no comment from SandRidge’s leadership.

This latest move follows a decision last month by the SandRidge Board to reject a $589 million takeover bid from Tulsa-based Midstates Petroleum Co.

It’s not the first time Carl Icahn has made a takeover attempt of an Oklahoma-based energy company. In the early 1980s, he and T.Boone Pickens attempted to acquire then-Phillips Petroleum when it was headquartered in Bartlesville and before its merger with Conoco. The takeover attempt failed and Phillips Petroleum kept its independent.

Still, it was a headline setting move in the New York Times as Icahn offered to buy the company for $8.1 billion in 1985.  He went so far as to threaten to take over the company anyway even if Phillips turned down the offer.

By March of 1985, he walked away a winner, according to the Times.