Business Insight Zone

First FORTUNE magazine spread the Icahn love in a cover story back in June, and now Forbes reports that his wealth has spiked in the past year, from a mere $8.7 billion to a much healthier $14.5 billion. This makes him, by Forbes’s estimate, the 18th wealthiest person in the US.

Possibly this does not comfort Motorola CEO Ed Zander. Here are the opening paragraphs of the FORTUNE piece:

Motorola CEO Ed Zander was enjoying a moment of relief from his company’s struggles last January, mingling with fellow corporate chieftains at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, when he got the message that makes CEOs see their careers flash before their eyes. The news: Carl Icahn was calling him out. He had bought a 1.4% stake in Motorola and was demanding a seat on the company’s board.

A few days later Zander made what has become a ritual trip for CEOs caught in Icahn’s cross hairs, hastening to the investor’s sumptuous offices on the 47th floor of Manhattan’s GM Building. The setting is an integral part of the Icahn treatment. CEOs en route to his lair parade past a giant 19th-century watercolor of Napoleon riding to glory over the Russians in the Battle of Friedland, just the sort of rout Icahn covets in his corporate battles.

When Zander arrived, the 71-year-old Icahn ushered him into his immense suite, a paneled aerie overlooking Central Park festooned with museum-quality antiques, portraits of European gentry, and an exquisite portrait by French master Camille Corot. It resembles the drawing room of a British aristocrat, exuding the air of overwhelming wealth and confidence that Icahn - lord of $12 billion in investment capital - summons to bend CEOs to his will. “I told Zander the truth,” recalls Icahn. “I said, ‘You have a great company. Why did you screw it up?’” After that opening salvo, which Icahn says he delivered in a joshing tone, he mounted his charm offensive. He told Zander that Motorola’s stock was vastly undervalued.

Icahn’s success should comfort his fellow investors in the companies with which he tangles. Even though Icahn didn’t win the board seat he wanted at Motorola, his overall campaign to maximize the value of the shares he holds (through his Icahn Enterprises) raises the tide for his fellow shareholders as well.