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- THE WEEK, Page 21 BUSINESSEven Icahn Gets The Blues
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- The financier gives up control of ailing TWA, and Iacocca mulls
- a rerun
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- The mere mention of the name of financier Carl Icahn once
- sent chills through corporate boardrooms. That was before he got
- into the airline business. After seven long years of trying to
- make a go of TWA, Icahn has announced that he is giving up. As
- part of a reorganization plan that should enable the battered
- carrier to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection early
- next year, Icahn agreed to provide $615 million in cash, loans
- and pension-fund guarantees. The deal will put the shrunken
- carrier on sounder financial footing, though it remains to be
- seen whether TWA can survive the dogfights still pounding larger
- and stronger carriers.
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- Northwest, for example, barely averted a Chapter 11 crash
- landing by securing $2.2 billion in new financing and
- cancellation or delay of a whopping $6.2 billion in orders for
- new aircraft. And just a week after industry leader American
- Airlines was forced to let go 576 of its managers, Delta
- chairman Ronald Allen conceded that layoffs and pay cuts may be
- necessary at his carrier too. Perhaps the most dramatic evidence
- of the industry's deepening distress is TWA's decision in effect
- to call in the cavalry. Chrysler chairman Lee Iacocca, who will
- retire at the end of this month from the company he once saved,
- is considering taking on the resurrection of TWA as his next big
- challenge.
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