Prominent Investor Icahn Sells Take-Two Shares

According to an SEC filing reported on by financial website Forbes.com, investor Carl Icahn and his Icahn Management offshoot have divested a portion of their stake in Take-Two Interactive, cutting their investment from 2.8 million shares to 1.9 million over the course of 2006's fourth quarter. The investor first purchased his stake in the publisher/developer in August as part of a move that some predicted as step towards taking an active role in steering Take Two's future. However, this latest news would seem to indicate a growing disinterest in the company on the part of Icahn, perhaps due to the number of legal and financial troubles that have continued to plague the company throughout 2006 and into 2007. Take Two, which is the parent company of labels including 2K Games and Rockstar Games, was recently the subject of a lengthy investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regarding stock grants, which eventually uncovered that the publisher had artificially inflated its revenues. Earlier this month, the company's former chairman and CEO Ryan Brant pled guilty to filing false information in a court case, as part of his role in a stock-option backdating scheme while he worked at Take Two. The investor, who also sold shares of health insurance firm Cigna as well as nearly 55 million shares of major media company Time Warner in the most recent quarter, became known as a corporate raider following his hostile takeover of TWA in the mid-80s, and is noted for buying up minority shares in companies and then campaigning for changes that might affect the company's share price positively.