" The Chancery Court has ruled twice in the matter,
and the Delaware Supreme Court once, and they're agreed that GM's board
acted properly in paying Perot to get out because his grousing was
interfering with the way the board was trying to run GM. If it wasn't
extortion for him to give GM his ultimatum, and the courts have ruled it
wasn't, then it couldn't have been extortion for me to give Hutton the
same ultimatum.
5: Paragraph 4 Another situation was shaping up in 1986 that also
led to a civil RICO suit for violation of the federal securities laws
and for extortion: In 1986 Carl C. Icahn started buying more stock in
Viacom International, Inc., and threatened to take the company over; in
May Viacom bought back its stock from him, for $79.50 per share when it
was trading at $62, and he promised not to buy any more Viacom stock for
eleven years. Then Viacom sued him for extorting this "greenmail" from
it, the federal court in New York dismissed the suit, and the appeals
court affirmed, saying Viacom hadn't been damaged because what it got
from Icahn was worth what it paid.
5: Paragraph 5 In its published opinion the district court discussed
the difference between "extortion" and "hard bargaining" and concluded
that it's not extortion if the person demanding the payment has a right
to assert the legal claim he's offering to release in exchange for the
payment -- Icahn had the right to try to take Viacom over, and he could
release that right in exchange for Viacom's payment.
Pages:
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103